@ab2 That story on the JMT gave me a new favorite quote Lionel Terrey who referred to mountaineers as “Conquistadors of the Useless.”

Morning all!

Some questions seem a bit basic to me: outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/15735/… . Maybe I should post a question on how to put a snack (e.g. an apple) on a rock so that it doesn't roll off?

@anderas morning

Actually that question is basic, but for a newbie it may not be obvious.

Maybe, but IIRC, when my helmet rolled off a rock the first time, my reaction was more like "maybe I should have put it with the curved side up", and not "hmm, let me search outdoors.SE for a better way" ;-)

Monring all

@Liam monring

I saw Snowdon this weekend. It had snow on it and was looking very tempting in the sun... but I was in Pwllheli at the rock festival so there was no way to fit in a hike/climb

Definitely plan to return though

@RoryAlsop yeah, we we're bothying in the berwyns. I did think of you as we we're enjoying the sunshine. Picked the right weekend I think!

Beautiful weather! I came back with a tan! You've done Snowdon, haven't you? Safe enough to take my teenagers up the easy route?

@RoryAlsop Like I said, defo do Tryfan as your first peak. One of my favs. I never tire of it

@RoryAlsop Oh yeah, very easy

@RoryAlsop the main path is no harder than the path up Ben Nevis (the easy way)

There's the PYG track and the miners path and a couple of other easy routes

There's also Crib coch which is Grade I scrambling.

Grand - it is beautiful down there. I hadn't realised.

(I'd only visited south and west Wales before)

You need a head for heights on that one a bit as it's a proper ridge but easy enough

Saw some pics of crib goch from the weekend on one of the Facebook climbing pages. Scary for those of us with a fear of heights...

@RoryAlsop yeah that's the worst bit, if your not so sure of heights

Tryfan is good scrambling but not as exposed

though it has a nasty record of people coming undone on it. Mostly inexperienced people trying to retreat

I've taken loads of inexperienced people up it though!

@Charlie Brumbaugh If you want to know what Lionel Terray meant without actually thinking about it, see newyorkessays.com/essay-the-conquistadors-of-the-useless. Possibly they will also climb for you.

@anderas I agree with this, and your other comment. Sadly, I think your question about the snack on the rock would get high votes, lots of views, and at least 10 answers! You should post it and see! With all due respect to the people that are working hard to keep the question/answer rate up, I think we, myself included of course, are treading a fine line where quality's concerned.

@Aravona I thought you meant you wish boarding horses had been a sport, until I saw the rest of your comment. I looked this up and it seems to be only going on in the UK. It looks really fun! Do you think people here would like to hear about it? If so, you should ask something. Yay for being able to teach your niece how to ride-how old is she? I bet you're a great teacher, and she'll have a fun time learning from you.

@Liam We have tons of sparrows too, although I've begun to learn that some of the birds I thought were sparrows are actually females of totally different birds. For instance, here comes a male red-winged blackbird:

This is the female:

This is a song sparrow:

See how similar they are! Fascinating, isn't it? One of the many reasons I love birds. There's so much to learn that isn't what we think it was.