Chelmsford YHA Group

CYHA News

The Monthly Newsletter of Chelmsford YHA Local Group

October 2013

No Queues on the Carnedds

Llyn Idwal

Apparently August Bank Holiday Monday saw queues of 2½ hours to get onto Snowdon summit, according to the BBC. It was by far the best weather of what had been a super weekend, so I suppose it wasn’t that much of a surprise. Possibly more remarkable was the fact that none of us got caught up in it!

We got to Capel Curig on Friday night in good time for a very nice meal at the local pub to celebrate Jim’s birthday. This was just what we needed to set us up for three days of mountain climbing.

Saturday saw James and Marion bag Snowdon, whilst the rest of us headed off towards the Eastern Carnedds – some for a low level walk, and others for a spot of peak bagging in this much quieter corner of Snowdonia. Barely seeing a spot of rain or another walker all day, we bagged two of the lesser Carnedds in a splendid ridge walk with fabulous views all the way over to Snowdon. The route back involved crossing to the other side of the valley and here there was a wee boggy patch. Not huge, but enough to require some skilful negotiation – or less skilful in John’s case, as he acquired a bootfull of cold water!

Sunday, and it was Jim’s turn to lead a possey over to Snowdon – still no queues. Cress led a small group up Moel Siabod – no queues there either. Dave, Mike, Judi and I headed off to the Glyders. OK, we had to wait a bit for our turn on the cantilever, but not really what you’d call a queue. With wispy cloud blowing across the summits it was an atmospheric day, hot in the sun and chilly the second a cloud blew over. Just right for clambering over the spiky boulders on Glyder Fach. All of this activity was just what we needed to drum up the very healthy appetite we needed to do justice to Jim’s pasta carbonara.

Bank Holiday Monday definitely had the best of the weather, but it also had to get us back to Essex, so we were a bit torn about whether to bag another peak or be a bit more modest and get back home for tea. Jim led a crew out to the coast for a bit of cliff top walking and most of the rest of us decided to bag Tryfan. Dave led a group up the Heather Terrace, whilst John & Judi did the more difficult North Ridge. Tryfan was in splendid form, but its conquest did mean a rather late night getting home. I think Doug didn’t pull up on his drive until 1am.

                                     Ali


 


Doug vs the Mountain

If you’ve not heard about Doug’s previous visit to Tryfan, do ask as he’s always delighted to re-tell in glorious gory detail. It was not a meeting of minds, but the sort of head-to-head that results in reconstructive surgery.

August Bank Holiday Monday and it was time to revisit the scene of the accident. We’d picked a glorious day, but it was blistering hot. Water was a bit of an issue as we took a lot longer to climb in the heat and we were sweating buckets. Even going up the Heather Terrace there was a lot of scrambling and by the time we got to the col we were absolutely starving, but there was still a summit to bag. A hasty first lunch and we left Cress guarding our packs as we scrambled over the boulders to get to the top. Who should we find up there but John & Judi. None of us were up to leaping in between Adam and Eve (the two pillars right on the summit), but we did take turns to stand in suitably manly poses for our photographs to be taken.

It was a long walk down, but at least we’d finished the trip on a high. Doug versus the mountain and this time Doug won.

Historic Braintree

The highlight of our Wednesday evening tour of the sights of Braintree was a visit to the town hall. We were lucky to be shown into the council chamber to see a set of frescoes, painted in 1929, illustrating the history of Braintree from the Roman Army marching through, King John presenting the market charter in 1199, to the founding of Braintree Massachusetts and Braintree’s most eminent man, the naturalist John Ray. Another enlightening evening from CYHA.

Dragon’s Teeth, Breweries and Beer

Our walk around Writtle, Hylands and Chelmsford uncovered more interesting local history.  We encountered the Dragon’s Teeth which still guard Chelmsford (concrete anti-tank defences from WWII), and visited the museum in Oaklands Park for their ‘Ale and Hearty’ exhibition, where we found out about the astonishing number of pubs and breweries that Chelmsford used to have. So we just had to find a pub for a drink on the way home.

Dave P

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