Mountaineering club trip to North Wales

A group of intrepid year 9s got their first taste of mountaineering last weekend in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales. After a long trip up on Friday evening and a brief night’s rest, Alex Jones, Blaise Quinton, Aryaman Jhunjhunwala, Danial Surti, Eugene Tsang, Dylan Shah and Albert Wright set off for the Ogwen valley led by Drs Hobbs & Gannarelli.

All demonstrated good skills and a willingness to learn immediately on the way up to Llyn Idwal and, with the weather holding, the challenge was increased as we picked our way over to and up into the Nameless Cwm. Unfortunately, a snow filled gully prevented us ascending further to the ridge, as planned, and so we continued round under Y Gribin to Cwm Bochlywd before returning to our minibus and the hostel.

After an evening acquiring a different set of skills (darts and pool!), we departed on Sunday morning to tackle Moel Siabod (872 m). Reaching the cloudless but very windy summit before midday we were treated to some glorious views across the National Park. A swift descent followed in the hope of avoiding the approaching rain but to no avail! Despite the soaking, nothing could detract from what had been a successful and inspiring weekend in the mountains.