Big walk day and I opted to go with D and his daughter B.

We got a taxi from Nant Peris to Pen y Pass for £2 each, having just missed the park and ride bus, and took the footpath next to the YHA up to Glyder Fawr summit. D has been taking B on training walks and scrambles, she's joined the club and has been going to Alter Rock wall fairly regularly. But she struggled on this walk. D was leading, so I kept behind B for the most part, so she wasn't at the back and to keep her going. For me this was great, as I reached the summit without feeling knackered, having been forced to be slow. But for B it was a real trial!

Then the descent, down that awful scree gully, which I'd totally forgotten about until we were there. Poor B, she hated it, didn't want to do it, and every step took ages. I really felt for her, but there's no way out, you've just got to do it. She ended up doing most of that blocky, chossy, frozen gully hanging onto the back of her dad's rucksack.

I got very cold waiting for them, and in the end I said that I was going down and would see them at the bottom. I couldn't help, and I needed to drop down out of the biting wind.

The thing is, when you're scared of moving on that type of terrain, you tense up and are tentative about every movement. And that's no good, it makes things worse, you need to be positive about your foot placements... and I accept that it's difficult when you're young, new to mountains, and suffer from anxiety on a day to day basis. But... I had to walk away. There is no alternative. You have to come down that gully. You have to get off the mountain. End of.

Unfortunately the gully wasn't the end of it. We got down to Llyn y Cŵn and turned left. The original plan was to go up Y Garn and descend left to almost opposite the hut, but B wasn't up to that and so we turned left to descend sooner. 

The descent was very steep and, for B quite difficult, being very awkward and bouldery. D and I, on our own would have romped down it, had fun, but his daughter was exhausted and worried about every downward, rocky step. 

I eventually opted for leaving them to it, but I didn't want to get too far in front... supposing B slipped, or worse still D slipped, so I went a way in front and waited, within earshot, for D to wave to me before I continued. And so we all got back to the hut.

The weekend starts here.

5.38 miles
2,890 ft elevation gain 
3 hours 14 mins