Ogwen: Trip Report 2023

Og- oh it's so wet!

We departed swiftly from Northgate in a record time of 6:18 after a lot of last minute kit requests for waterproof trousers (thank you Livia)!After a long drive to Ogwen we arrived at the MAM hut to be greeted by Tom and Rosie, plans were made for the day ahead with one keen scrambling group and another group with the plan for sport.

With the idea of sport in mind our resident gear sec Peter Gill decided to set up a sport anchor on the beam in the kitchen. Keen volunteer Tash was the first and last to be apart of the practice set up after Pete forgot to belay her so Max attempts a body belay while she was already hanging from the beam. After a successful anchor clean, Alex (another gear sec) decided he wanted to look at the emergency shelters for the scrambling group. Next thing we know Jess was emptying the window segments into the bin! it turns out the emergency shelters were worst for ware but after taping up the windows the shelters were ready to go!
Just as we decided to go to bed and relax Arron, our mountain sec, decided to do another Scotland talk to the Freshers, keeping mountaineering alive, shortly before he went into bed and hit his head off a large beam.

Saturday

Scrambling group:
A bright and early start for the scrambling group as they wore every waterproof possible as part of the kit share scheme. They left to do the west gully of Tryfan, a grade 1 scramble, which was surprisingly dry! The group reached Adam and Eve at 11:20 and took a beautiful photo while the wind and rain was now felt at the top.

From Adam and Eve the group continued to the far south summit where they witnessed snow! On the way back down Max took us through some bog walking- classic from his Ten Tors days, and then onto a river crossing which was slippy to say the least and Elfie got a little wet, our resident media sec Alegria took over 300 photos of this day (it's safe to say she is now a keen scrambler)!

After arriving at the Ogwen visitor center café the group were relieved to find they were still serving hot drinks! Finlay was the most relieved as his hands were starting to get cold- Livia was happy to offer him some of the kit share coats!
But that was not all for the scrambling trip: they then decided to do the idwal squeeze: Tash led the way shortly followed by Arron, Zoe and James, Sarah made the squeeze look interesting and to say she is covered in bruising now is an understatement. Fun was had by all as we took the walk back to the cottage to hear about everybody's days.

Sport (or not so sporty)
The sport group awoke, adamant to not be like the wayfarers, they chose not to do scrambling! Expecting a lie in as they didn't need to start until 12 but that wasn't for long, as another change in the weather forecast led the group to decide that sport was probably not the best idea! Confirmed later by Dan Batchford and James Wisher who made a brief stop to say hello.

The group decided to conquer little Tryfan after a 2 hour game of Irish snap. Jess described the rock was so wet that when she placed a nut on Zig Zag a stream of water appeared. The freshers enjoyed a few climbs too, Jo described the climbs as beings holds full of water but loved being out on the protected rock. After getting dry and making the most of the drying room the group also went to do the Idwal Squeeze where a beautiful photo was taken of Alex Scott as he was 'reborn'.

After many helpings of pasta for most people, Tom Green (MAM member) gave us an amazing talk on knowing our limits, the zones of (arousal - not what you think) and performance. The stoats then went to bed, ready for tomorrows plan.

Sunday

An early start at 7 meant the groups got to leave swiftly after cleaning the hut, one group taking on sport and another taking on trad!
The sport group drove to castle inn quarry in the hope of some good weather where they found a crag cat , while the trad group drove towards Wrexham to World's End crag in the hope of less driving and a sunny day.

The trad group approached the crag after some ford jumping to a nice bit of dry rock where lots of leads took place Sarah repeating routes at times they were so good, Arron and Zoe led some hard routes with lots of layback which was loved by the fresh. Alegria also had a fun time working on her trad leads!

To finish the day Zoe and Arron set a top rope on a top 50 E2 which the fresh and committee loved attempting. On our way back to the cars, Livia decided to fall down the water stream in her white cargo trousers!!

After a wonderful day both groups returned to Birmingham via McDonalds.
Hope you all had a lovely time <3

~Tash