We set off early, just after 6am.  Tryfan was all that I had imagined and more.  The cool morning air hid the blistering heat that was coming.  I loaded more water and Lucozade into our packs.  It was an audacious plan – carry all the kit we would need for the night up the North Ridge, across Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr and then find a spot off the beaten track to make our home for the night.  That was the plan, although I wasn’t sure we could carry it off.  I was prepared to switch target if the situation required.

As we approached our start point I stopped to talk to a climber who had been up Tryfan several times.  I gathered as much information as I could and said we would be going slow so he would likely catch us up.

Up we went.  It was amazing from the outset.

My pack was quite heavy but not too much of a burden.  I guess it weighed around 25-28kg by the time I had removed most non-critical items.  I had taken only one sleeping bag to save space.  It was going to be a snug fit for us both!

We were quickly caught by the climber we met earlier.  His companionship and experience was a great help and gave us an increased level of security on the ridge.  When we parted company a couple of hours later I felt there had been some sort of divine intervention in our meeting.

I’m not sure exactly how to describe the North Ridge.  ‘Fun’ is probably the word that springs most readily to mind.   The climbing was hard at times but always exhilarating.  The views were immense.

After about three hours we reached the summit.  We posed for a photo.  I wanted to make the jump between ‘Adam and Eve’ but it did look a little hairy and I couldn’t risk an unnecessary injury.

Heading down over giant boulder fields left me feeling dwarfed by the landscape.  We were in the full heat of the sun and it was thirsty work.  I began to wonder if our 3-4 litres of water would be enough.

As luck would have it (or maybe it was a second example of divine intervention) I stumbled across a bottle of water.  It was almost a whole litre and although it was in the full sun it was still cool.  I poured a bit onto the palm of my hand and tasted it with my tongue.  It was water!  We gulped down this unexpected windfall.

The next part of our adventure involved clambering up a sizable scree slope to the left of Bristly Ridge.  The sun was unrelenting but we pushed on up.  It think it’s fair to say the heat and the conditions underfoot were energy sapping but every step took us deeper into the range and the thrill never waned.

On we went reaching the summit of Glyder Fach and then Glyder Fawr.  It felt like we were heading into Mordor.  Any sporadic cloud cover was a welcome relief.

Over the back of Glyder Fawr and tucked out of the way we found a spot to camp.

Taking the roll mat into the porch of the tent, Arthur fell asleep almost immediately.  We had been hiking and climbing for over 10 hours.  Waking after about 45 minutes he sprung back into life, “are my beans ready yet Daddy.”

I had been keeping up a an almost continuous water boiling operation and had probably boiled around 2-3 litres of water.  By the time we stopped next to our little stream we had drunk most of our original supply but now we had plenty of clear and fresh water.

My shoulders were painful and my arms felt like they belonged to someone else.  It was time to negotiate with Arthur.  “If you massage my neck and shoulders I’ll get you fizzy and ice cream when we get out of here”, “ok, for how long?” Arthur replied, “About a hour” I joked.  I couldn’t fault his effort but his technique can only be described as ‘pinchy!’.

We enjoyed the hours that came and went.  It was warm and we had everything we needed for a pleasant night.  I tried to doze for a while but Arthur was quite awake now.  I told him to collect some pebbles and make a tower or a castle wall or something.  At first I thought my plan was working but he kept wanting to show me his creations.  “Daddy, this rock looks like an M for Mummy”, “Yes Arthur”, “Daddy, I’ve spelt Matilda using rocks”, “Yes Arthur”, and so it went on and on….A little snooze in the evening sun wasn’t going to happen!  It was a beautiful evening and we watched the sun set in our splendid isolation.  Sleeping was a bit uncomfortable because of only having a solitary sleeping bag but it wasn’t too much of an issue.  I briefly got back up a few hours later to watch the sun rise.  It got a little chilly in the night but when we awoke around 8am the sun was up the tent was about a million degrees centegrade.

We were running low on water again.  We decided to make the trip out with the small bottle we had left and boil more if we got really desperate.  We headed down via ‘Devils Kitchen’ which afforded some amazing views.  The final part was mostly flat.  We sat for a while and watched some climbers on steep walls.  I had £5 in my pocket and was looking forward to spending it.

Arriving at the ‘Ogwen Cottage’ we bought two fizzys and two ice creams for a fiver.  I was happen with that.   We slumped on the floor in the shade and chatted.  We were happy.