Returning to Crib Goch after a bad experience
I’ve had people book a Crib Goch day with me because they’ve already been there and it went badly. They still want to do it, but the previous visit has made the prospect rather more complicated. That’s a different starting point from somebody who’s watched a few dramatic videos and isn’t sure what to expect.
If that’s you, I’d like to hear what happened before we make a plan. It matters whether you were caught in awful weather, ended up on the wrong line or felt pushed along faster than you wanted to go. It also matters if the exposure itself left you unable to move. You don’t need to tidy the story up or make yourself sound more capable. I’m trying to understand what another visit would involve for you.
I know Crib Goch can become a bit of an enemy in someone’s head. People spend years working up to it, including capable mountain walkers who’ve done plenty elsewhere. Having a difficult experience there can make that worse, particularly if you came away thinking you were the problem.
It’s worth looking at the whole day rather than deciding that on the strength of the worst ten minutes. The route you took and the conditions you found are part of the story. So is the support you had. We can talk about those things without promising that a guide will automatically make you comfortable with the exposure.
Sometimes I’ll suggest a different scramble first. We can spend time on movement and see how you feel with some space around you, without beginning with a long, committing ridge. A private day can give us more flexibility, though an open group may be perfectly suitable depending on your experience and how you’re feeling now.
If we do go back to Crib Goch, I’m watching how you get on during the approach and the lower scrambling. There’s time to get used to moving together, and I can explain the early climbing before we reach it. I want you to tell me if something’s becoming difficult while we still have a sensible opportunity to do something about it.
That last point matters. Once you’re committed to the ridge, going back or getting down isn’t necessarily straightforward. We need to make a realistic decision beforehand, rather than head up on the assumption that we can simply stop whenever we fancy.
You don’t have to turn the return into a test of whether you’ve become braver. Tell me what you’d like to do and what’s worrying you, and we can work out whether Crib Goch is the right next day or whether there’s something better to do first.
