Couple from last week - Went to Wales to climb some mountains and work on my fear of heights. I get wobbly just standing on a chair, and get full on "call of the void" at serious heights.
The plan was to do Cnicht since it's considered an easy scramble, and if all went well, maybe try the south ridge of Tryfan.
First sight of Tryfan confirmed I had overestimated my bravery.
On day 1 Cnicht was completely socked in, so we went back to the Tryfan/Ogwen area for some photos instead. We went up Pen yr Ole Wen (opposite Tryfan) for some photos from an area about halfway up, but after stopping there and having some lunch, we decided to keep going up until our bravery ran out. If you know the track - we got up to the gully scramble near the top.
On day 2 we did most of Cnicht until weather cut it short. Honestly I'm not sure I'd have made it all the way anyway, but would have been fun to try. We watched a big wall of weather heading towards us, which made us nervous, and then mountain rescue kept circling us in the helicopter and stopping to stare at us occasionally... We took that to mean we should probably bail.
Day 3 was our last day, and we decided to just take an easy win. Moel Siabod was opposite the hotel, so after a quick 10 minutes of research found that there is a hard way up, and a couple of easy ways down. We decided to just go up and down the easy way, which started about 100m down the road from the hotel.
Long story short, there's actually a hard way, and intermediate way, and an easy way... We accidentally took the intermediate way. We got most of the way until my head just gave up and decided to give me a mild panic attack.
We were expecting an easy route, so as it got tougher we became less and less sure that it was in fact the right way. Had I known it was correct, I might have tried it, it was only a small scramble up and over a shoulder - but we didn't know what was up there, if it would get worse etc, so ultimately decided to bail again. Having done more research once we got back, I found out once that little section was done it was an easy stroll to the summit!
So yeah, didn't get to the top of anything, but ultimately got what I wanted - To find my limits and push them a bit.
Tryfan by
Jamie Moulton, on Flickr
Tryfan by
Jamie Moulton, on Flickr