No wedding this weekend so yesterday Kate and I made a snap decision to get out and do some walking which we had been meaning to do for some time now but never seemed to have a spare weekend for. Given that we haven’t been out walking in a long time now it would have been sensible to start with something gentle and close to home, so I aren’t quite sure how we decided to drive to Wales and go up Snowdon but that’s what happened.
The day didn’t start off too well as I had set my alarm with the intention of leaving the house at 7am but for some reason it didn’t go off (new phone shambles) so we ended up leaving a couple of hours later than intended.
Lots of rain all the way down to Wales didn’t inspire us with much confidence for our walk and it was still bucketing it down when we got to Pen y Pas but we lucked out at the car park there which is notoriously difficult to get a space in because someone was pulling out just as we were pulling in so we grabbed the empty space.
Its been about 15 years since I was last up Snowdown and that was as the final leg of the 3 Peaks Challenge so my memories of it are a bit blurry to say the least but as we were walking up the PyG track route the one thing I did remember was to NOT turn right and head up Crib Goch which is extreme in nice weather and suicidal in bad conditions like we had today. We had great weather on the 3 peaks challenge that year and we made the classic mistake of heading up Crib Goch thinking it was the summit of Snowdon and its definitely not a route I ever want to go up again!
We continued along the PyG Track at a “steady” pace but as we got higher the weather really started to close in and when we got to the top of the Zig Zags the wind was pretty extreme and the mist/low cloud was limiting visibility. Katie was pretty cream crackered at this point and with the Cafe at the summit currently closed for rebuilding work (so no hot cup of tea waiting) we decided to head back down whilst the light was still good having had a decent walk for our first time out in a long time.
Cant post without a few pics but I didn’t take a proper camera with me due to the rain and cold so all these are from my camera phone.
Start of the PyG Track Route
Turn right for Crib Goch if your mad or left for the PyG Track if you have some sense
The lake was quite often hidden behind mist on the way down but every so often it would come back into view
Great views from the PyG Track
On our way back down out of the mist
We saw this guy half a dozen times on the way down, maybe he could see how tired we were
Just a little bit further to go
by Nick
2 comments
Nick - Was a great day out despite the weather forecast we had checked the night before not turning out to be terribly accurate!
Max - You certainly can rise to challenges! (and rain) Glad you enjoyed it. Max