The Jinx of the Devils Chair

Tapia Llwydion – Diff ?? on Cadair Idris

Nice night on Lebanese wine the night before made for a sluggish start on the Sunday morning. A cheeky little Sunday trip to Cadair Idris was in order. Last trip for Lord Charles had been less than spectacular, with a massive navigation error in the November murk with Lardy Charles and Sister in tow that led to a near benightment and only saved with a long haul down the main road back to the car. The brooding mountain awaited.

Lord Charles and Two axe started in the car park at 9am and set a brisk pace up the forest track into the beautiful Cwm Cae. High cloud skirted the mountain top with the faint dusting of snow on the higher reaches of the route. Tapia Llwydion is on the north side of the Cwm Cae and offers an interesting route to the top of the mountain. The guidebook noted that it was classed as Diff with most of the difficulties o the first 100 meters of the route. Summit post topo and photos downloaded to the iphone and it looked entertaining.

Pitch 1 was a slabby affair, that offered little in terms of difficulty, with most sections walkable. No runners put in . Mmmm …… it must get better. Pitch 2 was more of the slabby same with a bit of heather thrown in for good measure. Pitch 3 – long one . Mmmmm … not much more than grade one scrambling really. Pitch 4 – the crux - Oh must have missed that one then. Final bit was a bit more scrambling through heather till we reached the slight dusting of snow, and realised that we were near the top. Two axe, thought it a bit disappointing ‘I think we need to do the Cwyfry Arete next time!’

A little plod to the summit in the cloud and snow, and obligatory shot at the trig point. Great lunch of pork pie in the summit shelter before taking a bearing and heading down. ‘Its only about half a click till we turn to take the left hand fork down.’

Off we trouped passing a number of walkers before out of the mist came a oversized wooden chair ! Not sure we would have seen this on the OS map, ‘I think we have come too far’ - back bearing taken and aimed for the Cwm crag edge. Slight drop I height and came out of the cloud to see wee had headed off down one of the many arms from the Cadair summit (again). We dropped off the path directly into the Cwm, eyeing up some potential winter routes before heading back to the car park. Done and dusted in 5 hours, so a little pint was in order – short drive down the road to a the newly appointed Cross Foxes pub (http://www.crossfoxes.co.uk/) and a great little pint of Snowdonia Ale (http://www.purplemoose.co.uk/pmb_ the_beer_range_all_year.htm#Cwrw%20Eryri) before heading back to B’ham.