A running friend, Mark Simpson, as well as being a great trail runner is also a swim-runner and wanted to complete the Puddle Buckley, which is the swim-run version of the Paddy Buckley. This is a 65km trail run taking in the majority of the Welsh 3000s plus swims across four lakes.
A swimmer I am not, but as a support runner I could run the route and, at each lake crossing, run around the lake carrying Mark’s running kit whilst he was swimming. This sounded like a great day out in the hills!
When completing a round you are free to choose any start point and run the route either clockwise or anticlockwise. Mark studied the route and decided it was missing a few summits that feature on the Paddy Buckley round and, never one to take the easy option, adjusted the route such that we could bag those too (five extras). We decided to start at Capel Curig and run the route anticlockwise meaning that we would get the difficult climbs done in the first half.
Leg 1 – Capel Curig to Llyn Ogwen
Up at 4am to cook some porridge for a 5am start. The weather forecast for the day was not looking good, with heavy rain starting at 8am that was set to continue the whole day.
Leaving the barn, we were welcomed with mainly blue skies and had a lovely run up the first summit, Pen Llithrig y Wrach (799m), one of Mark’s extras, during which we were rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise.
From the first summit we had great views over to the next, Pen Yr Helgi Du (833m), along the Bwlch y Tri Marchog ridge.
After clearing the next summit, the cloud started coming in and we heard a few unwelcome rumbles of thunder – not what you want on a day out in the mountains (or swimming across lakes)! The following summits of Carnedd Llewelyn (1,064m), Carnedd Dafydd (1,044m), Carnedd Fach (960m) and Pen yr Ole Wen (978m) were all familiar territory from the Welsh 3000s and last year’s OMM. It did start raining though and was cold enough to warrant pulling out the hat and gloves. No more views on this leg, just head down and keep moving.
We took the steep descent south off Pen yr Ole Wen to Llyn Ogwen, where Mark handed me his running kit and set off to swim across the lake. I walked around to meet him at the other side and could easily see him making progress across the lake.
The swim had left Mark a bit cold, so straight back on with his running kit to start leg 2…
Leg 2 – Llyn Ogwen to Llanberis
It didn’t take long to warm up on the stiff climb up Tryfan (918m), one of my favourite mountains in Snowdonia. It is a slow climb though, taking the best part of an hour. It was still cloudy on the top but it was no longer raining and there were some signs that it might start to clear. Coming off the top of Tryfan is always hard work, with too much clambering over rocks to make any speedy progress. Before long we were at the wall on the col and starting the next climb up Glyder Fach (994 m). This is mainly up a scree slope that’s very steep but once you reach the top it’s a relatively flat section bagging the remaining Glyders, Castell y Gwynt (972m) & Glyder Fawr (1,001m). The scenery up here is quite other-worldly, feeling like something out of Tolkien – it would be no surprise to stumble across a sleeping dragon.
A few more summits, Y Garn (947m), Foel-goch (831m), Elidir Fawr (924m) & Elidir Fach (721m) before the descent to Llanberis through the remains of the old slate mine.
Just before the shore of Llyn Padarn we stopped at a café for pies and coke. Mark then swam across the lake and I ran around to meet him at the other side. At this point I realised that having Mark’s route on my watch wasn’t brilliant as I’d assumed it would be easy to find my way around but ended up running up an old railway that was a cul-de-sac. Running is a lot faster than swimming though, so I made it to the other side before Mark had completed the swim.
Leg 3 – Llanberis to Llyn Gwynant
The next leg looked easy with just six summits, although one of them was Snowdon so still plenty of elevation. The weather had improved greatly during leg 2 and we were now back to blue skies and sun but we were both low on water. We didn’t much want to spend money buying bottled water and so, running through the town, were on the lookout for a tap. We didn’t spot one but did come across a runner who was waiting outside his mate’s house, so it was easy to ask a fellow runner if we could top up our bottles.
The climb up Moel Eilio (726m) was a nice grassy slope and then over Foel Gron (629m) and Moel Cynghorion (674m) without too much loss of elevation. From here it initially looked like we were going to contour round to the Snowdon Mountain railway but in fact we dropped right back down to 400m before starting the climb up Snowdon (1,085m) bagging Clogwyn Llechwedd-Llo (600 m) and Bwlch Glâs (998m) on the way.
A very brief stop at the top to dodge the crowds and touch the summit cairn before starting the descent down to Llyn Gwynant. At this stage our ETA at the finish was after 11pm but we were hopeful a few miles of downhill would pull that in so we’d be able to finish with a pint.
Mark’s swim across Llyn Gwynant was another where I’d wished I planned ahead as there was no lakeside path and I needed to head a fair way up the river at the end before finding a bridge to cross. Mark managed to complete the swim before I’d made it round to the exit point.
Leg 4 – Llyn Gwynant to Capel Curig
The final leg looked easy on paper with just three summits and not too much dropping down between them. The day’s climbing was taking its toll though, and progress wasn’t as quick as it should have been. We managed the three summits, Carnedd y Cribau (591m), Clogwyn Bwlch-y-maen (548m) and Moel Siabod (872m) before dark, rewarded with a fantastic sunset on the last climb.
It looked like it was in the bag now, with just an easy descent to the lake, a final swim, and another mile on the flat before we’d be back at the start.
As darkness fell, we stopped to get out our headtorches and almost immediately realised we’d gone off the route, continuing down a path that we shouldn’t be on. There was no sign of a path to follow so we struck out on a bearing to make it down to the lake. The going got tough though will some difficult rocky and heathery bits that we had to slide down.
On reaching the lake side there was no sign of Mark. After a bit of shouting in the dark we located each other. He’d descended to a cliff at the side of the lake but we managed to find a beach that he could swim from. The only problem now was that it was pitch dark with no visible references for Mark to swim to, so I needed to get around the lake to give him something to sight on. There were no paths and a rather grotty forest, so once again it would have been a benefit to have planned my route beforehand. Mark was understandably quite worried about swimming across a lake with no visibility, so I got a move on to make it round as quickly as I could and fortunately managed to find a forestry track that brought me out at a bridge that got me to the other side.
After locating the exit point I sat on a rock and put my headtorch into flash mode to give Mark something obvious to look for but realised fairly quickly that it was signalling … — … , which really wasn’t ideal as I didn’t need rescuing, so I just switched it back to regular always-on mode and looked out at the red dot that was Mark’s headtorch underneath his swimcap. The moon was out so it was yet another beautiful view.
Before long Mark had made it across the lake but was very cold so we got moving as quickly as possible for the final bit of run along the road to Capel Curig, where we finished just after midnight, with an elapsed time of 19:03:09. The route, for me, ended up being 72.7km with 5600m of elevation, so a tiny bit less if you were swimming the lakes.
All-in-all a fantastic adventure. Looking forward to more of the same on the Frog Graham next year!
