[Leica] Memories of Snowdonia (a longish post)

[photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)]

Thanks Larry. With my daughter now in Cardiff, I have very much come to 
appreciate all things Welsh and plan to explore the entire country during 
the next few years.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/

YNWA









On Dec 17, 2013, at 7:22 PM, lrzeitlin at aol.com wrote:

> North Wales has the most accessibly dramatic views of any place in which I 
> have lived. Sure, the Rockies have higher mountains, India has better 
> color, and Maine has better seashores. But from my home in Menai Bridge, 
> just across the Menai Strait from Bangor, a half hours drive could take 
> you to the Snowdonia mountains, medieval castles, bucolic fields, thousand 
> year old cathedrals and quaint shopping centers.
> 
>> From my diary of 25 years ago. I'll send a few pictures shortly.
> 
> "Neighbors tell us this winter has been very unWelsh-like. I've mowed
> the grass three times and Maggie's 50 daffodil plants are flowering
> nicely. Why in one period we even had eight uninterrupted days of
> sunshine. People vacation in this part of Wales for two reasons, water
> sports and hill hiking. Even in the sun it is still too chilly for
> windsurfing so Maggie suggested we settle on a hill hike. Actually we
> decided on a gentle stroll and, naive about the nature of the Welsh
> mountains, drove the 10 miles to the Ogwen Valley, our nearest entry
> point to the Snowdonia park.
> 
> Llyn Ogwen is a glacial lake that sits in a valley carved out by the
> retreating ice. The only settlement near by is Idwal Cottage, a hamlet
> so small it isn't even on the map. In fact all it consists of is a YMCA
> hostel, a snack bar, and a mountain rescue center complete with
> ambulance, helicopter, and all terrain vehicles. That should have given
> us our first clue. We learned only too late that the main reason people
> come here is to take some of Wales' most difficult and demanding, but
> magnificently scenic walks.
> 
> We followed a gentle path that promised an easy ramble around a
> classically formed glacial bowl named Cwm Idwal. Joining us were
> families with children skipping along next to their parents, old men
> walking dogs, and young marrieds with babies perched on their
> backpacks. This should be a piece of cake. At the center of Cwm Idwal
> there was a small lake. Which way to go? By this time most of the
> family folk had disappeared. A couple of hikers walked purposefully by
> us. "Follow them" suggested Maggie. "They seem to know the way." That
> was the second mistake of the day. The path grew narrower, then became
> just a series of rocks that had to be stepped on precisely to avoid the
> muddy plots between them. The upward slope turned into a rocky
> staircase. Far ahead we could see climbers on the rockface of the cwm
> looking like little gecko lizards working their way up a vertical wall.
> In about half an hour of hard breathing we were up to their base camp.
> 
> Extending straight up from the camp was a sheer rock wall about 1000
> feet high, locally called the Idwal Slab. At the base a bevy of
> climbers were laying out rope, checking equipment and organizing all of
> the esoterica necessary for flouting the laws of gravity. A couple of
> young men came over to us armed with a video camera and asked if we
> would mind being interviewed. They were from the Snowdonia Tourist
> Board and were gathering material to promote the joys of climbing in
> the Welsh Alps. I guess they decided if geezers such as we could make
> it this far then anyone could. Modest Maggie declined but I am to be
> immortalized on their Web site. Where does the trail go from here? The
> cameramen pointed up the rockface but then took pity on us and
> suggested a more gradually sloping route to the top. Ahead was the
> jointed cleft of Twill Du which splits the peak into two points. In
> Welsh this means Devil's Kitchen.
> 
> The gradually sloping route turned into a series of rock scrambles that
> took us above the snow line. The spring weather was melting the snow
> which soaked the rocks and ran into the channel between the twin peaks.
> We found ourselves fording shallow streams of melt water. These
> eventually combined into a narrow but very high waterfall breaking the
> trail into two parts. The gap was too far to jump although there is a
> local tradition that says jumping the gap brings good luck. That must
> be the case since missing the jump certainly brings bad luck. Maggie
> suggested that we work our way uphill until we found a better spot and
> I certainly agreed. After a series of wet, slippery stumbling attempts
> we crossed the gap a few hundred yards upstream then found our way back
> to the minimal trail.
> 
> A steep climb later we stood below the peak. As promised, the view was
> magnificent. Perhaps not as impressive as Edmund Hillary's from Mt.
> Everest, but far greener. The evidence of glacial activity is so clear
> that you wonder why it took geologists so long to work out the
> mechanism that created these hollowed hill faces and scoured rocks. For
> years people thought the Welsh mountains were the remains of extinct
> volcano cones. Even Charles Darwin was fooled. When geologists finally
> did figure out that ice, not fire, carved out the mountains, they gave
> the layers of rock Welsh names. The pre-Cambrian and Cambrian epochs
> were named after Cambria, the ancient name for Wales. Both the
> Ordovician and the Silurian epochs were named after Welsh tribes, the
> Ordovices and the Silures. Llyn Idwal, a long way below, reflected the
> gray cliffs but ripples in the water suggested that a wind was rising
> and it might be prudent to descend.
> 
> The downhill trek was physically harder than the uphill part. Maggie
> claims it easier to climb than descend and the strain on the joints is
> a lot less. I certainly agree. We nodded to other hikers coming up the
> path secure in the knowledge that we had completed, albeit
> inadvertently, one of the more demanding passages in Snowdonia. By the
> time we reached the car we decided it was time for a cuppa tea. We are
> acculturating fast."
> 
> Larry Z
> 
> 
> 
> 
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