At a smidge over 914m (3,000ft), Tryfan may only be the 15th highest mountain in Wales but it's à a peak that has achieved cult status. Aside from its associations with legendary climbers George Mallory and Edmund Hillary, much of the attraction lies in the fact that you can't simply walk up it. Once you get near the top, you're going to have to scramble.
With a summit that can be seen from the A5 as it wiggles through Eryri (Snowdonia), many a day-tripper has been tempted into underestimating Tryfan. But even experienced walkers can come a-cropper here, so I decide to go up with local mountain enthusiast Hero Douglas. I am in good hands. A native Welsh speaker and professional harpist, Hero combines studying for a PhD with mountain guiding and membership of the Sefydliad Achub Mynydd Dyffryn Ogwen (Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation).
Weather forecast duly checked, we choose the most popular route up, starting at the National Trust ranger base at Ogwen Cottage. It's far easier to climb Tryfan in summer when there's no danger of snow.
Our hike begins gently enough, crossing over a footbridge in the warm sunshine, before following a wellmaintained stone path.
"It's a great adrenaline rush," Hero says when I ask her why she likes to climb mountains. "They're where I go to think, to reconnect with some primal need within me. And I've always really enjoyed that sense of pushing myself physically to go up, and then the glorious air at the top and the view."
Having grown up in the nearby village of Capel Curig, Tryfan (pronounced TRUH-van) is an old friend. However, she treats the mountain with a good deal of respect. "The most common call-outs are for people getting lost or twisting their ankle. But in two-and-a-half years on the mountain rescue team, I've also been called out to seven fatalities, five of them in the Tryfan area."
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