North Wales Weekend Trip

by Alfred Pinsent

11-13th Oct

The trip started with the familiar 5-hour journey through the endlessly winding roads of the great welsh countryside. After a quick stop at McDonalds and Morrison’s, with the car filled to the brim with food, we finally made it to our little bunkhouse deep in the heart of Snowdonia. Despite it almost being my bedtime, Lewis and his gracious team of chefs concocted an outstanding Chilli made up of 1 part Veg and 5 parts Paprika (It was delicious!). Dinner was followed by some very competitive sock wrestling and making use of the climbing frame, that was the bunkhouse. After getting all tuckered out we all moseyed our way to bed and settled down.

Saturday we awoke, to our amazement, to relatively clear skies and after large quantities of cereal and coffee we set off for a day of climbing! The majority of the party went to Trifan which was a short 5-minute drive down the valley where there was an abundance of amazing crags just waiting to be climbed. A group consisting of Mike, Dan, Chris, Ed, Jack and James set off high in the mountain to try their luck on some difficult multi-pitches while another group of Emily, Elliot, Oliver, Cameron and myself flaked off and tried a smaller, but equally as intimidating crag. (if I don’t say so myself). We all enjoyed a blissful couple of hours of clear skies before, in true North Wales fashion, the showers set in. Fortunately for myself and our group we had all finished our climbs and were sitting happily at the café but for those at the top of the mountain it was a different story. Now I wasn’t there myself but rumour has it that Mike, enraged by the rain, bailed on his multi-pitch and Ed, in attempt to stop the hulking giant, sustained severe cuts to three of his fingers! (Rumour yet to be confirmed)
This was around the time Max decided to give his favourite boulder a kiss and a cuddle framing it as a dramatic fall. Shortly after we met with Rosie and Culley who had just finished a multi-pitch and during their descent bumped into the ill-equipped mountain rescue team who, ironically, needed rescuing. Fortunately, Rosie and Culley saved the day by lending them their ropes and disaster was averted! After a successful day everyone returned back to the bunkhouse and put their feet up. After a little relax Max reluctantly took charge of the team of chefs and produced what I believe, in my totally unbiased opinion, was the best curry ever! Unfortunately, despite all our precautions it turned out to be impossible not to burn the rice, especially in those quantities. After dinner, we hit the booze and played some games… I forget the rest.

Sunday we awoke to the blind chaos of everyone trying to tidy and pack up the mess we’d made the night before. It was all very efficient and by the time I’d finished my lengthy shower it was all clean and tidy and there was nothing left for me to do.
After finally getting everyone out the bunkhouse we set off to Sewell’s house where we discovered that he had his own private gorge in his back garden. The gorge was something out of a dream with places to cliff jump, a natural waterslide and pools perfect for a water line. Needless to say, we did all those things with all the equipment provided by the most well-equipped individual in North Wales! After all our aquatic fun, we settled in Sewell’s kitchen and leeched all the heat from the Aga and enjoyed left over party food, it was lovely. From there we packed up and began the long journey home.
Thank you for a lovely weekend! xxxx