ron-t climbing
18 October 2017 ................ Tryfan North Ridge
A bit of a gamble with the weather, which didn`t really pay off too well, although it didn`t rain or snow or blow a gale - so not too bad really.
It started off with quite a distinctive sunrise over Snowdonia - not the most vivid of colours, but nice to see all the same.
The hills were looking good, and it just switched on the thought that today might be a good day to see if I could still get up the North Ridge of Tryfan.
I checked the weather forecasts - and there didn`t seem to be much possibility of rain until the evening, the wind was coming from the east, so that was good news, windy.com wasn`t predicting much low cloud until later on - the only negative view was MWIS, which reckoned there was a good chance of hill cloud forming around lunchtime.
They got it spot on - that`s exactly what happened, but on the drive up Nant Ffrancon it was beautiful, and Foel-goch was looking fabulous - this is looking up the ridge Yr Esgair past the slot and up to the summit of Foel-goch.
I guess it shows off quite nicely why the upper end of Yr Esgair above the slot is a messy, ill-advised, grade 3 scramble.
A good view towards Y Garn and Foel-goch from the layby on the A5 opposite the bottom end of the North Ridge -
The climb up was okay, I was doing better than I thought I might, I did do some what turned into quite tricky bits of scrambling / rock climbing, and then ended up at the famous Cannon Stone - and as you can see, the cloud was by now catching the summit of Y Garn.
And so on upwards - some struggley bits, because I have so little articulation in my hip joints, but I still managed to get right up the very scrambley bit before you get to the North Tower, then up the North Tower via that rather fun sort of rocky gully - it is a good bit of scrambling, that gully, because although it is quite steep, there isn`t a crux, it just continues at the same sort of level of difficulty all the way up.
Eventually up on the summit, and this was just about the whole extent of my view - Adam and Eve - and I am quite happy to leave it other people to achieve the Freedom of Tryfan, I can live without it.
My only other bit of a view - which lasted for as long as it took to get my camera out and take one picture - by the time I was ready to take the second picture - the Glyders were gone again.
After the inevitable tea break it was time to head on down - coming down the rocky scree on the west side of the summit, and the cloud started to break - so a view across to the north end of the Glyders as the last fragments of cloud are dying.
I couldn`t see the summit of Tryfan, but the higher Glyders were still deep in cloud -
It was a pity about the cloud, it is always nice to see a view from the top of a mountain, however it didn`t really make a lot of difference to the scrambling up, and I am well chuffed that I can still get up the North Ridge.
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