Once again we’re weather dodging! Last week I didn’t bother looking at the mountain forecasts as it was bleak across the whole of the UK so we had a week at home for a change.
On contrast though, this weekend looked like it was fair game with forecasts showing a few dotted clouds around the UK. I’ve been saving up for a peak to get Rosko up that a lot of my friends and family would know. And no bigger name out there than Snowdon! unfortunately the day didn’t go to plan and I’m writing this out of completeness. I suppose that there are some key points I learnt and we had a nice day after all 😊.
On Friday night I was very exited and I packed all of our kit and nearly struggled to sleep! I also woke up just slightly behind schedule which was unusual for me! I bundled Rosko into the car and off we went. I planned to walk the Ryd Ddu path up Snowdon with it being the less frequented route on the mountain. However, the new electric motor had me all worried on the amount of miles I had left. We therefore diverted to Llanberis. I found a pub in the middle of the town which had a car charger. I chucked the little’un into the rucksack and off I charged up the llanberis path.
I had a steely attitude about me at this point, I always do when there’s a big day ahead of me and today was going to be something I’ve been thinking of for over the last 6 months at least. The first 30 mins I paid absolutley no attention to my own performance just threw one leg in front of the other with no regard to the weight on my back. And before long, “Cloggy” came into view with a lot of cloud covering its face.
I don’t particularly like the route that we were on however Cloggy or Clogwyn Du'r Arddu cliffs are a sight to behold. The cliffs hold an awesome reputation within the climbing community and have probably the hardest route in the UK traditional climb on its faced called “the Indian face”. I also know that once I get alongside this cliff that I’m within reaching distance of the summit. So we batted on into the breeze and a slight drizzle that started to develop.
Probably about 45 minutes in I noticed a whimpering coming from the backpack. I marched up to the halfway house and put I’m on the floor so he could have a run about. I noticed he wasn’t his chirpy self still and wanted to be picked up. I noticed he had some sadness in his eyes and didn’t have ,cut energy about him. Charming really considering I’d scaled half of snowdon while he chilled!
I wasn't sure at this point whether it was wise to carry on. I pushed on for 20 more minutes pondering both Roskos cold and the weather at the summit. Over Cloggy sat a clouded summit that wasn’t visible. I’ve walked into clouds many times. Sometimes it’s like walking into hanging Cold mist….. majority of the time however it’s absolutely grim with rain and wind. I stopped some walkers coming down and asked them what it was like at the top. Their response was all I needed to turn back. Sideways rain and an ill child wasn’t a good combination so we retreated down the path and back to the car.
I hate not reaching my goal when out in the mountains. The few times I’ve failed to reach an objective has always left me feeling a bit hollow. However todays retreat didn’t bother me at all. I’ve done all of the big mountain days in rough weather from 80mph blizzards that you can’t open your eyes in to absolute wash outs where you can barely see 2 feet in front of you. These days aren’t about that, we’re not there for a suffer fest and I felt quite content with knowing that I made the right choice. It will always be here 😊
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