This was a little bit of a last hurrah because UCCMC's mountaineering season is over, so nothing else is "organized" & the rest of my climbing experiences will have to be on my own/with willing mountaineers.
After a really long bus ride (leaving at 3:15 am to get to Dublin port comfortably for the 8:30 ferry) + ferry ride, we arrived in Holyhead, Wales & had one hour more until Llanberis. I can’t remember the story about this house in the middle of the river. (Can you imagine how socially/spatially isolating that must be!? Unless it is a B&B or something with traffic in and out continuously…)
Off to an afternoon of climbing in the mines (slate quarries): check out these gnarly trees!
Dim Mynediad: “No Access!” in Welsh (the healthiest modern Celtic Language)
You need to beware of:
Cows
Horses
Dogs
Rabbits (scrawled in as an afterthought)
After wondering what the difference between slate & shale was for a long ass time, I finally found a Welsh climber to ask in the quarry & he looked at me like I was nuts & said, “slate just means broken up pieces of shale.”
Shane & Mathias & I got lost & were wandering around a few hours on our lonesome.
More quarry.
Horses get excited about humans the way dogs do.
Tryfan the next day.
Although “Munros” are 3000 ft (914 M) or higher mountains in Scotland, no one really restricts their use of the term - so anything higher than 914 M is called a “Munro” for sake of convenience. By that token, Tryfan was the first of three Munros that we climbed this day.
I was eating my lunch (Indian leftovers from the night before!) on the top of Tryfan & saw the other break-off group coming over a scrambling pitch (over “yonder”. Yonder is really weird but at least I just realized that it’s etymology is closely related to “beyond”.).
YUM.
This is the best lunch I have ever, ever had on the top of a mountain! Extra spicy Vegetable Masala!
Maurice climbing this pinnacle over me when I was tryin' to eat!
After that we climbed two more Munros: Glyder Fach & Glyder Fawr. I can’t remember the difference but the combined features on the top of these two include:
- a famous cantilever stone
- Crazy rock outcropping called “Castell y Gwynt” or the castle of the wind (used in Disney’s Dragonslayer).
Descending: Jerry & Karen.
I found this tight children’s book about mountains in Welsh at a book exchange in Pete’s Eats (the place we had 90% of our meals).
Sorry this picture is blurry but now I know:
Dibyn: Cliff
Ogof: Cave
Ceunant: Glacial ravine? Rapids? River?
Clogwyn: Mountain
Cwm: Valley/Vale
Llechwedd: No clue
Caeau: Farmland?
I have no clue how Welsh can get away with so many consonant clusters. I am also too lazy to double-check any of these.
The next day (Monday) we took a day “off” and went rock climbing (+ walked 7km home) from 10 am until 8 pm
(8pm is when we got into the door at Pete’s Eats, just as it was closing)
Eoin deciding on a pitch.
& Here’s his choice.
Eoin is arguably the best climber in Ireland.
He’s also exactly one week younger than me.
I’m not sure if Marcus was supposed to be belaying here (he wasn’t) or what Maurice was supposed to be doing either.
Okay, fortunately Marcus is belaying Eoin; not that Eoin seemed to be capable of falling.
Maurice getting up to Eoin who is top belaying.
Way up in the top right hand corner is a blue spot & that spot is Damian. I’m so mad at myself for not taking more pictures of the evenings because this blue spot is all I’ve got of my new friend.
He and Eoin were just back the day before from a month of climbing in the Sierra Nevada.
Here’s an okay picture of my new haircut.
Here are some freckles I picked up.
Eoin.
Richard & Amanda belaying.
Eoin setting up (or taking down?) the last pitch of the day.
On the walk home.
Really, incredibly picturesque farmland that I want to live in forever.
The next day preparing to climb Snowdon (the highest mountain in Wales & second highest in the UK after Ben Nevis) + two others.
Looking back after the start of our ridge.
!!!!!!
Tightest scrambling ridge!
& from a little higher up looking back.
Snowdon (see to the right all the many, many people up there). Snowdon is pretty accessible on one side, plus there is a train that goes to the top for lazyones. There are so many, many dogs on top.
From the top of Snowdon.
Check this Great Dane that made it to the top of Snowdon!
Conor.
Strange (kinda chemical) colors by the mines/quarries on our walk home.
Coming over one of our last hills before getting into Llanberis.
Tiny, struggling tree.
After getting to the bottom: Snowdon Summit that-a-way.
Richard & Maurice.
Here are the things you can do in Llanberis!
Slate house.
On our last morning before the bus took off, Mattias and I took a nice, long walk together & he took me to this round castle thing. He broke his hand right before the trip, so he went off on his own mostly everyday.
Wild goats!
Gorgeous homes (kinda look Dutch to me).
I wanna make one of these!
Big stone body, cast iron plate eyes, beak, ears, feet.
Owl & dragon carvings, flags, jewelry, etc is everywhere in Wales.
Lovely bookshop that sold used “mountain” books & was never open. I would just go & press my face on the window & wish really hard that it would open.
Unpictured:
- Pool games (I beat Maurice & Damian… who is way better than me)
- Poker (I won also! I don’t know how I win all these games I’m rotten at!)
- Delicioso meals, drinks, people.
Oh yeah, and the night before, staying up with Anne-gaïd until I had to catch the bus!