Welsh 3000s

Welsh 3000s

The weekend before last I took on the Welsh 3000s http://www.welsh3000s.co.uk/ and was sorely beaten, but not. The temperatures were in the high 20s throughout the weekend. Climbing Snowdon the evening before, it was 24 degrees at 10 at night and I felt comfortable in my decision to leave my sleeping bag behind.

The summit was littered with other cacooned walkers intent on the same goal. I hunkered down on the platform and endured a comfortable though surprisingly chilly night before rising at 04:30 to head off across Crib Goch.

The forescast was for a hot sultry day and with the suns rays reflecting off the rock, it was to be a scorcher that sapped my strength and sucked the fluid from me. I thought of the conditions in a small boat mid-atlantic and began to get an appreciation of just how much brackish water I would be drinking.

I carried very little with me beyond some food and about 4 litres of water and some sachets of fruit juice. The water was all gone by the time I was down on the road below Dinas Cromlech and its most famous route, Cenotaph Corner. I was reminded of books I had read of this unforgiving routes' first climbers and of the famous that had since followed in their footsteps on their way to the worlds most renowned summits.

A youth hostel by the road housed an early bird who kindly filled my drained bottles and I headed off down the road to Nant Peris, (Old Llanberis,) and the foot of Elidir Fawr.