THE FORTNIGHTLY FAFF The Periodical Journal of the Mercian Mountaineering Club Sept 2014 VIA FERRATA Riding Italy’s ‘Iron Road’ with Harriet Stewart WELSH 3000s The Mercian elite bag every one of Snowdonia’s major peaks TRADFEST Who needs Glasto when Llanberis offers up it’s very own climbing festival MULLARDOCH Matt Kettle completes one of Scotland’s longest day hikes CENTURION 100 Shots of Beer in 100 minutes www.mercianmc.org.uk Words from the chairman A word from the editor Greengs good people! I hope this latest issue of The Faff finds you in fine fePle. You’ll find a good variety of arGcles in this issue ranging from Italian via ferrata to some prePy epic mountain slogs. The past few months saw several members complete the Welsh 3000s; I hope you enjoy Tom’s report on that. Not to be sasfied with a mere “Welsh Walk”, Ma KePle then went one further and completed the Mullardoch Round in Scotland. You can read his story and marvel at the sheer scale of the accomplishment. Well done Ma, I may have taken the mickey a liPle with your arGcle but I take my hat off to you. Moving on, I’m parGcularly pleased that in this issue we have our first report and photos from a social meet. These are a cornerstone of the club and one of things that bonds us all together so nicely is that we all go out and have fun together indoors as well as outdoors. Well done to Tom Morris for being the driving force behind our social meets calendar. Keep those arGcles and photos coming folks! Stew. Cover photo Harriet Stewart on the Delle Trinsee (grade 4b) via ferrata in the Italian Dolomites. Cover photo - Tom Morris with Alum Pot forming the Photo: Stewart Moody backdrop, Yorkshire Dales Naonal Park FOEL-FRAS SNOWDON GARNEDD UGAIN CRIB GOCH ELIDIR FAWR Y GA RN GLYDER FAWR GLYDER FACH TRYFAN AN PEN YR OLE WEN CARNEDD DAFYDD CARNEDD LLEWELYN YR ELEN GACH FOEL-FRAS SNOWDON GARNEDD UAIN CRIB GOCH ELIDIR FAWR Y GARN GLYDERWELSH FAWR GLYDER FACH CH ER TRYFAN PEN YR OLE WEN CARNEDD DAFYDD CARNEDD LLEWELYNs YR ELEN FOEL GRACH3000 FOEL-FRASwords by Tom Morris SNOWDON FAWR GARNEDD UGAIN CRIB GOCH ELIDIR FAWR Y GARN GLYDER FAWR ON GLYDER FACH TRYFAN PEN YR OLE WEN CARNEDD DAFYDD CARNEDD LLEWELYN YR ELEN FOEL GRACH FOEL- FRAS SNOWDON GARNEDD UGAIN CRIB GOCH ELIDIR FAWR Y GARN GLYDER FAWR GLYDER Challenge, danger, adventure. Having something to A short drive up to Pen Y Pass saw us set off up the Pyg moan about. These are the things that we Mercians track without further preamble. We made good Gme thrive upon and with that in mind seven intrepid before I started noGcing myself scratching…everywhere. I souls set out to complete the Welsh 3000s over the had prePy severe itching and soon aerwards felt my face start to swell up. Could it be…could I finally have become weekend of 14 and 15 June. For anyone who doesn’t allergic to hard work like I always dreamed? No apparently. know the challenge is to reach the summits of the 14 Instead I was diagnosed with the worst case of heat rash highest mountains in Wales in under 24 hours. Sandy had seen since Iraq which was kind of cool I suppose. I was concerned that this might affect my chances of Julie and I were parGcularly keen to get another crack at it compleGng the challenge but as we were around ¾ of the following our aborGve aempt last year. To maximise our way up Snowdon we decided to carry on and see if I would chances of success two training walks were held in the cool down during the bivvy. Brecon Beacons and in Snowdonia in the weekends prior the main event. These definitely helped to ready our party We ambled up to the top and found the prime bivvy spots in for the arduous task awaiGng us and gave us a taste of what the doorway of the café unoccupied. Stewart and I, in the the real thing would be like. highest ideals of chivalry, quickly nabbed these whilst the others hunkered down in the lee of the café wall. A half an Stewart, Ma and I set off in the Kelemobile at around hour chill-out and a sip of caramel hot chocolate courtesy of 2pm and arrived at Tyn Lon in Nant Peris in good order Sandy followed and we made the decision to turn in to try despite Ma’s sat nav being uPerly convinced that the A5 and get as much sleep in as possible. didn’t exist. A short hop into Llanberis for some food and a couple of preparatory brews later we were changed, packed A few hours of prePy broken slumber were ended by the and raring to go...ready to go…*sigh* resigned to going. 4am alarm call. Despite the lack of sleep everyone seemed prePy alert and ready for the off. My Heat rash had gone Huw, Sandy and Julie turned up shortly aer and began a down significantly and so without further ado we pasta eang and foot taping session with gusto. synchronised watches and started the clock at 4.17am on Unfortunately, Beth’s car had decided it had seen enough at the summit of Snowdon. Crib Y Drysgl and Crib Goch were some point on the way over and conked out which led Joe’s knocked off in fairly short order with good visibility and posiGon on the walk in the lurch. Fortunately, the friendly weather. It wasn’t all good news however as Ma neighbourhood AA man was on hand and Joe had confirmed somehow managed to locate another bl**dy Villa fan on he would see us at the top of Snowdon at some point Crib Goch. At half 4 in the morning. You can’t escape the before midnight. b*st*rds. The Route we took over the Welsh 3000s, starGng on Snowdon, ending on Foel Fras. Google Earth rendering by Stewart Moody. Main image - Sunset on Snowdon as we bivvi for the night. Inset led - Ma trooping the Villa flag whilst ascending Snowdon. Inset middle - Ma and Tom by Snowdon’s summit cairn at 4:17am. Inset right - Traversing Crib Goch, that’s 3 done, 11 to go. Photos by Stewart Moody (L-R) Julie, Huw, Sandy, Tom and Ma at the bivvi spot. We managed to surf the scree down off the western arm of Photo by Stewart Moody Crib Goch and located the path down to Nant Peris without any of the navigaonal escapades which hampered our aempt last year and were feeling prePy pleased with our Gme as we reached the road. We reached Tyn Lon, the Ceunant MC hut kindly loaned to us as a faffing point (pre- planned and accounted for faffing I might add) around 7am and quickly knocked up some breakfast and teas. I was able to loot the Pharmacie Du Taylor et Hennis for some heat rash spray and anG-histamines to combat my ailments which was a massive boon. Feeling suitably refreshed and re-fuelled we were out of the hut by half 7 and off up the road to find the track to…Elidir Fawr. In case you’ve never been up it, Elidir Fawr is a bl**dy murderous slog which immediately adopts a 30 degree angle and doesn’t let up unGl the top. It also has several false summits the uPer, uPer b*st*rd. The only tacGc is to stare intently at your feet, go to your happy place and power-trudge unGl you fall over. Whatever you do, don’t look up. That way lies woe and ruin… The Glyderau are notoriously difficult to navigate in (one helpful Gp is to forget your sun hat on a wall and have anything other than bright sunshine although we didn’t do to backtrack 300 metres to go and retrieve it. This definitely too badly. one minor hiccup was confusing Castell Y Gwynt made me feel loads bePer) for the summit but fortunately this didn’t cost us much Gme. With this being a Gmed event we decided to forego Reaching the summit of this g*t provides an immediate the tradiGonal summit shot bestride the rock on Glyder Fach morale boost and a pork pie shaped reward. Ahead of you (Fawr?) and strode straight past the canGlever barely lies a relavely benign down and up to the shapely summit sparing it a glance. of Y Garn offering some great views over both valleys it bestrides. As we began the scree descent down the gully alongside Bristly Ridge Huw’s fairly constant chuntering began to take Feeling fairly buoyant, we made short work of Y Garn and on a more persistent tone. When we reached the sGle in began the ascent of Glyder Fawr (or Fach, whichever one the Bwlch Tryfan and stopped for a rest he revealed that he the first one is). This is another slog up scree whereby you was suffering from that most heinous, injurious complaint take one step backwards for every two steps forwards. which could spell calamity for his whole aempt…massive However, nothing could dent our iron will by this stage and *rse chafe. When a search for some savlon proved fruitless we reached the desolate summit plateau of the Glyderau in Huw made a bold decision. A terribly, terribly bad decision, good Gme. This ascent seemed much easier than two but bold.