Craig yr Ysfa Amphitheatre Scramble

Sub-prime conditions in the mountains of Snowdonia today, with persistent rain for most of the morning into early afternoon. There is a scramble near the crag of Craig yr Isfa that I'd not done, next to Ampetheatre Buttress - it's a vegetated gully, that's usually damp, so I guessed that today was a good a day as any to check it out.

I got up to the col above Llyn Llugwy in forty minutes then descended down to the base of the gully. There was a stream flowing fast out of the bottom of the gully, indicating that conditions really weren't ideal, but I decided that having come this far, I'd go up and take a little look.

The rain continued to pour, but my jacket and boots were holding out nicely and I was toasty warm inside. Unsurprisingly, there was no one else about.

Down in the valley below, the river was raging! 

The wide gully entrance soon narrowed and a waterfall was flowing. The lower slabs that should have provided some easy scrambling were gushing with water and covered in slime! Despite this I was carefully able to pick a way through the worst of the ming on a rising traverse. Above this was a free falling waterfall that I had to duck underneath to gain the rock wall that would lead (I hoped) to the easier ground that led up to the summit. I slowly inched my way upwards, making sure to maintain three points of contact, should a foot slip away. 

Having climbed quite high, I could see that once this wall was climbed, the difficulties may not quite be over and a bit of green tat around a boulder marked the point at where some previous team had backed off. I was unwilling to make the last irreversible moves, in case further difficulties lay ahead. I remained perched on a foothold about 5cm wide for a few minutes considering my options. The waterfall next to me was splashing me with cold water and below was a drop of damaging-able size. Although I was so near to top, the last few moves seemed unjustifiable. From where I was, I reckoned I could still down climb. To do so though, was much more difficult and I had to use a hand hold by the waterfall, which as soon as I held onto it, sent water straight down my sleeve and I got a sudden cold soaking inside my jacket! It was no place to hang around, so carefully and quickly I extracted myself from my position. 

There were still the slippy slabs to negotiate, but with care, it didn't take long to reverse the moves I'd made in ascent.

Then an easy scramble down got me out of the gully and back to where I'd started. I had a spare fleece on my pack, so gladly changed out of my now wet thermals. 

I retraced my steps back upto the col, then rather than take the same way home, I made an ascent of Pen Helyg Du, before returning to the van, somewhat damp around the edges, but elated from my little adventure...

3 hrs, 3 minuted and 3 seconds van to van.