So we're early in the route. We're just underneath
Dolmen Buttress, and we're gonna... there's Bryn... gonna head out along that gangway.
And this is the some of the best scrambling on the route really. That gangway is fairly
straightforward but just round the corner, and then into into the crux corner,
where the only real climbing is. But wow, look at that, what a shot!
So yeah this is the crux corner which is the closest it gets to any sort of climbing climbing,
and I guess if you, uh, if you're new to all this, this is where rope's really handy. So,
for either Bryn or I, if we were looking after a less experienced second, we'd pitch this,
put a rope on, build a belay and bring them up.
Bryn and I are both happy on this sort of a ground so we've chosen not to put a rope on.
This is a good one. Yeah. Yeah.
Haha. Good skills, nice one buddy!
Balance of the bag is different. Yeah, tis isn't it yeah. Bloody, if it wasn't hard enough.
The weight of the paraglider makes a, just a bit of a difference.
They're not super-heavy, are they, but it's just, it's not just the weight. is it. It's the bulk,
it's the bulk, yeah. It definitely sends your centre of gravity out back a bit more.
Heading up there next.
That's the Gribin Ridge that runs down there. That's a nice grade one.
There's Y Garn. There's uh Llyn Bochlwyd just down there Penerolwen and then Tryfan.
It's a little bit hazy, as you can see. Really light wind, so
we're hoping it will give us the flight we're looking for. Take-off off the south side.
Um yeah, we'll see. It's still marginal because we need the, we need the wind to be in the right
direction and it could swing around to an easterly which wouldn't work for us. But
hey-ho, they're nice and light so it doesn't matter if we end up carrying them back down again.
I always sing when I'm scrambling so I have to be careful as soon as I press record.
I've got this mic on and to stop the singing. It's really not what you want to listen to.
So I've been, uh, looking at the weather forecast for the last...
well, I look at the weather forecast every day for the next few days ahead,
and today's looking like it's been on the forecast for a while as a day where it might work for some,
for some flying. So I'm looking for, um really light winds, so less than 10 miles an hour,
on the summit, which is pretty rare, so we need a high pressure system really for that to happen.
Um, and then there's a few different apps that I use. So the Met Office is really good, with their
surface pressure charts, just for seeing when the next high pressure is coming through. And then
Windy is another really good app. The Flybubble paragliding weather forecast is really useful.
And then the Met Office mountain forecast as well. You just can't have too much information So you,
I tend to use it all. And then today it was saying southerly winds, eight to ten mile an hour,
so that's okay. And then I'm planning my route around those southerly winds. So, normally if I'm
coming up Dolmen Ridge I would come up from the north side, and then go back down the north side.
Today I've planned the route all around the flight off,
so that I can come up on that southern side and fly off that southern side, and see if it works.
Just see Snowden and the Snowden horseshoe now for first time, absolutely beautiful.
So here we are, our takeoff point.
And it's looking good!
Wind seems to be just about there. So it's really light,
which is nice because it gives us a nice smooth flight.
And it's coming onto the hill, which is good, should make launching all right. So happy days.