The Third Attempt: Anna’s Welsh 3000s Journey
- Jacob Richmond
- 2 days ago
- 10 min read
Journey 001 | Private Welsh 3000s
29–30 July 2026
53.8km | Approximately 4,170m ascent | 23 hours 37 minutes
At 03:33 on Thursday morning, Anna reached Foel Fras, the fifteenth and final summit of the Welsh 3000s.
She’d been moving since 06:45 the previous morning. We’d crossed Crib Goch in rain and cloud, had a much better spell across the Glyderau and Tryfan, then spent most of the night navigating the Carneddau in persistent rain and very poor visibility.
There were still several kilometres to descend before the journey was properly finished, but after six months of training and two previous attempts, Anna had finally reached all 15 summits in one continuous journey.
Why this one mattered
Anna was already an experienced and independent mountain walker. She’d completed all of the Wainwrights, was comfortable looking after herself on long mountain days and had previous experience of technical terrain, including Crib Goch and Tryfan. She carried suitable kit, managed her own food and clothing and wasn’t coming into the Welsh 3000s as somebody new to the mountains.
What she hadn’t managed was all 15 summits in one go.
Her first attempt had been with Mountain Craft in May. Conditions were difficult and the group completed the first eight summits, finishing after Tryfan. Continuing into the Carneddau wasn’t a sensible option that day.
Anna was understandably disappointed, but her message afterwards began:
“Thank you for everything yesterday and keeping us safe despite the conditions.”
She later tried the full challenge again on a separate guided attempt. Poor weather affected that day too and once again completing all 15 just wasn’t possible.
After six months of training, she wasn’t quite ready to leave it there. When she contacted me about trying again privately, she said:
“If I don’t give myself the best chance, it will end up being a big life regret for me.”
That was really the point of the third attempt. We couldn’t guarantee a completion because there are too many things on a journey of this length that nobody can control, but we could build the attempt around Anna and give her the best possible chance.
Building the day around Anna
Because I’d already guided Anna, I knew quite a lot before we started. I knew how she moved on scrambling terrain, that she could manage herself properly during a long mountain day and that she’d tell me honestly if something wasn’t right.
That meant the planning could be quite specific. We didn’t need to account for a mixed group moving at different speeds or with different levels of experience. The pace, logistics and decisions could all be built around one person.
We met in Bethesda at 06:00 and left my car near the eventual finish. From there we drove Anna’s vehicle to Ogwen, where food, fresh clothing, hot drinks and extra supplies would be waiting before the final range.
A pre-booked taxi took us from Ogwen to Pen y Pass, and we had some extra drinks and supplies waiting in Nant Peris.
None of it was especially complicated. It was just about making the day as straightforward as possible before we started. Private guiding didn’t make the Welsh 3000s shorter or easier, but it meant the support, pace and decisions could be tailored to Anna rather than a wider group.
Crib Goch in rain and cloud
We left Pen y Pass at 06:45 in dry conditions, but around halfway up Crib Goch the rain arrived and the cloud closed in. The rock became wet, visibility reduced and the wind was generally around 20 to 25mph, increasing as we crossed Garnedd Ugain and Yr Wyddfa.
It changed the feel of the opening section quite quickly, but Anna remained steady throughout. She’d crossed Crib Goch before and there wasn’t any need for constant reassurance or coaching. She knew what moving on that sort of terrain involved, so I could concentrate on route choice, conditions and keeping the pace sensible while she got on with moving.
We adjusted where necessary, avoided hanging around on the more exposed sections and kept making steady progress. The rain eventually eased as we descended towards Nant Peris and we dropped back below the cloud.
We reached the village at 11:55, stopped briefly to eat, drink and refill, then left again at around 12:15.
A completely different Glyderau
The climb from Nant Peris to Elidir Fawr is a fairly blunt restart after descending almost back to valley level, but Anna reached the summit at 13:55, an hour and forty minutes after leaving Nant Peris.
That gave me a useful indication that the pace was about right. I wasn’t trying to chase a particular schedule. The aim was to find a purposeful pace that Anna could naturally sustain and make small adjustments as the day went on.
The weather improved considerably as we crossed the Glyderau. There were periods of sunshine, the ground began to dry and at one point we had our waterproofs tied to the outside of our packs to air out. After the concentration required on Crib Goch, it gave us a chance to settle properly into the journey and make good progress.
We reached Y Garn at 15:12, Glyder Fawr at 16:22 and Glyder Fach at 16:55. We didn’t stop for an elaborate photograph on every summit. We took pictures when they added something, but neither of us wanted to keep interrupting the day just to document every top.
Descending from Glyder Fach, Tryfan stood directly ahead with the whole of the Carneddau still beyond it. It wasn’t halfway by distance or ascent, but for us it was somewhere around halfway by time, and it was probably the point where the scale of what remained became most obvious.
Resetting at Ogwen
After completing Tryfan we descended to Ogwen for the main stop of the day.
Anna had brought two camping chairs, and being able to sit properly next to the vehicle after so many hours on our feet turned out to be an excellent idea. We changed socks, ate properly and made several hot drinks. For me that included some pre-cooked pizza, which seems to have become my standard Welsh 3000s checkpoint food.
Rain was forecast for much of the night and darkness was approaching, so this was also the point to properly assess whether continuing made sense. Anna was tired but still moving strongly, eating and drinking well and communicating clearly. We had the right kit and our progress was workable, so although the night ahead was likely to be uncomfortable, continuing was still a reasonable decision.
We put the waterproofs back on and headed for Pen yr Ole Wen. We wouldn’t take them off again until Bethesda.
Into the Carneddau
The rain started again as we left Ogwen and the South Spur of Pen yr Ole Wen was wet and windy.
Before the attempt I’d looked closely at an alternative line around the steeper gully high on the spur. In the rain and fading light it proved useful, with a scree path cutting further right giving us a cleaner option than the more awkward usual line.
By halfway up Pen yr Ole Wen we were back in the cloud, where we’d remain for nearly all of the Carneddau.
Navigating through the night
Visibility was generally somewhere around 20 to 40 metres, and at times it felt considerably less. Rain and cloud reflected the headtorch beams straight back at us and occasionally switching the torch off for a few seconds actually made it easier to recognise the shape of a slope, wall or cairn.
Electronic mapping could confirm where we were, but it couldn’t make the paths appear. Navigation became continuous rather than something checked every now and then. Paths divided, faded or disappeared into wet ground, and by that stage neither of us particularly needed unnecessary extra distance or ascent.
Anna carried on managing her own food, water, clothing and equipment while I concentrated on keeping us moving cleanly through the cloud. Whenever I asked how she was doing, she gave me a straight answer, which made the decisions much easier.
After traversing back from Yr Elen, somewhere on the scree zigzags climbing Carnedd Llewelyn, Anna also spotted an old thick 50p coin among the stones. After the best part of a day in the mountains, she was apparently still paying considerably more attention to the ground than I was.
Foel Grach shelter
Earlier in the night I’d told Anna we’d have a proper stop inside the small summit shelter on Foel Grach.
By the time we reached it, a roof, a door and a bench to sit on felt like luxury. We’d both been wet for hours despite decent waterproofs, our feet were soaked and the combination of wind, rain, darkness and fatigue was starting to add up.
We spent around ten or fifteen minutes inside, ate something and gave ourselves a proper reset before heading back into the rain.
From Foel Grach we continued towards Carnedd Gwenllian and Foel Fras. Anna was clearly tired but still moving well, and by then I was increasingly confident we were going to finish.
A few days later she told me that somewhere on the way to Carnedd Gwenllian, the penultimate summit, she’d started to think the same thing.
“You wouldn’t realise but I was a bit emotional when we were coming up to the penultimate summit because although I was hopeful from the outset that we would complete, it was at that point that I knew we would.”
Foel Fras
From Carnedd Gwenllian there was one summit left.
Anna reached Foel Fras at 03:33. There wasn’t a dramatic sunrise or a view waiting for us. It was still raining, the cloud was down and we took a photograph at the summit.
But all 15 were done.
We still had a long descent to Bethesda and several hours of moving through the darkness before we could properly stop. Anna continued moving strongly and managing herself in much the same way she had throughout the previous 21 hours, and we eventually reached Bethesda at around 06:22.
The full journey from Pen y Pass had taken 23 hours and 37 minutes. Our recorded route was 53.8km with approximately 4,170 metres of ascent.
I thanked Anna for trusting me to guide the attempt.
Then, having successfully managed a taxi, two vehicles, support supplies and nearly 24 hours of mountain logistics, I realised my car key was still inside Anna’s vehicle at Ogwen.
Excellent.
Luckily Rich, one of the freelance instructors who regularly works with Mountain Craft, happened to be staying nearby in his van and had been following our progress overnight. With a bit of luck and his help it was sorted very quickly, so what could’ve been a fairly irritating end to the whole thing became little more than one final bit of Welsh 3000s nonsense.
What completing it meant
I asked Anna afterwards what finally completing the Welsh 3000s meant to her.
She said:
“It’s the longest hike I have ever done, the most technical I have ever done and some of the worst conditions I have ever walked in."
“For all these reasons and having invested so much time and effort into training, the sense of personal achievement for me was enormous."
“Although I do a lot of fell walking this walk was on a whole new level and I was only able to complete because of tenacity and determination and obviously have yourself as an experienced guide to help me in this journey."
“In terms of how I felt, a massive sense of personal achievement and just very elated to have completed.”
What was different about the third attempt?
There wasn’t one big decision that completed the Welsh 3000s for Anna. It was a lot of smaller things working together.
She arrived fit, experienced and properly prepared. We already knew each other in technical terrain, the logistics were built around her and the pace could be adjusted around one person rather than a wider group. We used the better weather across the Glyderau while it lasted, had a proper reset at Ogwen and adapted the route when the conditions made another option more sensible.
The decision to continue from Ogwen was based on how Anna was doing, our progress, the forecast, the equipment we had and the route still ahead, rather than simply how badly we wanted the completion.
Private guiding can’t guarantee a Welsh 3000s completion. What it can do is build the pace, logistics and decisions around one person and give them experienced support when the route or conditions become harder.
Anna still had to do every metre herself. The fitness, determination and six months of preparation were hers. The private attempt gave her the best possible setup to put all of that into practice.
In Anna’s words
Afterwards, Anna left Mountain Craft a Google review:
“I had attempted twice previously but mainly due to the weather hadn’t completed."
“This time though was a very different story and despite, again, some very challenging weather conditions we completed."
“Jacob is a highly knowledgeable and skilled professional and I can’t recommend him highly enough. He knows the route and the terrain like the back of his hand. This means that he knows the safest lines to take in some very technical terrain to complete the route safely.”
She also said:
“I absolutely couldn’t have done it without you.”
I’m very pleased to have played a part in it, but this was Anna’s training, Anna’s third attempt and Anna’s completed Welsh 3000s.
Supporting North West Air Ambulance
Anna completed the challenge while raising money for North West Air Ambulance.
Considering your own Welsh 3000s?
People arrive at the Welsh 3000s from very different starting points. Some are preparing for a first attempt, others are coming back after weather, injury or circumstances ended an earlier one, and not everybody wants to experience the challenge in exactly the same way.
Mountain Craft offers small-group 24-hour attempts, the Welsh 3000s across three days and private guiding where the pace, logistics and decisions can be built around an individual or private group.
A private attempt still can’t promise a completion. There are too many things on a day like this that nobody can control.
But if the Welsh 3000s matters enough that you want to give it your best possible chance, get in touch and tell me where you’re up to.