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Friday 10th October 2003
An introduction
Every year, some friends and colleagues from work participate in the Roding's Rally - an overnight orienteering exercise in Epping Forest, Essex, England. I first entered this event in 2002 and fell in love with it immediately.
Teams of about four people are given a start time. You pick up your set of clues for ten checkpoints from the start point at the given time and sit down to try and solve them. You then mark the correct grid reference on your map, walk to the nearest landmark, set your compass and thrash your way through the bushes on that bearing to try and find an unlit, dark tent in the pitch black with only the light of your torch to help you. Once found, you get your bit of card signed and move onto the next clue.
You have a total of eight hours to finish the course of about 12 miles. In 2002, the team I was on got the best time for teams finding seven checkpoints.
Start Time: | 10:04pm |
End Time: | 5:06am |
Time Taken: | 7.02 |
Each year, about a month before the Rally, we go on a training weekend. Last year it was walking 40 miles over two days in the Lake District. This year, it was three days walking and climbing in Snowdonia.
As always, it was rather tough...
This account of events has been written in the fifth person tense that I invented when writing up the Canada 2003 trip. Even though I, Dan, was on the trip, I refer to myself by my name. But, when the occasion calls for it, I refer to us as 'we' as if it were being written by another person. I like it and think it works - hopefully you do too!
Getting there
Jon and Dan left Fleet at around 3:30pm Thursday afternoon and, after travelling for four and a half hours, arrived at Dolgam campsite, which was advertised as three miles outside of Betws-y-Coed (Author's Note: This was the longest three miles I have ever driven). We put up the tent in the dark with the wind gusting and the rain raining. The tent had looked rather misshapen on one side, but had sorted itself out by the morning.
We cooked our pasta and ate it in the subdued, but comforting, light of the gas lamp. We had discovered earlier that there were no lights in the toilets and showers, so decided to leave the washing up until morning. We sat in the tent talking and drinking Stella until it was time to sleep.
The following morning
We got up at about 7:30am with the wind stopped, the rain gone and the cloud disappearing - it looked like it was going to be a nice day. The showers were OK and, by 8:00am, Dan was boiling the kettle for a cup of well needed tea.
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The view from the campsite
Before this trip, Dan had been reading "Mountaincraft and Leadership" by Eric Langmuir (ISBN 1850602956). More specifically, he had been reading the section on nutrition when hill walking, which details the types of food to eat that give you energy and how the body processes those foods to fuel your muscles and keep you going.
Dan's breakfast consisted of the following:
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Muesli (9 tablespoons) | 500 | 500 |
Banana | 148 | 648 |
Cereal Bar | 133 | 781 |
Setting off
Shortly before we were ready, Mike, Jacqui, Simon, Andy and Caitie the dog arrived, fresh from their £35 per night B&B. Our campsite was costing us £3 per night. We drove to the car park near Pen-y-benglog and put our backpacks on, ready for the walk ahead.
This was our route for the day:
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Our route for the day
The walk up the first part of the route, whilst going up, wasn't too hard. Nevertheless, we stopped for a short breather above the tarn, to take a couple of photos and so Dan could take on some more calories.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 781 |
High energy cereal bar | 196 | 977 |
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Looking down on the tarn we walked by
We walked on, coming to the Devil's Kitchen. This was, according to the route guide that Simon had printed out, the hardest part of the walk. Jon and Dan pressed on ahead, climbing up and up the large steps. We got to the top and waited for the others to arrive. Caitie was next up, followed shortly by Mike.
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Caitie reaching the top of the Devil's Kitchen
We took a few photos and Dan ate some more food ready for the next bit of walk.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 977 |
Mars Bar | 190 | 1167 |
The Glyders
The next bit of the walk was up a scree slope towards Glyder Fawr. The start of the path was well defined, although pretty steep. As it flattened out, the path was marked with cairns (well, piles of rocks people have placed there to mark the path). Towards the top of Glyder Fawr (999 metres), the temperature dropping significantly and Dan was forced to put his woolly hat on whilst Mike put his trousers on - he had been ambitiously wearing shorts before.
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Near the top of Glyder Fawr
At the top and out of the cold wind, we stopped for some lunch.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 1167 |
Cheese, ham and pickle sandwich | 430 | 1597 |
Banana | 148 | 1745 |
Lucozade Sport Drink | 140 | 1885 |
Whilst eating lunch, the clouds cleared briefly so we could see the Snowdon Horse Shoe, with the famous Crib Goch looking ominously steep.
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The Snowdon Horseshoe with Crib Goch in the middle
After lunch, we walked along the ridge towards Glyder Fach (994 metres) where we climbed up the pile of rocks to the summit. Dan ate some more food.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 1885 |
Crunchy | 180 | 2065 |
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Dan playing with his camera (photo courtesy of Jon)
Tryfan
We climbed back down, walked past the summit and down the other side a little way before stopping and looking over at Tryfan, the next summit we were going to bag. Apparently, Tryfan is the only mountain in Snowdonia you cannot climb without using your hands. Whilst pondering the route to take and taking some photos, Dan ate a little bit more.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 2065 |
High Energy Cereal Bar | 196 | 2261 |
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The view from Glyder Fach
The map showed a path down the scree slope, so we headed back towards the summit of Glyder Fach with Mike in the lead. At a seemingly sensible point we started to descend. It was an interesting route, with much sliding - especially for Jon who sat down for most of it! The slope looked about 45 degrees. Once at the bottom, we sat behind a wall sheltering from the cold wind which was rushing up the valley. Dan took some photos, but didn't eat anything - he was already flying from the amount of energy he had consumed!
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Showing the route we took down the scree slope
We soon started off again as it was all too easy to get cold. After failing to follow the correct path, we eventually made it to an outcrop near the summit of Tryfan. Caitie had cut one of her paws on the sharp rocks but, as there are very few nerves in the paws apparently, was in no discomfort and probably didn't know. We sat near the edge of the drop, taking in the view of the Snowdon Horseshoe.
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Tryfan
When the rest of the party arrived, Mike, Dan and Caitie went to bag the summit of Tryfan. Caitie had to be briefly left tied to a rock as the climb was a little adventurous for her.
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Dan at the summit of Tryfan (photo courtesy of Jon)
At the summit of Tryfan, there are two tall rocks. You are supposed to climb up onto one and then jump across to the other. Did we do it? In a word, no! The near sheer drop off one side was enough to put most people off.
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A couple of birds on the summit of Tryfan
Back to the car
We all headed back down Tryfan for the last leg of the walk back to the cars. Near the bottom, we stopped and Dan got his last sandwich out.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 2261 |
Cheese, ham and pickle sandwich | 430 | 2691 |
Dan and Jon headed off ahead of the others. After taking a slightly different route, we ended up on the right path. (Author's Note: OK, so I got the wrong path on the map and was heading off in slightly the wrong direction - it could happen to anyone!)
"Look!" pointed Dan. "There's the others."
"I seriously doubt that," replied Jon.
"Hmmmm, I don't know," said Dan.
"It isn't them!" insisted Jon.
Dan quickened the pace nevertheless.
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A couple of tarns near Tryfan
We reached the cars about 15 minutes ahead of the others. Whilst reading the nutrition section in the Mountaineering and Leadership book, Dan had discovered that the best time to refuel your body was within two hours of finishing walking, so he ate some more food.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 2691 |
Banana | 148 | 2839 |
Apple | 52 | 2891 |
Lucozade Sports Drink | 140 | 3031 |
A shower, a meal and some beer
Once the rest had arrived back, they headed off to have a luxurious bath or shower in their B&B whilst Jon and Dan headed back to the campsite for a shower in the semi-dark. But, it was warm and that was the main thing.
About an hour later, we all met up in Betws-y-Coed for a meal where Dan continued to go for the many calories option.
Dan's Calorie Intake Total For The Day | ||
| kCal | Running Total |
Bought Forward | - | 3031 |
Lamb Shank plus sauce | 520 | 3551 |
Baked Potato with butter | 311 | 3862 |
Apple Pie | 300 | 4162 |
Custard | 170 | 4332 |
1 Pint Beer | 180 | 4512 |
After the meal, Jon and Dan headed back to the campsite and had a bottle of Stella each before retiring to their sleeping bags to get as much sleep as possible for the next day, which was promising to be challenging - the Snowdon Horseshoe.
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