Tryfan, Snowdonia - 5.2 miles

So, Tryfan was on my to do list for this year with my other half, Mark. We'd seen it a few times when walking the Glyders and driving past while in Snowdonia but had never ventured up it. We planned to do it while we were camping in North Wales with our good friends, Fi and Tim - Tim being a teacher, outdoor enthusiast and general awesome navigator with lots of mountain experience! It is a pretty fearsome mountain and every year several people seem to plummet to their death when taking a mis-step or heading out unprepared, which is pretty frightening when you think about it. I'm glad I didn't read too many of these reports before we headed out! Other than ticking another Welsh mountain off my list, one of my goals this year was to jump Adam and Eve, the two stone monoliths at the summit. More on that later!

The forecast for the day looked reasonable, which is always a blessing in North Wales although never guaranteed. Lo and behold, as we pulled up to the car park, it started raining heavily although this didn't last longer than half hour, which was great. We parked opposite Llyn Ogwen, There's a few car parks here or quite a few laybys you can park in. It was free, although there is a pay and display car park at Ogwen cottage just a bit further down which has toilets and some more facilities. We started climbing up the mountain path which starts from the car park and soon joined the walkers heading up from Ogwen cottage on the footpath which brings you out at lake Bochlwyd.

Lake Bochlwyd

There are several walks that branch off from here and you can walk to the Glyders, y Garn or Tryfan. We kept to the left of the lake and started climbing up some rocky terrain until we got to a wooden stile. You can choose to head right here and scramble up a steep scree slope to get to the Glyders, but we opted to turn left and head along the [indistinct] path through a load of heather for about half a mile.

Great views looking back down the way we came.

I fell over a few times - standard for me on a strenuous walk! We headed up a loose scree slope which was probably one of the hardest parts of the walk, made a bit more difficult by the dogs zooming on ahead. My calves were killing me by the time we got to the top so we stopped for a quick rest and drink and then climbed another stile and headed right up to the summit of Tryfan.

Starting the scramble to the summit

I put away my trekking pole because this last 100m was a scramble all the way. We had to boost and carry the beagles a fair bit but they did so well! Not easy to climb on these big sloping boulders. Although there were quite a few people at the top, it wasn't too busy and we stopped to have some lunch.

It was a clear day and the views were great from the top! So, Adam and Eve stood close by - two stone monoliths that people jump from and apparently are awarded with the "freedom of Tryfan," whatever that is. I'd really been wanting to do this as a goal for the year so I headed up with Alistair, Tim's son, to suss them out. They're about 3m high and 1.2m apart. It doesn't sound like a lot but they look pretty huge and didn't have many footholds to climb on. Add to this that there is a realllllllllllllllllllly steep drop the other side and the level of danger and adrenaline shoots up a bit.

Adam and Eve. I should have taken a photo of the drop the other side!

From down below, the distance between the two rocks didn't seem a big problem, I was fine with heights from climbing, the main issue seemed to be how to get ON to the rocks. Alistair is a lot taller than me so he climbed on with ease and just stepped across as if there was nothing to it. Fair play, tall people find so many things so much easier! When he came back down, we spent quite a long time discussing how to get up...I didn't feel very graceful but I thought I'd be damned if I'd come all this way and then not been able to actually achieve my goal, so I climbed on top of Adam and stood up.

Alistair getting ready to jump.

Oh, to be tall!

From up here, the drop was dizzying and sooooooooo steep and suddenly the 1.2m gap between the stones which had looked so trivial from down below seemed huge. I was being cheered on by the rest of the group and two other walkers eating lunch and I couldn't really back out now I was up here on the rock so I took a deep breath and jumped...and made it! It felt great and such an adrenaline rush! Although once I got to the other rock, I was a bit stuck and couldn't figure out how to get down because it was quite high and there weren't any easy footholds...so I enlisted the help of Mark, who had been a shit boyfriend and not taken any photos of me on top (thank god for my friend Fiona who videoed and took pics - see the jump here) but he did come through and act as a cushion for me to land on as I jumped off! Mark then climbed on, stepped over and jumped down in the space of about 1 minute - nothing fazes this boy! Still, he is 6ft tall and has nerves of steel, so I don't think this belittled my achievement at all.

Psyching up to the jump...

We headed back down the way we came which was a bit trickier on the descent due to how steep it was and because of the angle of the rocks. We carried the dogs some more and made it back down the steep scree slope. We kept on heading straight down the mountain this time and joined a path which wound back down to the road, from there we walked up along the road so we did a circular route walking around the north face of Tryfan then and arrived back at the car!

Fi & Tim have a newly acquired campervan so we had a cup of tea and a glass of wine at the bottom!

It took us about 5 hours in total and was 5.27 miles. It felt like such a big achievement as it's one of the more dangerous mountains - not that any should be underestimated - especially if you choose to ascend the North ridge or one of the more scrambly routes. Tryfan is a brilliant mountain walk but don't do it unprepared. Know your route clearly, pick the safest way, be prepared to turn back if the weather changes and always have a torch, paper map and compass! So many people have died walking Tryfan, even experienced walkers, just by taking one wrong turn and falling off the side of a cliff to their death. It happens multiple times a year. Hike this mountain and enjoy it but appreciate how dangerous it is and stay safe.