The antics that take place on Snowdon in winter always amazes me. I don't know what it is, maybe the nearness of the road and the easy approach Glaslyn that tempts people on or is it Moley's Ifan Tryc's curse?
A couple of years ago, when we had a half descent winter, I climbed Great Gully on Snowdon with a mate. We got to the top with very little bother and I'm sure we must have looked like crazed medevil knights; snow and ice covered, armed to the teeth with axes, hammers ropes pitons you name it we had it! Anyway what amazed us was the number of people there just wearing trainers, light windproofs, walking sticks etc. and it was far from a perfect day, there were strong gusts of wind and it was cold and cloudy.
Anyway, we descended quickly to the col and the fingerstone, that some of you may know marks the descent back to Glaslyn. On top of the stone was perched a gawking raven! Now I'm not superstitious but.. I though-- well, just incase I'd better put my crampons back on. Sure enough lower down the path became completely covered by a wide sheet of ice and stuck halfway across, in the mist was a lad sitting on a rock embedded in it. Further more, a bit further down was his poor, hyserical girlfriend clinging to an even smaller rock! Naturally we tied them onto a rope and guided them back down to easy ground.
The moral of this little episode is of course, remember Ifans Trycs warning, be prepared and always remeber s... happens.
