Preston Mountaineering Club

Newsletter extracts

Deiniolen Meet- September 29/30th 2001

by Keith Rollins

Deiniolen - 'where?' you might ask - and so did I.

Well it's a small and rather unattractive village just north of Llanberis, which seems to be home to a disproportionately high number of mountaineering huts.

The Lincoln Mountaineering Club's hut is in the middle of a field and takes some finding in the dark, but is surprisingly comfortable and well appointed, following fairly recent renovations.
Saturday dawned cloudy with more than a hint of rain in the air, giving rise to a large amount of indecision.

The first to make up their minds were Mike, Grant, Rick, Paul and Dave, they were off to sunny Tremadog. Is it really always fine at Tremadog? Or is that just what we're told by those that go there? Three routes were climbed - between visits to Eric's café: Christmas Curry with the Micah Finish (HS), Grim Wall (VS) and The Brothers (VS).

The weather gave Dave Hewitt the perfect excuse to take his new all singing all dancing, full suspension, hydraulic braking, self-steering mountain bike for its maiden outing. OK, so it doesn't self-steer - but it does just about everything else! He spent the day on and off road round Llanberis testing the efficiency of the bike's brakes.

Gordon, Laura and myself set off to climb Snowdon from the Snowdon Ranger hostel while the rest were bound for the Pass.

The Snowdon Ranger path isn't the most exciting way to climb Snowdon, but it provides an easy route to the top (eventually!) when the weather isn't at it's best.

Two (or was it three?) long hours found us among the train passengers at the summit. I was just commenting to Laura about the strange characters you see at the top of Snowdon when Ian, Liz and Will appeared through the mist. They had decided against climbing on the damp crags of the pass and opted for Snowdon via Crib Goch instead.

After a quick visit to the cairn and a few minutes for Gordon to give the train the once over, we set off down the Llanberis track. A few minutes from the summit and who should we run into? - Gary, Pete and Steve who had also forsaken the crags in favour of a walk.

About half way down, there was a treat in store for Gordon - the railway's steam loco was being given an outing. It's amazing what lengths the dedicated meet leader will go to in ensuring an enjoyable meet.

Mick and Sheena, who were camping in Nant Peris, enjoyed a good day on Dinas Cromlech, finding the rock surprisingly dry. They climbed Flying Buttress (VDiff) and, rather impressively, Left Wall (E2).
Saturday night was spent in consuming copious amounts of alcohol in the hut. The remote location rules out a trip to the pub. The weather got steadily worse overnight, with the wind and rain getting stronger. The night's sleep was punctuated by a window shutter crashing back and forth in the wind - everyone in the dorm complained about it in the morning, but in typical bloke fashion, none of us could actually be bothered to get out of our pits to close it!

Sunday morning brought low black clouds and horizontal rain, which for most meant a lie in and a leisurely breakfast before making our way home. The Tremadog five did, however, pay a brief visit to Idwall Slabs where they registered a first sub-aqua ascent of The Ordinary Route (Diff), apparently the oxygen tank gets in the way a bit but the flippers are great for smearing.

Thanks to all who attended and the LMC for use of their very comfortable hut.