Spring Bank Holiday 2024 Snowdonia Report

Dear SMC,

There was a Snowdonia trip back in May. Tim, John and myself arrived at Forest Holidays (Caernarfon), on Friday afternoon, hot on the heels of Marc. We attempted to check-in at the campsite, which initially perplexed the campsite staff, but after a thorough search on their system, our booking was found.

The campsite offered plenty of holiday homes, and a single designated camping field down by the river, where we pitched up all to ourselves. The midges descended almost immediately. We walked our tents across the field, optimistic of escaping the swarm. Our hopes were soon dashed as the swarm followed us, and we accepted our fate.

There was time left in the day to hit the rock and ease into the trip. We made the short trip to Tremadog (Craig y Gesail) to climb Bramble Buttress; Marc's first time climbing trad multipitch. 

Beddgelert was within walking distance of the campsite, and presented us with a fine choice of pubs to spend the evening.

We had good weather Saturday morning, so headed to Tremadog (Bwlch y Moch). The crag is on the roadside, with parking, which gave a very short walk-in (although the climbs are hidden behind the treeline). In pairs we climbed Christmas curry. At this point, Simon arrived on the trip, and we waved down at him from the climb. The next climbs included One Step in the Clouds. We then opted to relocate to Pant Ifan, a secluded, peaceful crag, where Simon set up some top-ropes on several VS climbs. We returned to the campsite to find the camping field was now completely full, and we had plenty of new neighbours, all enduring the midges. 

On Sunday morning we laid awake in our tents, listening to the relentless pitter patter of the rain. Our wet weather option was to scramble Milestone Continuation up Tryfan. Milestone Gully was a waterfall at this point, as we ascended. The rock was still grippy in the wet and we made it to Adam and Eve on the Tryfan summit. We roped up to scramble together for some of the later pitches. The pubs were very popular for food, and needed to be pre-booked. Fortunately, Marc had managed to secure us an eventing booking, so the descent from Tryfan had to be swift! 

The weather forecast continued to look bleak for Snowdonia, so we hit the road on Monday morning and stopped near Llangollen for some limestone sport climbing (Trevor Quarry). The weather was glorious and the crag was quiet. Castell Dinas Brân was so close to the crag that we had to visit before departing back home. Thanks Tim for organising; a great time was had by all.

Cheers,

Ali