An alpine (really early) start and a north facing cliff were the only two pre-requisites to making the most of the heatwave in North Wales. Thanks to it's advantageous position, it's very quick to get into the hills from The Cottage, so without too much trouble, we could be up and out before most people are thinking about searching for one of the limited car parking spots in the Ogwen Valley. Even before 7am, it was so hot at Ogwen Cottage, that I opted to walk up to Glyder Fach main cliff in nothing but by pants and sun hat! Luckily, at that time there was no one around to shock.
The Direct Route was the last route that Clare and I climbed together before 'getting together', so it holds a special significance to us. For some reason, we first climbed it in February, which seems a strange choice, knowing what we do now and (somewhat unsurprisingly), it was freezing! Today, even though it was still in the shade, it couldn't have been hotter.
Ahead of any other aspiring parties, we had the mountain to ourselves and enjoyed swinging the leads as we made upward progress; the view getting better and better.
The final pitch has a reputation for being a bit harder that the grade might suggest - and it is! There is plenty of protection, but the climbing is definitely harder than you'd expect for the grade. I arrived at the top of 'the crack' (which is brilliant by the way), sweating hard and blinded by the sun. I moved quickly to belay in the shade and had to strip off my helmet and shirt before I could contemplate pulling up the ropes for Clare to follow.
It's pretty straight forward to scramble down East Gully and across the top of alphabet slabs and back to the bags, for those people (like us), who didn't have the time or inclination to bag the summit of Glyder Fach. Instead of the peak, our eyes were on the little lake of Llyn Bochllwyd, below us. From our vantage point at the cliff top, we eyed out the best looking dive in zone and once the bags were recovered, made a bee line for it.
The water was so warm, we barley cooled down while floating around in the water. Still, with was enough to give us a bit of a reset before continuing down to the van. Having made someone's day, by vacating a coveted parking space, we returned to The Cottage for lunch, some shade and in Clare's case, some work. By evening, we were ready to move on....
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