Intermittent showers, sunny intervals and a chance of Hail
On Saturday with the weather not looking great and blowing strong westerly gusts we decided on Nor Nor Groove as somewhere East facing to hide in but still have a good day. We had two cars and ended up parking either side of Tryfan with a rendezvous at Little T.
With both groups together we then headed up towards the Heather Terrace and our objective. At the entrance of the gully we met some lovely people from Solihull Mountaineering Club – we hope they found the rest of their group and were able to enjoy their own objectives for the day.
Sam and Adam led the way as designated rope carriers (rope goes first!) making our way up the side of gully. Although mostly drizzly and damp the sun did indeed make an appearance giving us some views across the valley. We had a bit of a play on a short belay over the slippery quartz slab (isn’t it always disappointing hauling gear up and down unused!). Just below the top out of the gulley (and the weather keeping its promise with hail) we also met our other lovely new friends from the London Mountaineering Club who had stopped for a bite.
We then followed the North Ridge to the summit, where the sun again made some brief appearances before disappearing back into the mist which Tony captured in some great shots. Following a spot of tiffin we then headed back down splitting up to reach our respective cars and meeting up back at Bethesda to grab bits for our group meal.
Sunny Sunday
The group decided to head to Castle Inn Quarry on the way home and the weather couldn’t be more different! In glorious sunshine we played on Fine View Wall and got a few routes in before heading homewards. I loved finishing on Happy Return – a little 2 star 4c which has trad style belay at the top (between Fine View Wall and Main Face).
