Another winter, another warm iceless, rainy time in North Wales. All is not lost however. Routes like Bryant's Gully provide a days entertainment in character building conditions.
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| Topo. Chasm running north the Pass |
Bryant's Gully is the longest scramble in Snowdonia with about 500m of near continuous scrambling. It makes a great winter climb in frozen conditions but also a rather wet outing in normal conditions. Layered up in over-trousers and waterproof jackets, gloves and stiff boots we felt well protected from a potential soaking.
Straight from the floor you are under the water pulling on a chock stone to mount the mouth of the water fall. That said we stay surprisingly dry and good mountaineering gloves ensured the hands stayed warm- these definitely the most important piece of kit today.
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 | | A required taste this type of climbing |
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 | | Pilar exiting the first tricky section |
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Further scrambling on easy ground leads to two huge recesses in the hillside. Some interesting rock geology flanks the left-hand side with towing columns. Exiting these natural cuttings is slightly bold as l find myself on sketchy wet rock. Still a steady nerve is all that is required as the climbing even in boots and gloves is straightforward. Above this is grade 1 to the top, however we get hit by storm force gales and rain as we approach the plateau.
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 | | Pilar in among the columns |
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 | | A quick check of the map - how do we exit this chasm? |
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 | | Some surprisingly challenging (sketchy) rock climbing |
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 | | Pliar on some dubious ground |
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We make a valiant effort to reach the actual summit of Glyder Fawer but poor viz and deteriorating weather mean we decide to scramble down to a lower plateau and find the path with takes us back into the Llanberis Pass in surprisingly fast time. As if it never happened.
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| Bleak weather as we descent to the Pass. |
