Yr Wyddfa

Yr Wyddfa, or Snowdon as we English insist on calling it, is the highest mountain in Cymru (Wales) and still the highest mountain even when you include England. It also has a well known ridge called Crib Goch, an arete famous for its narrowness and difficulty. Last Thursday, with just eleven finds left to reach my 3000th, I set off with the intention of making one of the three caches on Snowdon's summit (a traditional, a virtual and an Earth cache), my 3000th find.

I had identified some caches en-route to help me reach that total and there were a couple on Snowdon before the summit, although the first was well off any of the paths and the second was on top of Crib Goch (and called "Terror on the Ridge of Death!") I had a few spares on my list in case of DNFs, so I was not that worried when I had to log two such en-route. The first cache on the mountain hadn't been found for over a year and was over 20 years old, but it hadn't been DNF'd either and was a regular (ammo can), so I was hopeful of finding it and made sure I had room in my total before setting out. The cache on Crib Goch had been replaced last November by a willing cacher, with the permission of the CO, so I had some confidence in that one (apart from my ability to get to it!). With three marked on the summit I figured I'd get my 3000th there come what may, as long as I started the day with 2997 finds under my belt, and that I did.

I awoke to a frost on Good Friday morning, no wonder I had been so cold in my 'car camping'! After breakfast I drove the last couple of miles or so to Pen-y-pass only to find that all the parking was pre-booked only and full! Driving back down, all the roadside parking was full as well and it was only 7:30 am! Snowdon is too popular for its own good! I eventually found a space by pulling in at a strange angle into a space that was really too small, but I was off the road. Clearly there were going to be a lot of people up Snowdon today, so not much chance of walking naked.

I don't like road walking, so I took the path that runs up to Pen-y-Pass below the road route and that was quite quiet, but did go up and down a bit before reaching the start of the main paths at the top of the pass. I set off on the Pyg track, as its known, because the route up the end of Crib Goch branches off from that path. However, I had my resuscitation on that first cache I wanted to do, so I soon found myself wandering off the path and down (!) the side of the mountain looking for it - I must be mad! On the other hand there was soon no-one in site, so... Yes, I could get naked! The sun had come out and there was very little wind, so it made sense as I was getting quite hot already. Why are these caches always further than you think they're going to be? Perhaps it is just the difficulty of the terrain (no path) and for this cache it was rated at 4.0, but I think that was for coming up from the road, and that was beginning to look like the easier option! Thank goodness I was naked!

I located some of the hint items mentioned and realised I had come a little too low (because of having to get around a rock buttress), so then had to scramble up to where my GPSr was pointing and am happy to say I found the cache quite easily (picture below). For me this is what caching is all about and that made find number 2998 for me, 1 year and 4 months after the last finder as indicated in the nice dry log book. Now the problem was climbing back up to the path to get to the end of Crib Goch. I was still able to be naked for much of this as I was a long way below the normal path, but eventually, before tackling a particularly difficult looking gully that I figured would bring me out close to the path I decided to put my trousers on, just in case, as I couldn't imaging doing that half way up the gully! I was right; I did come into sight of the crowds at the top of that gully.

I remained topless for much of the rest of my climb up Crib Goch and for some of the walk along the top of the ridge, but it was so crowded and progress along the top so slow that the cooler, breezier, air at that elevation eventually got to me and I had slipped a t-shirt on by the time I reached my second cache of the day on this "Ridge of Death" (another picture below, even though I'm not dressed appropriately for this site). I'm glad to say the cache had been hidden in one of the places where it was safer to deviate from the top of the ridge, although a lot of folk where still passing very close by as it was one of the better ways down one of the many dips in the ridge, so I had to use stealth to avoid being seen replacing the cache especially.

The rest of my walk up to the main summit was the usual slog and I'm happy to say I had soon found the traditional cache near the summit and made it my 3000th! I then had to queue to get to the trig point on the very top, as the answer to one of the questions for the Earth cache was to be found up there. I've never had to queue for a summit before! As I said at the start, Snowdon is too popular for its own good; the famous railway wasn't even operating, and still there were all these folk about! If you look at the photo of the view I took from the top, perhaps that will explain why this Good Friday was such a popular day.

Sorry only one picture is in keeping with the TN site, but I thought the geocachers in this group might like to read about my experience and the fact that I was able to be naked for part of my adventure, even on such a popular mountain and on a sunny bank holiday at that!

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