Page 6 - 2001 AMA Summer

AMAWelshWinter-Indefatigable[Feb 2001]By Leanne Callaghan
From my home amongst the rain-soaked palm trees
of the Devonshire coast I must have changed my mind twenty times about what gear to pack for Welsh Winter. I had never seen a Welsh winter and it felt like a
lifetime since I had seen any kind of winter at all after Plymouth’s record breaking 100 days of rain. Despite my pessimism rumours had reached Devon that Snowdonia was plastered in snow so I reluctantly packed my winter kit and arrived for last orders in Llanfair PG. There was of course no white stuff at all but the weather forecast was awesome; cold, clear and sunny withnot a
breath of wind.
I bumped into Paul Edwards at breakfast
and he was exploding * * * Howeff on -Scavenger HVS 5a, Gogarth.
with enthusiasm, trying
desperately to persuade everyone that there had to be some ice somewhere I burst his bubble
(sorry Paul) and pointed out the blindingly obvious sun that was out and Gogarth was beckoning. He was, however, a man on a mission and to his credit his small team managed to find a satisfy­
ing 200m iced gully above Cwm Idwal.
Rachel Thompson and Graeme Geordie' Taylor braved the consequences of excessive quantities of vin rouge from the night before. They had a fantastic day garnished by realising they had forgotten their rock boots at the foot of the first pinnacle rib on Tryfan. Rachel had a date with her namesake
"Thompson's Chimney", the final toughest pitch of the route, and climbed it in impressive style.
Ogwen proved very popular with Damien Plant climbing Tryfans grooved arate in sunshine and Jackie Spong and team also had a good day's walk in the Tryfan area.
The day’s epic stories were enriched by Andy Steven's long solo scramble over Y Gribin and the Glyders followed by a 'mind focusing’ steep descent into Cwm Tryfan.
I found the prospect of dry sunny rock at Gogarth too tempting to resist so headed for the main cliff with Andy Howell to climb the 3-star ‘Scavenger’ HVS 5a.The conditions were incredible and we down climbed for a few hundred feet to the high water mark and began the long sea-level traverse to a small ledge at the foot of a steep groove. The sea was green and calmly lapped below us and with Andy's recently aquired Cypriot suntan the whole experience felt Mediterranean, As ever on Gogarth the hardest part of the route was the enigmatic
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final pull over heather and rubble to mud belays.
Saturday evening’s committee meeting was my first one since becoming an elected member. It was an enlightening insight into the high-powered nucleus of AMA life involving harsh but necessary financial decision making, (subtext: had a good
chinwag and decided how to spend shed-loads of club dosh whilst troughing lots of custard creams and coffee.)
Sunday was just as gorgeously sunny and sadly most people drove home in the morning.
The remaining members climbed at Tremadog where there was an impressive
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