The First Practice

On the 22rd January, in the bleak mid-winter, a number of hardy souls walked up Moel Siabod near Snowdon for a 5 mile hike.

At the summit, cold but everyone in good spirit.

The eager but somewhat chilled participants were:

Second Practice Run

was on 6th February 2005 up Elidir Fawr

3,104 feet above sea level.

Weather conditions average & very cold.

The Machlyn Mawr
Reservoir that feeds the water into the six turbines at Dinorwic Power Station, producing Peak time electricity. The water travels to it’s final destination of Llyn Peris at the base of the mountain, the water is then pumped back to the reservoir to be re-used.

Wonderful to think that Lloyd Morris Electrical played a part in the construction of this Underground Power Station, along with one of our customers, Castle Cement, who supplied the concrete for the construction of a very unique piece of welsh history.

No this picture was not taken out of a plane! A glimpse of the ever changing scenery & conditions we experienced at the summit.

Team Picture at the summit.

On the descent, Mr. J. Stokes decides to show off his Line Dancing skills.

Weather conditions poor.

Time taken for route 7.5 hours

The team at the top of Devil’s Kitchen, a stairway of rock!
But yes Karen we are walking up there, you may well laugh!

Y-Garn 3,104 feet above sea level.

Viewed from Glyder Fach 3,262 feet above sea level.

Via Glyder Fawr 3,279 feet above sea level.

Introduced us to breathtaking view of Y-Garn from The Glyder range. We endured temperature in the region of –8 degrees, to which all refreshments became frozen, due to exposure to the more extreme conditions.

To many this may sound like a walk in the park, great care must be taken to ensure all those within the group stay safe. Unfortunately on this outing, Cramp was experienced by Scott in both legs, & unable to move, until a fellow walker produced salt tablets to relieve the pain.

I think he had been on the Viagra the night before, or was it the Guinness!

We all returned safe & well to venture into our next training walk.

Also at this point we were able to view the coast line of Pen-Mon at the tip of Anglesey, & behind us in the distance, The Ruins of 13th Century Criccieth Castle, & Tremadog Bay Shoreline.

06/05/05

Snowdon 3,560 feet above sea level.

Weather conditions poor.

Time taken 3 hours.

This really was the day we should have stayed in bed! Within an hour of attempting to reach the summit, we hit the snow line & conditions under foot became progressively more dangerous.

A decision was made at the point of the Miners Track joining the Pyg Track to venture home in safety.

A dejected Crew on the descent from Snowdon. No further comment!

Four weeks previous to this we ascended Snowdon, in a temperature of 20 degrees centigrade & sunburn.

07/05/05

Glyder Fawr 3,279 feet above sea level.

Glyder Fach 3,262 feet above sea level.

Y-Garn 3,104 feet above sea level

Weather conditions changeable.

Maximum temperature 8 degrees centigrade.

Time taken for route 5 hours.

Waterfall on the ascent towards Bristly Ridge.
Shortly after this picture was taken, Nick decides to cross the river & yes you guessed it he fell in again.

John tries to convince us that he has broken out in a sweat! 1st time for everything I suppose.

Glyder Fawr 3,279 feet above sea level.

A quick team picture before the mist dropped & the Northern Winds increased.

Karen writes:

On 05/06/05 due to some of the team having other commitments and the "elderly" men in the group having troubles with their bones, "Old Man" John resting a sprained ankle (you must stop chasing after them dollybirds, John) and Steve laying around due to a dodgy back (sounds like a typical day in work, eh Steve??) there were just four of us ascending Snowdon. This week's practice run was up the PYG track, which is the way we will be walking on the Big Day itself. Here is Daniel, Nick & I, with Neil behind the camera at the beginning of our ascent anticipating what could be a nice day.

Things were definitely looking good weather wise, with what began as a little cool wind, disappeared as we walked on. Below shows the typical fantastic scenery, with the Miners track just showing in front of the lake. Only a few weeks ago we had to abandon the same walk due to snow and dangerous ice, and turn onto the Miners track to safely return to our vehicles. We later heard that another unfortunate walker died that day due to the hazardous conditions.

Following up from this picture comes the ZigZags, a very exhausting criss-cross of steep rocky paths that lead up to the infamous Snowdon Railway track and the final, easier ascent to the top. The Zigzags let you know that every single bone in your body is working hard and was one of the few times during all our practice runs that I just wanted to give it all up, go home and be tucked up in bed. But of course the fantastic view at the top would make all this pain worth it.

………..Er, and here is the fantastic view that met us at the top,,, if you look really hard you might see the snowdon train which stops to the side of the Snowdon peak. That warm bed was truly beckoning.!!!

But typical of that Big Man in the sky as we started descending, the mist cleared and the sun came out to play again. As you would expect our descent was quicker with us jogging in some parts.

For the Big Day, we have given ourselves time limits to ascend and descend each mountain to ensure we meet our target of 24 hours total, and the time limit for Snowdon was 5 hours. Today we had ascended in 1hour 50 minutes and as we were nearing the bottom, Neil & I realised that we had 8 minutes left to break the 3 hours barrier but with 800metres still to go. We looked at each other and decided the race was on……and we were off, dodging the rocks and walkers and jumping streams in our quest. Im sure I could hear the Chariots of Fire soundtrack playing in the background!!

Our determination paid off, exactly as our watches hit 1hr 10mins for our descent we stepped onto the tarmac next to the hostel. 2 hours we had taken off our limit and coupled with all the team beating our Scarfell Pyke limit by half an hour, this 24 Peak Challenge WILL be accomplished.

Who wants to be lounging around in bed anyway??

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Last modified: June 14, 2005