Thursday 2 October 2014

Climbing up Cadair Idris

First of all, welcome to Jane via Bloglovin!

On the second day of our holiday, the sun was still out and we decided to climb the mountain named Cadair Idris - you can read the official jargon here

We started from the base of the Pony Path (as described in the here link above). It is a trek of 3 miles each way. The summit on this route is 2930 feet high! It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to the hut.

The sun was shining as we started but it was forecast to be relatively cool with low cloud and rain coming later in the afternoon. DS and FDiL have climbed this twice before and had managed to get FDiL's parents up it the previous year and we had looked forward to doing the same. We choose the day mainly for the coolness as they had climbed it in heat and didn't recommend it!

This stone is near the start, a gentle climb through a woodland glade, leading up to fields - it kind of gently draws you in before punching you full in the face!

Standing close to the bottom, we could see the cloud was covering the top, which is apparently quite common:
Standing on the same spot, I took pictures of the surrounding countryside:


We ascended further up, all three dogs were with us, Master L, Miss S and Miss M (who was absent without leave on this photograph:
The cloud base shifted for a few minutes and there it was:
We were told the first bit wasn't too bad as there was two sets of zig's and zag's which would ease us into the climb - yeah right, that is fine coming from two young people. I had expected these four elements to be flattish, sort of circling the edge of the mountain. Nope, they were quite steep.

Considering I am prone to tachycardia I knew I would have to take it slowly. Not too bad at first, heart beat around 100 rising to 150. After the first of these two zig zag's,  I needed a decent rest as it was now hovering around 180. Anyhow, a few minutes resting, a drink of water and a piece of cake helped (for a while!).

About halfway up we met three walkers who were slightly lost. They thought they had come up the route we were taking but in fact, had walked up the other side. They said they had parked near a telephone box (which we had passed at the start) so showed them how to get down to it. It was only later on we realised where they had started from and would have had quite a hike to get back to their car. Oh well.

Not far from the top now, we carried on for many more metres, by now my thighs and calves were aching and I was puffing like a little steam train and I am reasonably fit! The clouds parted to show us this lake, Llyn y Gader:
This view to the right:
Another rest was needed here ready for the climax, a huge mass of boulders known as a scramble, where each step up was anywhere from 6" to 2':
At the top finally and we settled down inside this hut:
DS and FDiL had carted up a tiny camping stove, water and other supplies. We had bought sandwiches and more cake. Our sandwiches were squashed as DB had had a lay down inside a cairn and forgotten they were in his rucksack. Anyhow, they peeled apart successfully :-)

A lovely hot cup of chocolate helped and they had pasta mug things. We stayed there for about 40 minutes listening to the rain beginning to lash down. The dogs dried out enough from the cloud misting and we donned full wet weather gear (my shoes leak so knew I would be get wet feet), left the hut and climbed a few more feet to the trig point.

Forgot to take a photograph as it was too wet and windy and I needed to hang on in the wind and lashing rain! We then began our descent....












6 comments:

  1. OMG I would have needed an air lift to get off that hill, maybe we could have done it once but those days are sadly gone. Beautiful views and lovely photos,
    Briony
    x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just amended the post to say it is a mountain, with a 3 mile trek each way and a summit of 2930 feet! DB is quite a few years older than me and tackled it reasonably well with a few rests.

      Delete
  2. Well done. a good achievement. I had to smile at the hot chocolate and squashed sandwiches!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was very much needed I can tell you!

      Delete
  3. We went there this year, absolutely beautiful, have a great time x

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you, will read all your comments and try and answer any questions you leave. Please leave comments in English. Don't forget to come back and read my reply! All comments are moderated so if you try to link it to a commercial web site, it will not be published.