Meet Report: Plas-y Brenin, Snowdonia, 27th - 29th February 2004

Meet at Maesnant centre, on the slopes of Pumlumon, 1-3 October 2004

This "compact" bunkhouse really was in the middle of nowhere, on the shores of Nant y Moch reservoir, 360m up Pumlumon, and some distance from the electricity supply (there were gas lights and heaters. Luckily the earliest to arrive, Henny and Clare, managed to turn everything on. When I say on the shores of the reservoir, the whole place was surrounded by inches of water and the track leading back to the bunkhouse from Saturday's hike up Pumlumon was more like a river. Drying everything out placed heavy demands on the gas heating - Sarah says the gas bill for the weekend was £40!!!

In view of the general dampness of the weekend, most of us got off lightly with the weather - only a couple of sleet showers battering the sides of our faces as we struggled up to the main summit on Saturday, but the sun came out in the afternoon and we could see the impressive wilderness which stretched as far as the eye could see (apart from two massive wind farms). Certain people, including me, were determined to get round all the 2000ft tops but others retreated as the day went on. But Sarah, Clare and Hazel were enjoying themselves so much that after Pumlumon they went on up another hill on the other side of the valley while I headed for an afternoon nap.

Saturday evening was the highlight of the weekend as most people stayed in the bunkhouse to display an impressive variety of gourmet cooking, with Wayne's chicken in stilton sauce with steamed vegetables and summer fruit pudding with amaretto biscuits the piece de resistance.

On Sunday I think just about everyone went up Pen y Garn near Devil's Bridge in a succession of parties, and got quite damp again. Tom, Rob and Mim went on a longer and more interesting route, which involved (to quote Tom) "being chased off a farm track at by a GOML (geroff mi land) with a Tom Jones hair cut". This area must have felt amazingly remote before the construction of the wind farms - the forest round Pen y Garn is huge and you could walk for days while only crossing a couple of roads - well worth the visit.

Sandy