We also spent a day hiking up Snowdon - we took the Pyg Trail up and the Miners Trail down - in hindsight this was a mistake and next time I'd go up Miners and down Pyg - Miners is a far gentler pathway up and Pyg is apparently the hardest. The strangest thing of all was that my hands began to swell up on the ascent and didn't finally return to normal until late in the day well after we'd got back to town. A quick Google search tells me just what I'd suspected - the warm weather combined with walking and swinging my arms while wearing a heavy back pack all combined to stop the blood flow from my hands travelling back to my heart. Added to which I was drinking plenty of water which would have diluted the electrolytes in my blood.
Science!
The best bit of the holiday was without doubt the climbing of Flying Buttress which is a Very Difficult (or VDiff) route on the Dinas Cromlech crag in the Llanberis Pass. It was my first outdoor climb of the year and P's first ever outdoor climb and his first multi-pitch too. The sun was shining, the air was warm and the climb was wonderfully easy, apart from the final pitch with the nasty polished chimney which resulted in me making rather a lot of odd noises and swearing quite a bit too. The worst bit of the entire day was the walk/scramble up to the crag and back again. I hate scrambling. I know you're supposed to stay upright and walk but I always seem to end up sliding down on my backside and moving very, very slowly. Just stick a rope on me and let me abseil down!
Anyway, back now and onto more mundane things - exams to mark and poetry to submit, read, write and review.
I promise to write a long review of a wonderful poem written by Maria McCarthy (Medway Maria) which is long overdue.
I also promise to write about the poetry collections I've been reading and buying lately.
Later.
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