Introduction
Registration/rucksack
inspection commenced at 6.30am with a 7am start to pit your strength, stamina
and endurance against eight 3000ft+ Peaks that surround the Ogwen Valley in
Wales.
This was Ogwen
Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation’s (“OVMRO”) 6th year of running
the event with a target of £10,000 of funding to be raised.
In early April
Paul Hodges had issued invites to walking friends to join “Team Siabod” in the
challenge. On the morning all six turned
up to help OVMRO achieve their fund raising target and to help them to help
others!
We were one of 19
teams from across the country entering the event.
The Route
The route took in
the following mountains:
- Yr Elen 962m
- Carnedd Llewelyn 1064m
- Carnedd Dafydd 1044m
- Pen yr Ole Wen 978m
- Y Garn 947m
- Glyder Fawr 1001m
- Glyder Fach 994m
- Tryfan 917m.
Our performance/times
We were on the
first mountain at 8.30am, Carnedd Llewelyn at 9am and Carnedd Dafydd at 9.30am
where we had a short break to eat and drink.
While it was a great day weather wise for walking it was cold on the
Carneddau as it normally is and I put on my shell, cap and a pair of gloves. We were on Pen yr Ole Wen at 10am and then it
was a steady descent to the Ogwen Valley below and along by the lake side to
Idwal Cottage which was a feeding stop with food and a selection of welcomed
drinks. Here you could also fill up your
water bottles. We were in 5th
place and the team in 4th place, not that far ahead of us.
Next was the
ascent of Y Garn which is a very demanding ask and I got there at 12.47pm! This took me 1hr 12mins to get to the
top. My best time here is 1hr 6mins so I
was pleased with my performance considering I had done four large mountains
earlier in the day. A team member was
struggling with blisters and cramp so while the rest of the team waited his
arrival I pushed on with my next target of Glyder Fawr firmly fixed in my
mind. As I was reaching the top I could
see four of the team coming behind me (one had taken the escape route down
Devil’s Kitchen which was so wise) and it was good for us to reach the top at
2pm. It was then an almost level walk
with a bit of scrambling onto the top of Glyder Fach at 2.35pm. It was then down the Miners Track to Bwlch
Tryfan which for me proved difficult and seemed a lot longer with tiring
legs. The scramble to the top of Tryfan
was enjoyable and here we all got to the top at 4pm as the 4th place
team commenced their decent.
Going down again
proved hard as we had once again to descend to Bwlch Tryfan and then it was a
bit of debate as to which path we should take but after discussion it was seen
to be “Heather Terrace”. Having done
this demanding route (never again I hope!) in error we surrendered our opportunity
of catching the team in front of us and permitted the team behind us, who
rightly descended via Cwm Tryfan, to cross the finishing line ten minutes
before us.
At 5.24pm we
crossed the finishing line in 6th position in 10hrs 24mins. This was a challenging event but ever so
enjoyable with excellent team spirit. We
had kept together as a team for most of the day. The winning team came in with a fantastic
time of 7hrs 48mins.
Thank You
Organisation of
the event can only be described as excellent and a massive thank you to all the
helpers that were involved in making this a very special day for all the teams
who took part.
Alas we could not
wait to take part in the party afterwards and as we were driving we left after
enjoying a plate of fish, chips and mushy peas from the catering van and alas having
to leave behind all the beer that had also been laid on!
Talk was that we
would participate again next year with two teams of four.
Further Information
Photographs of the
event can be seen on www.flickr.com and
see links on www.ogwen-rescue.org.uk/oggie_8/
13th
August 2013
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