JCB Pro Smart Toughphone takes a Trip up Tryfan, Snowdon

Tryfan is a mountain in the Ogwen valley, Snowdonia, Wales. It forms part of the Glyderau group, and is one of the most famous and recognisable peaks in Britain, having a classic pointed shape with rugged crags. At 3,010 feet above sea level it is the fifteenth highest mountain in Wales, and this is why we thought it would be the ideal place to try out the JCB Pro Smart Toughphone.

Tryfan does not look like a serious challenge from the road, but within minutes we realized that this was to be quite a dangerous undertaking. The rock was extremely slippy, this meant slow and careful progress. All the time we were walking along the bulk of Tryfan looms above with its head in the clouds. There are some things to note if you fancy doing this walk – you will need a head for heights, be strong enough for a sustained climb, be able to scramble and climb a little, you will need to pull yourself up a couple of times and have some stamina. All in all it is not an easy route.

Most of the walk up Tryfan is spent with three points of contact, and plenty of four points of contact, one of the hardest things on the walk was deciding which was the best route up as there are several alternatives on the way. Jasons criteria was that if it looked impossibly steep, it probably was. We found ourselves up a steep rockface once or twice and had to retrace our steps to find an alternative way up. But there was no getting away from a few good scrambles.

The weather started out great but became quite grim by lunch time! The slopes down off Tryfan were steep and did require a little scramble but nothing like the ascent of the north ridge. The Noth Ridge was a stiff hard climb, I stopped frequently to catch my breath whilst Jason just powered up??.  At the top there are some amazing landmarks, like the Canter lever stone, adam and eve, the canon and the spiney rock that reminded us of a sci fi movie scene!!. .  well worth the walk to the top

The trip down was a little scary at times, both of us ended up a little bashed and bruised, but in all we had a great adventure... a proper lads advenuture... oh yeah we even took a few pics and a bit of video of the JCB Pro Smart Toughphone!!