Page 28 - 2021 AMA Summer

MISCARTICLE
DOOR-TO-DOOR
WELSH 3000S
TRAVERSE
25HRS, 57KM, 4500M
OF ASCENT
Tarquin Shipley WMCI
The Welsh Government said everyone had to exercise starting from their front door - there was to be no driving a short distance. I remembered someone telling me that a right of passage for a member of the London Mountain- eering Club was to complete the Welsh 3000s from their hut in Nant Peris within 24hrs. I had not done the fifteen peaks of the Welsh 3000s in a single push and this seemed like the right sort of challenge. Looking at the forecast there looked to be a window of opportunity with light winds and dry conditions. I had to accept that a lot of the route would be done in the dark being November but with modern head torches this would just add to the sense of adventure.
Like all these types of plans, I had to do something to make it a fait accompli. So I started telling a few people that I was
going to do it on Thursday so I couldn’t can’t just roll over in bed on the day. But it was Rusty Bale (RAFMA) who also lives in Bethesda who said he was up for it as well. We had a brief discussion on messenger about the best route and then the die was cast.
I don’t intend to cover the old ground of what the rules of a Welsh 3000s traverse are as you can pretty much make them up and Google has many suggestions and tips for a successful traverse. Bethesda folk don’t count Carnedd Gwenllian as one as it has only been recently named and was always just a pile of stones that is a blip on the ridge. Part of the adventure for us was not to over plan - just step out of the front door and come back when the job was done. Obviously we had the minor inconvenience of walking to the first peak and coming home from the last
Heading towards Pen yr Ole Wen
a task usually aided by the use of a car. Cafes were shut and the National Park was pretty empty so there was going to be no food bought on the way and no caches used. We would be self-contained and take as long as we would take.
I left home at 0330hrs and met Rusty a few minutes later at his house. We would complete the Carneddau first and then head towards the Glyderau next. Summiting Foel-fras (942m) as the sun rose, we turned South and started to get an inkling that this was going to be fantastic day with a lovely temperature inversion. We dropped into a deserted Ogwen from the seventh peak of Pen yr Ole Wen (978m) feeling quite good. Normally on a traverse you would complete the five peaks of the Glyderau by going from Tryfan (917m) to Elidir Fawr (923m) keeping your height. However, as
Fog bowl
Looking back to Carnedd Dafydd
28 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER