One Stormy Night on Snowdon

Every year I pencil a few dates for various challenges and events, it was by pure coincidental fate that my Welsh 3000 challenge was to begin on the Stand Up To Cancer day in the UK, as the Friday we were going to summit Snowdon in preparation of the main challenge itself.

Pete, Bill, Dan, Myself, Josh, Matt, James and Robin

Mount Snowdon

Snowdonia is one of the most beautiful places in the British Isles, a huge choice of paths, trails, climbs and all achievable by most skilled walkers or those venturing out hitting the trail for the very first time. Our goal was to arrive at the Pen-y-pas around tea-time and ascend to camp at the summit of Snowdon in preparation for the Welsh 3000, an early morning traverse across Crib Goch would send us on our way before tackling Tryfan, The Glyders and Llewellyn.

Weather Conditions

The weather forecast had been the talking subject leading up to our departure day, a 5 hour drive to Snowdonia to drop one vehicle off at our finish point and the other at the pub to swap kit and off load the tents. Thankfully the weather forecast had improved with the ominous low staying out to the West of the UK, the wind and rain improving to give us a chance of achieving our goal. Prior to leaving home I checked to see the forecast and things looked better still, the challenge was on.

The Team

I am fortunate enough to know fellow adventurers and trek and trail lovers that love nothing more than scrambling up a rock face or camping under canvas with a 12-15 mile distance to cover each day across mixed terrain.

Matt Ryan-Bear Mitchell – Matt is the manager of Go-Outdoors, loves nothing more than climbing, outdoors and active trips with scouts as a scout master. Matt was a team member of the Summit of Mont Blanc in 2013 and dual peak challenge of England and Wales along with Winter summit of Ben Nevis.

Robin Hoare-Matthews - Robin is an active mountain biker, hits the trails on a weekly basis and was great support during my 7 marathons in 7 days challenge. This would be my first challenge with Robin.

Dan Rihan – Dan is in the process of training for a Triathlon and wanted to join us in the Challenge.

Bill Doody - I was fortunate enough to meet Bill during the 7x7x7, Bill had run his just weeks prior to my Challenge and had contacted me with great advice and support while joining me on marathon 3 and marathon number 6. Bill lives in France so having him fly over to join us was a huge boost.

James Royle – James works with Matt at Go-Outdoors and has joined me on numerous challenges including the UK Peaks, Mont Blanc and Ben Nevis snow climbs.

Peter Boardman – Pete is on a journey, adventure and weight loss, finding out the thrill and enjoyment of taking on the life on a trail or an expedition. My final marathon number 7 was shared with Pete, assisting me covering 20 or so miles of my 31 miles across the Mendips. Each weekend you may find Pete on the Welsh mountains ascending Pen-y-fan or a weekend day challenge to summit Crook Peak in Somerset.

Josh Stephens – Josh works with Matt and James, our youngest member of the team, aged just 18 and starting out on his adventures and challenges. Josh is a regular indoor climber and loves the outdoor equipment for trail and trek. If there’s advice required for camping or expeditions then Josh, Matt and James have tried and tested most equipment along with the UK’s well known core outdoors and active leisure brands.

Arrival Pen-y-Pas

We arrived later than expected due to leaving after lunchtime but had arrived just as the weather started to show the early signs of a very wet period expected through to Saturday afternoon. It was 10pm and we wanted to summit around midnight, time was against us so we knew it was going to be a late one.

We had opted for the Miners Trail, a nice steady walk beyond the lakes before a zig-zag ascent to our destination. A warning sign was written at the gate sign post, rain 100% & wind 45-50mph. With our head torches and waterproofs on in preparation our spirits were high, the wind had subsided and was now just a light breeze. Our pace was good, our torches lit the way and all you could hear was the clink of walking poles hitting the path that showed the way and the group talk about tomorrow’s Crib Goch crossing if conditions favoured us.

Bill and myself enjoying the surroundings

It wasn’t long before we had arrived at the zig-zag section, ready to ascend just as the wind made its presence felt along with the first of the rain. The night ascent was about to become somewhat challenging.

We followed the route up, the wind seemed to increase every 50 metres or so with each gust feeling somewhat stronger than the previous, then the heavens opened with driving rain, visibility became increasingly reduced, the wind pushing us to the right side of the path that had become more of a scree and rock pathway, the steepness was testing and made worse due to the deteriorating conditions. Water raced down in between the rocks and shingle, the route had become more of a water fountain than a pathway, it was becoming harder to determine what was a path and what was a natural water course.

Our head torches were doing the best job they could, the rain began to sting the left side of my face as the wind blew it across our path, we pushed on and hoped this was the worst of the storm as it was forecast to be windy.

Anyone that knows what it’s like to ascend on a wet slope, you can’t go back down if too steep as 80% of injuries occur during the descent, also, the weather was severely hampering our route and we found ourselves scrambling over rock and shingle. We pushed on, following Matt, James and Josh, the younger members of the team upwards into the darkness.

I had lost track of time, I knew we had come off of the path, I took out my mobile phone and was pleased to see I had 3G, bought up Viewranger app and it showed on the OS view we were 20 or so meters too fart o the right of the path, in between there was a steep gully making it impossible to traverse across back on track, to our right showed more steep ascent, mixed with more rock debris and shingle perched on ledges. The darkness made it eerie, the wind and rain multiplied the intensity of knowing we had been ascending for over an hour and were clearly quite some way to go still, the first signal of concern entered my mind. The wind picked up again, as if to remind me to confirm the weather update, it was there to be seen, the Atlantic Low was bringing remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo and this was the start of it, instead of skirting the West Coast of UK and the East of Ireland it had changed course and was bringing the strongest of winds right across our path, Wales was in for a stormy night, and we still had an hour of climbing and scrambling.

I stayed at the rear of the group, if anyone dropped behind myself I soon made sure they were back in front, trying to keep us all as a group. Suddenly we arrived on a ledge, the ascent above was flat rock face, impossible to climb in the best of conditions, to our left was a small ledge skirting around to the gully and to our right was a short climb around to more ledges but up onto a grass verge slope, seeing the grassy slope gave me hope that we must have been closer to the ridge, Matt, Josh, Dan and James had taken one of the 2 choices and were around 20 meters above us, they couldn’t hear any calls due to the strong wind which was almost every 20 or 30 second bursts now, the rain had stopped.

Summit of Snowdon

Peter and Robin were with me, their first ever ascent on Snowdon, in the dark and one they, along with myself would never forget, I felt for them, it wasn’t supposed to be like this, a leisurely ascent up via the miners trail path and zig zag to the summit where we would put up our tents and relax, have a few brews before a windy night under the stars and preparation for the Welsh 3000 the next day. Here we were, a few thousand feet up on ridge, ascending via scree slopes and grass verges, 75mph winds and biting icy rain, it was Adventure even I wasn’t accustomed to, putting life and limb up for any cause is somewhat stupidity but we hadn’t foreseen this outcome. Peter, Robin and I chose our route, one by one we climbed up over the tricky ledge and onto the soaking wet grass verge, each handful of grass slowly began to come away from it’s rooting, the ground was getting wetter from the rain soaking down through the rock and onto the mountain surface. Each pull was tested before committing ourselves to the forceful pull of each of our weight.

We continued to ascend, suddenly we could see lights, 2 or 3 sets of head torches huddled around a large rock on a steeper slope, one of the team was in a shock, gripping onto a large rock, mountain shock, fear of the situation, fear of the thought he may die on Snowdon, fear of the storm as the winds seemed to increase yet again, each gust twisting your body away from the rock face, natural instinct made us drop to the rock or scree face each time, it hampered our progress but was safer, our poles were godsends, if we had ropes we would have all opted to have used them, but tonight we were simply walking a path, the scree and rock around us was just enough for us to position ourselves safely for a breather and to assess how he was, words of encouragement and letting him know that we were almost at the ridge, somewhere safer than in the precarious situation we were in, no-one was going to be dying or injured tonight, we continued to ascend again.

03:15, my watch lit up, 3 hours ascending on scree slopes, rock ledges and precarious ridges, suddenly I heard a shout from above, the shouting got louder as we continued to ascend, Matt, James and Dan were on the ridge, we had made it, making sure everyone pulled themselves up onto the ledge I gave my body one last push and began to stand up on the ridge when suddenly the wind hit me, I was almost blown backwards, immediately everyone dropped to the ground, we all shouted and celebrated, we had made the ridge and more importantly, no-one was injured or worse, we tried to scramble with our poles to the summit path and I thought maybe we could position ourselves behind the Snowdon summit building for some form of protection, the wind was not having any of it, there was no gaps between the strong gusts, the wind seemed to be constant now, easily exceeding 90mph and at times exceeding 100mph, this was the strongest gust I had felt while out on any walk or adventure challenge, a stronger gust of wind since the 1987 storms I endured while playing in a field with a sheet of tarpaulin as a human kite, on this ridge we were even more exposed to the elements and we needed to get a tent up as soon as possible, within a few seconds we all realised it was going to be impossible for anything to withstand the force of the wind, let alone put a tent up, we found ourselves crawling to a pile of rocks on the ridge path and Matt pulled out a Vango rescue tarpaulin sheet, big enough for all 8 of us to climb underneath and pin down by sitting on the corners and placing bags around it’s inner perimeter.

It was the first time we were all able to talk and hear one another speak, we were all in shock, cold, almost hypothermic as most of us were continuously shaking, the shock in our eyes told the story as the wind continued to blow with a force that showed mother natures true power, we were going to be very lucky if we were able to withstand the storm throughout the night, the thought of trying to descend in these conditions made me shudder, an injury would be inevitable or worse still had we continued, thankfully the whole group agreed to hunker down and try to get warm with the hope of the storm passing sooner rather than later.

Spirits lifted when hot tea and coffee was being made, we were all exhausted, cramping legs, muscles fatigued from the ascent, I was still recovering from a torn hamstring injury that incurred an internal bleed just 11 days before, I could feel my leg tight, but even I was so relieved to be under the sheet and able to swap my wet gear with some fresh dry clothing from my rucksack. I found it hard to move, we were like sardines crammed into a jam jar, we all tried to get comfortable, the ground was saturated, we were on a slope, the wind howled, the sheet shook violently and then the heavens opened once again, but we were safe, we were as a group and we were alive.

I sent my wife a text, a little update that we were safe(ish), had the climb ascent of our lives and the weather was somewhat worse than the weather forecast given earlier the previous evening. I took some video of us one by one, messages of relief, telling the moments of our challenge, as I knew it would be a night none of us would ever forget, some big lessons were being dealt out, to myself and the rest of the group. Never to underestimate the power of nature, weather changes, rapidly, we had planned well for the challenge but certain aspects of any adventure are sadly out of your own hands, safety assessment certainly was a lesson that would be taken on board for anything I will do in the future, especially when it’s your own life in danger and those around you that you care so much about.

The night was cold, I think we slipped in and out of consciousness as the wind rattled and shook our sheet violently throughout the remainder of the night, daylight at 07:27 bought little respite apart from a blanket cloud wrapped around the mountain and path, the winds were still blowing forcefully but had abated by 20-30mph and small gaps began to occur in the gusts, we decided to raise our tired bodies and wet rucksacks and see if we could make one last push for the summit via the pathway. I stood up outside the sheet, it was torn in so many places from the wind pulling at the seams, the stress of it wrapped around and over the top of 8 of us, but it had probably saved us from a whole worse night on Snowdon.

Suddenly there was movement coming out of a cloud, we all turned to look, it was a fell runner, dressed accordingly in running shorts, running top and a pair of Nike trail trainers, I had to rub my eyes to believe what I was seeing, he smiled at us all stretching our bodies and pulling on our rucksacks, he knew we had just had one of the worst nights on the top of the Highest Mountain in Wales. He quickly continued on his run, ascending via the path leading to the Snowdon summit, we were soon following his way and for Peter, Robin, Dan and Bill, a first summit success of Mount Snowdon. In the daylight we could see where we had arrived on the ridge, we had ascended some 100 metres further to the right of the miners trail, we had ascended onto the crib-y-ddygsl ridge, a route most wouldn’t climb during a Summers day.

The wind was still strong enough to blow you off your feet with intermittent gusts, but we had all become somewhat accustomed to the weather conditions and found ourselves pushing for the summit trig-point, the final steps to glory, as I approached the guys stood at the trig a lump came in my throat, I looked over at Pete and he had the same expression on his face as I felt on mine, we had done it, the summit of Snowdon, survived a night in severe storm force winds and survived, our ascent could have been to the summit of Everest, as our achievement was through adversity, with determination, fear and heading into the unknown as so many others do during Cancer, diagnosed and facing long term treatment, this night and day we had stood up to Cancer, for family members, for friends we had lost, and for the many that are about to endure on a long path that will have as many hurdles to overcome.

For Sam, Barbara and so many others

Peter, Bill, Dan, Josh, Robin, Matt, James and Myself x

#BeatingBloodCancer #StandUpToCancer #su2c