After the successes of Crib Goch in the snow, Sarah, Toby and I were in a bit of a dilemma with what to do today. Given the bad weather forecast, both, Toby and Sarah having knee problems we decided on a short day out.
The guide book (North Wales Scrambles, Garry Smith) gave us the idea to have a punt at Pinnacle ridge on Pen Yr Ole Wen, a mere 20min walk from the car park in Owen. The photos in the guide book convinced us that this was worth a look. It proved to be interesting in the wet.
Well we found the ridge with no great difficulty and I fought my way up the first rock step. It was tricky but went well in stiff boots designed to hold on to little edges of rock. Sarah went to follow me. Then the difficulty arose. The step was slippery enough to pose a problem to her. She and Toby backed off. Which left me with the slightly awkward task of retracing my steps and down climbing the awkward movements. They were much more awkward in reverse. I ended up using some thin rope round a spike of rock as a handle and lowering myself off it.
We decided to head up the mountain and a few meters further up came across a grassy terrace that led round on to the main scramble. We used this to neatly bypass the awkward step below and got stuck in to the main scramble.
This consisted of two pinnacles, short-lived but exposed scrambling. Im ashamed to say that we didn't end up taking any truly awesome shots.
With the scrambling over and the rain setting in properly now, Toby navigated us to the top of the mountain before traversing round the summit and heading off down another ridge line and back down into the Ogwen Valley.
An enlightening day out. Fun, but not a route I'm in a massive hurry to repeat.
The guide book (North Wales Scrambles, Garry Smith) gave us the idea to have a punt at Pinnacle ridge on Pen Yr Ole Wen, a mere 20min walk from the car park in Owen. The photos in the guide book convinced us that this was worth a look. It proved to be interesting in the wet.
Well we found the ridge with no great difficulty and I fought my way up the first rock step. It was tricky but went well in stiff boots designed to hold on to little edges of rock. Sarah went to follow me. Then the difficulty arose. The step was slippery enough to pose a problem to her. She and Toby backed off. Which left me with the slightly awkward task of retracing my steps and down climbing the awkward movements. They were much more awkward in reverse. I ended up using some thin rope round a spike of rock as a handle and lowering myself off it.
We decided to head up the mountain and a few meters further up came across a grassy terrace that led round on to the main scramble. We used this to neatly bypass the awkward step below and got stuck in to the main scramble.
This consisted of two pinnacles, short-lived but exposed scrambling. Im ashamed to say that we didn't end up taking any truly awesome shots.
With the scrambling over and the rain setting in properly now, Toby navigated us to the top of the mountain before traversing round the summit and heading off down another ridge line and back down into the Ogwen Valley.
An enlightening day out. Fun, but not a route I'm in a massive hurry to repeat.
One of the Pinnacles.
Sarah scrambling up towards the Pinnacles.
Phew! Glad to be at the top of the ridge.