This week just gone I have been working for the Joint Services again, at their mountain training wing in Llanrwst, JSMTW (L). The course was a Summer Mountaineering Foundation, which lays the foundations and gets some of the pre-requisites for the Mountain Leader Award. I was joined by members of various Regements, from Royal Gurkha Rifles, to Army Air Core.
Day 1: Navigation basics, including bearings, contours, distances, pacings, timings, etc. For this we headed from Capel Curig, over Crimpiau and Craig Wen. Perfect terrain with lots of features to attack.
Crimpiau
Day 2: Mountain day and basic scrambling. We covered Y Gribin ridge from Llyn Idwal, then went over Gylder Fawr and down Devil’s Kitchen. The day was North Wales tropical, but our friend from Brunei didn’t agree.
Day 3: A long day on Snowdon, working on more advanced navigation using mainly contour interpretation. On 1:50k maps. We travelled up from Pen y Pass, across Lliwedd, and down the Rhyd Ddu path. I then found out the Gwynedd council had given me a parking fine of £25 at the Pen y Gwryd car park. Cheers
Carneddau Wild Ponies – Ffynnon Llugwy
Day 4: First day of expedition. We travelled from Gwern gof uchaf to Carnedd Llewellyn. Then descended the East side to camp in Cwm Eigiau. We saw the plane wreck site of Canberra Wk129, a jet that crashed on the Summit in Dec 1957, the debris was spread about a mile across the hillside and on both sides of the impact ridge. Truely an impressive site. Many of the parts still remain there.
Eastern Spur of Carnedd Llewellyn
Day 5: It was one of the first times I can remember camping on a North East facing cwm, so I pitched my tent so that at 05:30AM, I could unzip my tent door and see sunrise. A seriously cool way to wake up. I put a brew on and enjoyed the hazy sunrise then went back to sleep.
Looking towards Colwyn Bay from 820m on the Carneddau at 05:30AM
TerryJamesWalker 