UKC

I'm planning to visit The Land That Time Forgot for the first time in over a decade. I'll be taking my three offspring and they are hoping to see their first dragon.

I've heard that the tea shack is now gone and their is a new motorway around Lyn Idwal. Am I in for any other nasty surprises? Parking meters on the A5? A handrail up Tryfan? Help me prepare for the shock of the new...

Shiny new visitors centre, paved paths all over the place, via ferrata up the middle of the east face, pay and display machines in the car park in Llanberis!  It's all change!

One of these may be a lie.

As part of a BMC-supported effort to get people to climb faster, in the hope that this may translate into more people doing faster times in the Olympic speed climbing and hence more government money for the BMC, a leopard now lives at the foot of the Idwal slabs.  It's been trained to give people ten seconds to get further up the slabs than it can easily jump.

T.

You didn't need a belayer did you?

It's well trained.  It only starts drooling when someone puts a foot on the rock, you're perfectly safe standing chatting at the bottom.  Just don't touch the rock unless you're ready to get going...

T.

... May I ask... What made you choose 'Pursued by a bear' for a name?

Auto belays have been installed on Idwal slabs. Trad climbing has been banned within the National Park. Gender specific terms are also outlawed. 

An appropriate question given the previous posts!

It's a stage direction from 'The Winter's Tale'; exeunt, pursued by a bear.  As a nom de web, it seemed fitting at the time I chose it for reasons I cannot now recall.  My given name is Tony and so far as I'm aware, I never have been chased by a bear though I did once receive a meaningful* look from an elk. 

T.

* as I was posting the 'now leaving' slip at a campsite in Yellowstone one September, an elk wandered out of the bushes and stood not ten feet away from me.  As it was the rutting season this male elk was all antlers and attitude and its eyes and mine (I'm 6' 4") were at much the same level.  It looked me in the eye and I returned its look and though I won't pretend I have the slightest insight into the mental processes of an elk,  it was obvious that what it was thinking was 'Can I shag it?  Can I eat it?  Will it eat me?' and, once it had answered no to those questions, it just trotted off.  I still remember that look, and those antlers.

If you want to park anywhere near to Tryfan or Ogwen it's advisable to arrive by 4:30 am* or you will find all the parking spaces have gone.

* 2:30 am on a weekend or Bank Holiday

PS This may be a bit of an exaggeration but you do need to arrive early if you want to get a parking space

Its still a beautiful place to go and there is still plenty of free roadside parking if you are early enough.  All in all I wouldn't have said the character of the place has changed in the 40+ years I've been visiting the place.  Its still dominated by the skyline and the brooding clouds.

Thanks for a sensible answer to a not very sensible question. Some of my best climbing memories are there.

I was taken on a school trip to see A Winter's Tale in Stratford, with Ian McKellen as Leontes.

Pearls before swine, completely wasted on a bunch of 14 year old boys including me. I hope our English teacher at least got something out of it.

That's what the Elk saw too.

What the elk should have seen was someone thinking, '**** me, those antlers are huge'.  Only in retrospect did I think how lucky I was to have seen something like that at such a close distance.  

T.

And best forgotten if you're planning to go over the Easter weekend.............

Especially with yr.no currently forecasting rain for Wales and sun for Skye

Wouldnt be at all surprised, but compass is set south.

Might even take in the Grit if Wales is wet.

If you are set on Wales then Gower and Pembroke are often dry when it's raining inland.  Sandy beaches and climbing options.  Tremadog tends to be much drier than snowdonia proper too.

I was  both surprised and pleased to see that the cafe in the new visitor centre still sells the currant slices that I remember fondly from the old cafe in the early 80s

If, like me, you haven't been to Snowdonia for a couple of decades, you will be absolutey shocked at the numbers of cars parked on both sides of the roads leading away from the PyG hotel, on hard areas created for parking. When I cycled through there must have been a hundred cars or more, on a dull early summer day. Presumably most of those people were on the horseshoe.

I've only been going to that area for a few years but find it very much peaceful and parking is never a problem even at weekends.

Maybe it's just me getting lucky but it always seems a far cry from the busy Llanberis valley to me.

Owned by the same family for the past million years, and they currently (intended) sell currant slices. Not being alive in any of the 80s, I can't inform you as to their similairty however.

A good answer and just when I thought I'd spotted a pattern emerging...

In the style of its origin, let us hope the trip to Ogwen does not prompt a call of, 'I am ashamed. Does not the stone rebuke me' as some of those popular routes are becoming a little polished... 

That's an excellent quote, well chosen and so very appropriate!

T.