We arrived Friday 29th December 10am to climb Tryfan. Stopped in at Cotswold Outdoor to see weather forecast only to be told that it will be 60mph winds all over – gusting 100mph nearer to the top and a lot of rain.

Just what we came for! We had a wet and steady climb on Tryfan and learnt a few more lessons!

Lessons Learned

KIT

Any tiny piece of kit poking out and in contact with the wind and rain will act as a funnel directing all incoming rain straight down it. E.g. If your collar is out water will be pushed straight down your neck to your chest and it will get soaked. You don’t feel it as you’re working hard and sweating but when you stop it soon goes cold. The day pack rain covers didn’t work. Our kit got soaked. Not sure if this is a regular occurrence but next time we will certainly be putting our kit into plastic liners. Wearing the correct layers in the correct order is still something we need to learn. Although we think our water proofs worked, we were still very wet. We think this was body sweat but need to work out whether our layers are pulling the sweat out away from our bodies and doing their job!

TENT

We pitched tent (Jack Wolfskin Lighthouse III) feet to wind. Alas, during the night the two poles either side of the entrance section of the tent snapped in two places due to wind pressure on the side of the tent. We felt that the ally poles flexed but gave way too soon and that carbon fibre may well have survived the ordeal. Also, poles that crossed over each other to form the structure of the tent may well have been better. We will be trying a Terra Nova (super or ultra quasar) tent next.

FOOD

Take small high energy snacks with you packed on the top of your pack in a sealable pack as shown below this protects your food when you plummet off a cliff and keeps it dry.