Dismay all round as the OUTDOORSmagic team spends more time in the pub than on the hill. The terrible truth revealed...
Seldom have so many owed so much to so few. Yes, I'm talking about
the OUTDOORSmagic round in the pub on Saturday night, which
technically was conditional on finishing the Welsh 3000s
successfully...
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(R to L) Ben, Alex and Simon at
Pen y Pas before their
gallant retreat from Snowdon summit to Llanberis on
Friday night
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Unfortunately some basic maths suggested that the choice was between
going to the pub or finishing the walk, rather than both and somehow,
priorities being what they are, we ended up in the pub.
Joking aside, the bare facts are that none of us managed to finish
the round (sic) of the 15 Welsh 3000-ers. The roll call tells
that
• The editor of this site, rather pathetically, didn't even
manage to start due to a damaged paw.
• Two of our number were trashed by a Friday night drive from
London to the soft fleshpots of Llanberis, which they reached at some
ungodly hour of the morning and didn't leave.
• Three of us - Alex, Simon and Ben - walked out of a planned
bivvy on Snowdon in the face of some very nasty conditions again
ending up in alluring Llanberis in the early hours of the
morning.
• Two - Lloyd and James - made it as far as Tryfan, after
starting from Pen y Pas at 3.30 am but elected to abandon the attempt
there.
• One - Simon - rose Lazarus-like from his sleeping bag on
Saturday morning, borrowed some dry clothes and rejoined the team at
the base of Snowdon also reaching Tryfan before abandoning.
The lessons? It's not something to be taken lightly and the
conditions being less than ideal made it even more serious. The
support with water and energy stuff - thanks to the guys at High 5
for providing gel, Source energy drink and bars - worked well and
Alex's service jerry can of water was a god-send. Bivvying on Snowdon
in bad conditions is not nice.
Thanks to everyone who came along... And now the whole,
unexpurgated truth courtesy of Simon Kirwan in the features section.
