Saturday 18th June Sea 2 Summit Challenge, Marshalling again on Snowdon summit
Family Challenge - Snowdon summit via the Snowdon Ranger
Intermediate Challenge - Snowdon Summit via Ogwen
Ultra Challenge - Snowdon Summit via Aber on the North coast
I smell smoke... not the most encouraging words to hear from the engine driver on the 9am train to Snowdon summit. George was having a bad morning, that's the name of the engine not the driver. One of the naughty carriages had decided to kick off. George was having none of this and promptly kicked the carriages ass at Hebron station. Ok well looks like we gotta walk to the summit afterall. But no! a replacement engine and carriage was ready in minutes and off we rattled again. No sooner at the summit cafe just about to take a sip of tea and a couple report to the Cafe manger of an elderly chap whose fallen over a few minutes down the Llanberis track. My fellow marshal who is with the Llanberis MR team swiftly moves into action an deals with the situation. Taking full stock of the emergency I promptly finish my tea, reassure the couple that all is being taken care of, then nip off and stick my tent up. God its busy here today I recon about 75 people crammed onto the summit area, shame they paid all that money just to take a picture of the clag.
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The event banner strapped to the guys on my tent has a big number 2 on it, a graphic of some sea, and the words summit Marshall. The big number 2 has the punters a bit confused, I'm constantly being asked if this is the 2nd summit of Snowdon! (this briefly reminds me of the Twin Peaks of Kilimanjaro Python sketch) I assure all that unless there has been some colossal seismic disturbance overnight as far as I know there is only one Snowdon summit. The day proceeds mistily, all the teams do well and arrive and depart. Only one slight problem. with this event the challenge finishes on the summit so the most exhausted or 'in pain' are quite happy to get the train down, I advise them that if they can get a space then that's ok as long as they let me know whose going by train so we don't end up looking for them. mmmm... they forget to tell me so a few phone calls are required to track there whereabouts.
I think they need sign to tell the punters how to get into the cafe from the summit, this is the second most asked question of the day. The 3rd most asked question is why is there such a massive queue for the loo's. I politely advise that I did not design the cafe hence have no idea and recommend that they complain to the management. A twisted ankle means a helicopter pick up and some strandings on Crib Goch keep the emergency services on their toes and finnish off the day. We sweep the mountain following the last 2 teams down arround 9pm. I recon i can just make the pub for closing, ok it's a 100miles away but it's good practice to maintain an arrangement with the landlady. Ahhh that first pint of Woods Bitter tastes o so gooood.....
Battles blew my trousers off! not quite but they were loud enough to make them rattle a bit, hence i is reet deaf today. Fair play, a solid performance, they must be knackered after Glasto on Sat and Cardiff on the Sun. Like the vocals on backdrop screens with Matias Aguayo and Gary Numan worked well. Every gig review I've read for this tour has John Stanier's cymbal getting progressively higher 7ft... 10ft...
