Climbing in Snowdonia - May 2019

On the 11th of May 2019, eighteen bleary-eyed students turned up at School to set off on a three hour car journey to Snowdonia. After one and a half hours and plenty of coffee, the atmosphere in the mini-bus finally picked up. When we reached the Arete Centre, we split into two groups and after donning our uncomfortable climbing shoes, spent the rest of the day climbing. After meeting up with the other group at the slate walls, we then returned back to the centre together.



That evening, we all fought over the last slices of pizza and hot water in the showers. Our first day was a really good time for the group to bond, and having someone belay you down a steep, high rock face is a great way to learn to trust one another and work together as a team.



The next morning, after preparing for the day, we had the option to either go sea climbing or climb Holyhead Mountain, which had a series of walls with varying difficulty. The group was mainly in favour of climbing on the sea cliffs, although the terrifying possibility of abseiling down to the bottom of the walls put some people off – henceforth meaning that there were no arguments or resentment about choosing which place to climb due to differing interests.



At the Sea Cliffs, we split into two groups, one going with Matt to one set of walls while the other going with Conrad to another. Mr Tamplin joined the group which went with Matt and seemed nearly as eager to climb as we students. After setting up four routes on the side of the cliff face, and waving to some friendly kayakers, we were ready to climb. Everyone climbed all four routes, some of us even taking part in a competition to see who could climb the quickest – seemingly won by Callum… yet we all suspect he cheated!



After lunch, the two Sea Cliff groups swapped locations – Mr Tamplin's group found that Conrad had been very busy setting up a course which traversed around the head of the cliff. After everyone had made it round once Matt set up two further walls; one coming off the course that Conrad had set up and the other nearby on which you had to abseil down to the start and then climb back up again. After having a wonderful time in the sea air, we made our way back to the mini-bus where we discovered that the other group over at Holyhead Mountain had been sitting in Starbucks for forty minutes. After stalling twice, Mr Tamplin drove and met up with them and we then set off back to School.



Much to our dismay, the first two service stations which we stopped at had no-where to eat; luckily on our third attempt we found a McDonalds, which everyone was pleased about.

The mood on the way back to School was much more docile and sleepy, with everyone worn out and tired from climbing for the past two days. Finally, we reached School and wearily made our way home, ready to collapse after a fun weekend away.

- Fenella S (Hazeldene)