The Welsh 3000's

The Welsh 3000’s

The Welsh 3000’s, for those that don’t know, is a challenge walk/run taking in all the Mountains in Wales over 3000 feet in height within 24 hours. My Cousin and I have been contemplating the challenge for a few years now and finally got round to organising it for last weekend.

Final numbers were confirmed (3 of us), route plans were drawn up and a support team mobilised (Mrs RAR)! The rest was left to nature. One of the main factors deciding whether or not the Welsh 3000’s are completed or not is the weather. The weather for the weekend did not look good.

None of us fancied sleeping at the top of Snowdon in the predicted gale force winds, hill fog and heavy rain so in the end, at the last minute, we reluctantly called the challenge off. We really did wait till the last minute too. My cousin was on the platform waiting for the train, hoping that the weather forecast might change. It didn’t.

The Right Thing?

Did we do the right thing calling off the challenge? Yes we did as you will find out shortly. Three of us went to Snowdonia anyway with the intention of doing a day walk instead of the challenge. We arrived at the Camp Site just outside a village called Rhyd Ddu. The Campsite is run by a pub, The Cwellyn Arms, which is traditional log-fire Real Ale pub.

Log fires are allowed on the Campsite but only using wood bought from the pub. Bears are reportedly ;-) loose in the forest to deter anyone from venturing into the trees to chop their ow

n wood. Enough about one of the best campsites I have stayed at and back to the story! We pitched up, lit our fire and cooked our evening meal.

A group of young people duly arrived and very poorly pitched their tents near to ours. I doubted their tents would last the night in the winds forecasted (and already picking up). After an hour or so of drinking a couple of beers round the fire, the wind and rain got to a point that wasn’t pleasant so we retired for an early night. Sleep was frequently interrupted by the wind and torrential rain and by 4am, half of

the youngster’s tents were flat and a few had broken poles. We did the right thing.

The Walk.

After a rough night of howling winds and driving rain, we awoke to sunshine! After a bite of breakfast it was decided that we would be going up Snowdon via the Rangers path and descending the Rhyd Ddu path. None of us had been on either of these paths before and as the challenge wasn’t g

oing ahead it just seemed right to climb the mountain so many people love and hate. Snowdon is a bit like marmite in that sense, some people love it some hate it. The café/train/tourists are certainly a bazaar site on a Mountain.

The ascent was straightforward and the views well worth the effort. The best thing was the lack of tourists. When I say tourists, I mean the kind of people who don’t normally walk up Mountains that are in abundance on the other paths of Snowdon. (we found out later that there were a few of these non-outdoors people on this side too). Around half way up we witnessed an awesome site – rain! The

band was visible, heavy, in high contrast to the surroundings and heading straight for us. Waterproofs were donned just in time for one of the heaviest downpours I have experienced in the hills. Just as quickly as it had arrived, it went. We watched as it dumped more wet stuff over Anglesey.

Further towards the summit, and after watching several more rain showers pass in the valley, BANG!. A lady walker nearby hit the deck, we all jumped. None of us saw the lightning

flash but it was close. After a bit of nervous chatting with fellow walkers, we decided it was a one off and the threat had passed. (I found out that the best thing to do in a thunderstorm on a Mountain is to put your head between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye)! The rest of the ascent was pretty uneventful except for a bloke standing naked on the summit plinth.

Rescue!

The descent from Snowdon down the Rhyd ddu path involves traversing a narrow ridge. The ridge isn’t Crib Goch narrow, but it does add a bit of interest to the walk. We decided it would be a nice route up. By now the cloud had descended and covered the Summit with a blanket of fog. We cleared it just in time to see the views. As we got near the bottom (and the pub)! a big yellow Sea King helicopter approached the summit and hovered for quite a while. We joked that it was picking up the clueless young

sters who had camped next to us.

After reaching the campsite we decided a BBQ was in order, the wind ensured the BBQ acted like a blast furnace to incinerate our burgers. Full from the food, we decided to visit the pub for some real ale. We were not disappointed. Whilst in the pub, we heard that there was a Mountain Resc

ue in operation involving some people from our campsite. 1 had been airlifted from the Mountain. 2 Had been escorted down and a further 8 were still missing and being searched for! We joked that it was probably the clueless youngsters camped next to us.

At about half 11, news came through to the pub that it was certainly people from our site and the site/pub owner went to the site for a look to make sure they were not there. They were there. It was the youngsters. They had left their friends on the Mountain and were drinking and chatting as if nothin

g had happened. According to the pub/site owner, they couldn’t care less that a helicopter and Mountain Rescue teams had been out for several hours in dangerous conditions searching for 8 missing persons.

Home

After the pub, we had a (quiet) beer back at the tent round the remains of the fire that I had managed to get going again. A little later the Youngster who had been taken to hospital (suffering from WET JEAN SYNDROME probably) returned to camp with the two who had been walked down by MRT. They were then up till 4am drinking and laughing about the incident.

The following morning we heard one of the youngsters say “shall we try again and go the right way this time”. I hope they either learn a few outdoor skills (including respect) or never venture out of the (London by the accents) city again. Our day was spent in Llandudno exploring cafes!

The Welsh 3000’s will have to wait until next year now, but I am already looking forward to it.