I can’t remeber the last time I went up Y Foel Goch, on the end of the Glyders range. It’s bit ‘out of the way’ so dosen’t get many ascents compared to the rest of the Ogwen Valley, so I was pleased to get back up there after about ten years of abscence! I’ve been training several groups of students for a Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition over the past three days and we’ve all lived through a full range of weather. On Friday, it was touch and go as to whether to cancel the expedition as over 40mm of rain fell in about 12 hours!

Added to that, were the 50mph westerly gales, that made just surviving in the outdoors challenging, never mind putting up tents and cooking dinner! I had to take my hats off to the students though, who made it through the night in good spirits.

There was a glimmer of hope in the sky on Saturday morning….

It took a long time to get packed up and organised after such a night, but in some ways, it was great ‘training’! Squalls blew through at all the wrong moments, but eventually, everyone was on the move, squelching along the sodden footpaths.

By lunch time, things were brightening up and it looked like we were through the worst. One of the fun things about meeting a group at checkpoints, is that you end up going to all sorts of quirky places, off the beaten track. Like this little outdoor bathroom I found in this garden!

Sunday started in a much more agreeable way, with super views of Snowdon.

I drove around to Ogwen and hiked up to Bwlch Tryfan, to where the Miners track crosses the ridge as I wanted to make sure that the teams didn’t stray too far up into the high mountains by mistake. It’s not somewhere I usually frequent, so it was lovely seeing all the local mountains, from a different angle.

There’s a nice cairn and a little windshelter up on the top at 805m and the views are superb. At least the rain cleared the air for good visability.

The east face of Tryfan, looked particularly good in the the sunshine…

After a short period of concern, I located all the teams and we retunred to base, with kit that had been well dried in the wind (apart from boots!).

It was a relief to get home and into the shower, then fresh clothes. A rewarding three days, but at times, it seemed like a bonkers way to be earning a living! Ha ha! After a lovely dinner with Clare, the evening light from The Cottage was superb.