The Welsh 3000s

......Will have to wait until next year.

28th Nov
11 miles 5,700 feet

Sometimes the weather is just too bad no matter how much you want to do something. The risks are sometimes too great. Today was the first time that I have been thwarted by the weather on a challenge. The Welsh 3000s will have to wait until the summer.

The challenge is simply to set foot on all the 3,000 foot peaks in Wales in one continuous effort. Luckily these all happen to be within 22 miles of each other. The time starts when you set foot on the first summit and ends on the last summit. This can either be Snowdon to Foel-Fras – as we had planned or Foel Fras to Snowdon, traversing the 13 peaks in-between.

Will, Bill and I were kindly driven to Llanberis by Ian. Setting off at a ridiculous hour we arrived at Llanberis to sleet and then snow. I had never been over Crib Goch, but was aware of its exposed ridges. Bill had; and before we got out of the car he was saying it wasn’t going to be safe with our level of kit today. I was hopeful of at least doing some of the route. It had just turned to daylight as Ian joined us up Snowdon. On the way up we decided to scrap the idea of doing the 3000s and go to Snowdon summit then Carnedd Ugain and do the rest of the route that we did a couple of weeks ago down to Llanberis.

Our decision proved to be a good one. We passed 2 hardy mountain bikers pushing there bikes up through the ever deeper snow. As we approached the top of Snowdon we used the railway track as the drifts were quite deep and awkward. The combination of snow on the ground, snow drifts and low cloud made for a very cold hostile environment. Coming off the summit the wind whipped the snow into our eyes. We had ice coated jackets and it was thoroughly unpleasant. I even lost my balaclava on the way up Carnedd Ugain, I was trying to put it on for the first time. Gutted. Thank god we weren’t going to do another 14 of these. It would have been a very long day even if we could have negotiated Crib Goch.

The rest of the route was at a lower level, and by comparison much, much warmer, there was still snow on the ground though. We finished the run, and as is now customary, had a feed in Pete’s eats. Not the day I had imagined but I suppose a true if disappointing adventure.