Yr Ysgol

 

The Ladder: a means of gaining height above ground in practical terms, and in my years with BT, I made many and frequent ascents of just that device; although latterly, less so, as age and waning enthusiasm for the practice made their presence felt.

The Ladder: a symbolic item embedded in many cultures, usually representing ascent to a higher plane of existence or a descent into the ancestral underworld.

The Ladder: in Julius Caesar, Shakespeare references the ladder as analogous to ambition and hubris:

        'Tis a common proof,

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;

But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend.

The Ladder: symbolic of attainment and advancement. In Welsh, the word for ladder is the same as the word for school: Ysgol. Forming a defensive ring around the small town of Bethesda, North Wales are the Carneddau, a range of 3000ft peaks, and splitting the back wall formed by them on the side facing Bethesda is a gulley known as Ysgolion Duon; The Black Ladders. Normally a long summer climb at moderate levels of difficulty; very occasionally and in rare and optimal circumstances, The Ladders reveal a much-coveted route amongst ice-climbers.

 

One winter that yielded such optimum conditions occurred in the mid 1980's, after weeks of freeze/thaw were followed by a cold, bright spell, revealing the icefall to be in perfect condition. At the time, I was working in the building trade for some friends of mine, and we happened to be working on a drainage project for some fellow climbers, one of whom was a talented hard climber, who especially relished the ice.

 

The whisper was circulating that Ysgolion Duon were shaping up well, and we fell into conversation with the lad over lunch one day we were working at the house. He said that he and his mate planned to climb the icefall in a few days time. I still remember his throwaway comment over tea and sandwiches: '...I really love ice-climbing; it's so-oo dangerous...' A few days later, he and his mate's bodies were airlifted from the base of The Ladders, after being avalanched off the top of the ridge on the walkout;  having successfully and safely climbed the route itself.

 

I think the analogies speak for themselves.