At the start of June me and a few other Walsall officers had set off for a spot of what I’d term ‘extended foot patrol’ through the Snowdonia National Park. We’d been hoping to complete the 14 Peaks Challenge – climbing all of the Welsh mountains above 3000 ft in under twenty-four hours.
We’d had a great time trying and you may remember I put up a blog post with a few photos. Thing was due to a combination of running out of light and one of our team headbutting a rock, we’d only managed to reach the first eight summits.
Obviously not wanting to let the challenge get the best of us as soon as we’d got back to the West Midlands we launched back into the process of planning another attempt on the Welsh 3000s.
Yesterday saw the fruition of some very intricate, highly confusing plans with us successfully scaling each and every necessary peak between Snowdon and Foel-fras in a total time of fifteen hours and fifteen minutes which, with climbing up Snowdon itself and then to the car park at the end of the route, meant eighteen-something hours walking altogether.
Having managed a grand total of one and a half hours’ sleep the night before, we made our way up Snowdon in the dark at around 03:45 watching the sunrise as we approached the top. We then crossed over Garnedd Ugain before picking our way across Crib Goch’s unfriendly ridge and dropping back down into the valley.
After this we walked past our campsite at Llanberis before clambering up Elidir Fawr – the longest, hardest climb – and then crossing another four peaks before dropping from the top of Tryfan back down again to the shores of Ffynnon Lloer.
The final stage involved another tough climb up Pen yr Ole Wen and then following the route over the remaining peaks finishing up on Foel-fras.
I think justifiably I’m feeling a little tender today (I’ll not be dancing any jigs) but the walk was fantastic and as you can see from the photos, the weather was perfect.
I’d recommend it to anyone serious enough to take on the challenge, one thing I wouldn’t say though is that it’s an easy one because it most certainly is not!
Crib Coch at twenty to six in the morning.
Clambering up the side of what we all agreed to be the toughest, meanest peak - Elidir Fawr.
Sgt. Nagra taking a much needed break on the way up Pen yr Ole Wen with Tryfan behind him.
Yet another peak. I don't even want to think about which one this was, it was high and peaky.
Foel-fras, the final peak.
Me with the sun settling down under the blanket of clouds resting over Conwy Bay.
