After the most positive and inspiring weekend at Yestival 2016, Viv Day and her husband drove back to Chester and wondered how they could get involved more with the Yes Tribe. So much seemed to be happening around the London area - not exactly convenient for them in their own bit of North West England. Viv put out a message on the Yes Tribe facebook group to see if there were any other yes tribers near to her. It turns out that there were!
The North West and North Wales YesTribe met in a pub near to the train station in Chester just before Christmas and 10 people came, full of happiness and positivity and nerves ... it was a brilliant evening that passed too quickly but they shared stories about who they were and what they wanted to do and Viv devised a little questionnaire to try to help guide their adventures.
Viv is a member of Chester Mountaineering Club. The club has a hut in Llanberis, on the slopes of Mount Snowdon, in North Wales. Viv rented it out for the weekend and 12 of the Tribe descended on it with walking boots, warm hats and excitement. On Friday night they got the fire going and chatted. On Saturday they pulled on their warm stuff and headed up Snowdon.
The cloud was low and the path was getting icy so they diverted off into the freshly fallen snow (don't panic - there were proper qualified mountain leaders in the group!) and tramped their way accross to a small lake, throwing snowballs at each other and for our collie dog along the way.
After lunch in the shelter of the emergency bivvy, they headed down, out of the clouds and snow and headed back towards the hut, via some info on local geology and flora and fauna, to the biggest amount of cake for 12 people ever!
Saturday evening they cooked a communal meal which came up to the grand total of £3.40 each, including dessert, and then listened to a talk by Aaron Bailey about his new love for adventures and how he ended up cycling to Istanbul.
Sunday was a chilled day where they completely ran out of time as they all wanted to share so much stuff! However, Sarah Williams, from Tough Girl Challenges, did a wonderful workshop on blogging. Aaron and Jason then did practical workshops, including the use of knives, on making small stoves out of beer cans and baked bean cans!
The Tribe's plan is to alternate weekend meets with day meets on a monthly basis. The next meet is a day meet on Saturday 18th February where they will be taking bikes to cycle around the trails in Delamere Forest and go and eat and chat lots at the station cafe then in the evening some of the Tribe will be heading to Stockport for the Banff Adventure Film Festival!
To join the North West and North Wales YesTribe or find out more information, please visit their Facebook page.