Tryfan climbing

Peak/Crag: Tryfan (East Face)
Routes: North Buttress (VD:led p.2,4), Terrace Wall Variant (VD:led p.2)
A cloud inversion looked like a possibility this morning. It is always worth gambling in these circumstances, and I know from past experience that the East Face of Tryfan is the most perfect place in these conditions, so Vic and I headed up from a drizzly and dank Ogwen at 9am. Thick mist as we trudged up towards the Heather Terrace where a slight lightening in the cloud gave us hope. Then, just as we got to the start of Grooved Arete, we popped through the cloud. Stunning views, some of the best I have experienced in over 30 years of Snowdonian activity. Teams were already on Grooved Arete, so we went for North Buttress, which was one of the first climbs I did: 1989 perhaps. The first pitch goes up a tricky groove, then I led the second, which gives very pleasant climbing up a delicate rib to a groove. It is all typical Tryfan climbing - easy and relaxed, all the time above a spectacular blanket of cloud. Sadly, the route then becomes broken and a long grassy section leads up to the Terrace Wall. It was windy here - quite cold too. So we settled for Terrace Wall Variant, which is quite hard to find. I have a vague feeling that I have done this before, and I think we struggled with the route-finding then too. It goes up a slabby crack to a ledge, then a steep wall. Vic led this pitch, then I led the traverse right in a fine position, to the Grove of Bollards (the spikes at the top of Belle Vue Bastion - a route I did a few years ago). Then a steeper little groove to the top. All this time, the cloud inversion had boiled away below, gradually dissipating from a thick bank of cloud enveloping the whole of Ogwen to tendrils of mist peeling away from Bwlch Caseg Fraith. We took the skirting path to the top of Tryfan for a sunny but cold and windy lunch. Then it was down the West Face for a long and circuitous route back in glorious late autumn sunshine: all the peaks crystal clear.

Upton border league

Race: Chester 'Spring' 5m (Border League race 2)
Time/Position: 31.14 (86th from 441)
The unwelcome milestones continue to fall. This was my slowest five mile race in 20 years of running, and my worst league position since around 2006. My flight from West Africa landed in Manchester at midnight, and I thought that if I woke in time I would do this - which takes the Spring 5 course on a route I know very well indeed. In fact, I calculate I have done it over 100 times as it was my regular lunchtime run when I worked at Kingsway. As a race, I have also done it many times but have never found it particularly quick, especially when it gets a bit muddy: but I didn't expect to be quite this slow, despite the circumstances and relaxed approach. No speedwork all year, the flight, and the continuing after effects of the 50 miler are my only excuses: feeble, given that everybody else had raced yesterday and Friday!

Gambia run

Not an obvious place to run, but I actually saw somebody jogging along the road towards the airport as the sun came up first thing this morning. After breakfast, I took a bush taxi through Yundum to Abuko and then spent a very pleasant few hours birding - covering the entire reserve. I then decided to jog back along the main road, past multiple little shops and all the hustle and bustle of West African life. Next day, it was into Senegal: through Kafountine and down the Casamance river to the very remote animist island of Kailo.