FOUR Chulmleigh Community College pupils recently completed their three-day Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition in Snowdonia.

Toby Langrill, Silas Rowe, Will Stredwick and Tim Western, all in Year 11, accompanied by leaders James Britton and Natalie Price, spent four nights wild camping in the Snowdonia National Park, beginning their expedition in Capel Curig.

Day one involved walking through the Ogwen Valley and around Llyn Idwal for the first night’s camp, which proved to be eventful! The weather conditions weren’t kind, with such high winds (60mph+), that two leaders’ tents took a battering and broke, and the boys had to move their tent to a more sheltered position in the middle of the night!

On day two, the planned route took in Glyder Fawr, via Devil’s Staircase, and then on to Glyder Fach for a photo on the famous Cantilever Rock, before heading along the Miner’s Track to Cwm Ffynnon for another night wild camping, which was, happily, less eventful!

On day three the boys set off from camp to summit Snowdon along the Pyg Track.

Again, the weather wasn’t kind; the ascent was very windy with almost zero visibility, with the boys being on hands and knees in order to safely reach the summit.

The final section of the expedition was on to Llanberis via Llanberis Path, finishing at Pete’s Eats, a café renowned for their portion size, and huge plates of food were certainly needed by all!

Chulmleigh DofE Leader James Britton said: “The boys showed true resilience in successfully completing their Silver DofE Expedition in such challenging weather conditions.

“They had to constantly risk assess their route and make minor changes for safety reasons and were in great spirits throughout, well done to all”.

The boys also went to Hotel Pen-y-Gwyrd to see where Hillary and Tenzing stayed when training for the first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, and had fun recreating the classic photograph!

Alan Quick