Not the full Hobbit - Saturday 26th January

Friday evening’s text Jan 25th

Me….Ok hears a plan… Bad weather due tonight about 9pm, should be gone by 3am. If roads clear leave about 6am, get to cafe for 8.30am. Eat breakfast; decide what to do when there depending on conditions. More duff weather due about 4pm Saturday….

Deej & Dog at the start

A little later text from Len on the Friday evening Jan 25th….

Good News! I’ve found me crampons in the cellar, ‘good’ that means that the spare pair I’ve got were never yours in the first place, and you can stop accusing me and everyone else of nicking them.

Saturday morning Jan 26th

We pretty much keep to the plan, the expected snow last Friday night turned out to be some cold rain with just a small amount of ice on the roads, we were lucky, further up north on the M6 cars are stuck in drifts; stranded drivers have impromptu snowball fights, & build snowpeeps.

After unloading the contents of his greenhouse, we pile into Andy’s Galaxy, It’s a strange universe, bigger on the inside you know…..Yawn 

The Full Hobbit

We pick up Deej who’s lookin a bit wired, not surprising as he’s been up since 3am with baby daisy. Len takes the front seat and is so nominated to keep Andy awake up the A5. The topic turns round to ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Ave you seen it, I say, ave yoooou seen eeet?. says Len. In spite of saturation advertising the marketing man seems to have missed Len off there target list, the fact that they are making a trilogy out of just one book escaped him completely. Attending the cinema at great expense, he had expected to see the ‘Full Hobbit’. And consequently felt short-changed and demoralised. Mmmmm sorry Mr Jackson your decision to do this is as a red rag to a bull, we’ll never here the end of this now. This statement instantly attains legendary status. And from now on, anything less than perfect is ‘Not the full Hobbit'.

We order four Full Bilbo breakfasts and a vegetarian (or should that be an Elfy breakfast, ha ha, sorry) at the café, you get more on the plate for a veggie but the meat Bilbo is still pretty filling.

The warmth of the café reaches critical status; if we stay any longer it’ll be hard to leave.

The recent bout of Winter weather is I think on the turn, I recon there is a thaw on the way, so the decision is made to pop down the A5 to Ogwen and head up to the gullies on Y Garn. Packing back into the Galaxy, Daymo needs to pickup a pair of waterproof trousers from Joe Browns, and gets a good deal on some lightweight Sprayway Gore-Tex for £75 squid. Eventually we bundle out and up the hill.

 

 

Andy, Dog, Daymo, Deej, Len

 

 

 As we reach the top of the path we stand facing Cwm Clyd, we had been thinking of A then B then Banana Gully but were already later than we thought, so we opt for Banana then possibly A or B Gullies if we have time. Llyn Clyd is frozen over but not enough for a crossing. Looking down on this lake from Y Garn I always think it’s got the shape of a hand in a crimp move. Anyway…. Helmets on, poons and sticks ready, we head up the gentle ramp from the back of the lake. Daymo gets to use his new axe yeahhhhh! The snow is not too bad, just on the turn; it takes our weight with a steady foot sink of about 4 to 6 inches. It’s a lovely long Grade 1 which even so, warrants care and attention. Remember to tuck you gloves into your jacket if you take them off to take pic’s. We found some gully swag last year that had wriggled free of someone’s hands and slid all the way down. Met up with a couple of guys from Bristol on the way up, ‘Mayaculpa’ from UKC if you’re reading, it was good to meet you both. There’s a nice narrowing about half way, with hard packed snow can add a bit of spice, but today it’s a steady pop to the top.

Not much of a cornice today but I can hear the wind ripping over the summit. We re-wrap ourselves ready for the blast. Considering the time we push back down the ridge in the hope of getting another route in. On the way down we meet Sarah Ridgway & Bella, check out Sarah’s Blog http://sarzmountainrun.blogspot.co.uk/ Time for a photo opportunity I think, and Andy’s in his element. We get back down to Llyn Clyd and the weathers on a turn for the worse, Waddayathink then chaps another gully or pub….Pubs wins, it was a good decision. We settle for a few beers at the Tynni. Must say I quite liked being introduced to Penderyn Welsh Whisky http://www.welsh-whisky.co.uk/ Just a shame I cant remember which one it was I had, with 3 in the range I’ll have to buy all 3 bolletetesisis, hic.