Snowdon '09

For my birthday this year, I decided to do something a little different than having the usual big party and getting drunk. I thought it would be nice to go camping and walking. Danny and Sam came with me, and after deciding to visit Snowdonia, Snowdon was picked as our summit.

I briefly checked the met office weather forecast the night before, and saw that they had issues a severe weather warning for Snowdonia, promising gale force winds of up to 70mph:

HAZARDS
Storm force winds: Medium risk - Southwest winds gusting 70 mph
perhaps 80 mph over exposed ridges and highest peaks
Gales: High risk - Southwest winds gusting 60 to 70 mph around the
ridges and above 400 metres through the day.
Persistent extensive hill fog: High risk - Extensive at first above
200 to 300 metres generally lifting and clearing mid to late morning.
Heavy persistent rain: High risk - Heavy rain expected to clear
around mid-morning.
Weather: Heavy rain quickly clearing from the west around mid-
morning. Clearer conditions following with broken cloud and squally
showers.
Temperature:
Valleys/Low level: Plus 14 Celsius
At 900m: PS 9 Celsius
Freezing level: Above the summits


With this in mind and the trip already booked I decided to press on with the trip, knowing that if it got too rough we could turn back at any point.

On the day, after an early, but somewhat stifled start we hit the road at about 9:30am. Arriving in Llanberris it became apparent that the Snowdon Marathon was happening, blocking the road to Pen-y-Gwryd, our intended car park, so we were forced to camp at Llyn Peris. The problem with this was there was about four miles of road walking to be done to get to the start point.

The weather already looked gloomy, and our waterproofs were put on straight away at the car, as the air felt damp and the sky looked ready to break. So all togged up we set off towards the start. Road walking is incredible boring, walking in single file, plodding along, trying not to get flattened by the traffic (which started flooding past us as soon as the road was reopened). The streams and waterfalls racing down the mountain

were white and looked very prominent, showing that they were full and that there was a lot of water draining down from the top.

Pretty tired by the time we reached the "Start Point" at Pen-y-Gwryd, a short break and a pork and pickle pie each saw us ready to begin the walk for proper.

Crib Goch was the original intended route, but one look at the weather told us that this would be a suicide route. Another option was the Pyg Track, but that looked a little hairy too, so we opted for the Miners Track, which is an extremely wide and very easy path, which (as we soon found out) was a very popular choice.

We had been able to see the cloud line since we set off, and it was obvious that it was very low, but around the base of the mountain the weather was ok except for the odd massive gust of wind. One gust was so strong I physically could not put one foot in front of the next, and had to wait till it died down (little did we know that this was just a taste of what was to come!)

The real work began at the end of the miners track, at about 600m, the true base of the south east side of the mountain. It didn't take us long to get to the cloud base which is where the problems really began. The incredibly steep ascent wasn't helped by the wind, doing it's best to blow us back down the mountain with every step. Progress was slow, excruciatingly slow, and as we climbed, visibility got lower and lower. The word "abhorrent" was used more and more frequently, and fatigue began to creep up on us. We had stopped taking pictures, and rests were kept to a minimum, usually until there was a small break in the wind to allow us onwards.

As we reached the ridge top of the mountain conversation had been replace with steely faced determinism, but the end was still not yet in sight. Most of the "up" had been done, bet we still needed to summit. On the top ridge, we were faced by the 70mph winds we were promised, blowing sideways rain stinging in our faces. With our heads down and hands protecting our faces, and knowing that the summit was not far off, we pressed on. After 10min of what felt like being in the 7th circle of hell, Sam was making fast progress and disappeared in front of us. Before long, a shape appeared in front of us, it was Sam, at the top of his voice (required to be heard) he shouted

"I've been up ahead and there is no sign that the summit is close, but the weather gets worse the closer you get, I really think we should turn back". It wasn't even up for debate and in an instant we started our wise retreat.

Very soon we got back to the top of the ridge, there was a decision to make, the accent has been so steep and the path was so wet that descending the was we came seemed far too dangerous. It was decided that we should retreat down to Llanberis, the route was a lot longer, but it's shallow angle would have made for a faster decent. Visibility was so little, and with our heads down against the elements, we decided to walk along the train track for a little while.

Soon enough we came across a sign telling us not to walk on the tracks, and in our panic to descend we began following a path that lead along the left hand side of the tracks. A speedy decent and a map check 20 minutes later found that we had missed the Llanberis path and were descending down the west face. Looking at the time, it was getting late, and the light had already started to face, and nether Sam nor Danny had a head torch. The weather was still beating us and wearing us down, and a rapid decent was now vital. So we pressed on down the opposite side of the mountain.

We came out of the cloud line and suddenly had our first view in many hours, it was still raining and windy but finally a little more acceptable. The path that we were following had basically turned into a stream, draining the mountain, but at this point we were so wet that it didn't matter, so we descended with the stream as opposed to using more energy attempting to avoid it. After another hours fast decent we saw our first glimpse of the sun diving down behind the mountains. Beautifully bleak and baron it lifted our spirits, but warned of the impending darkness, so keeping the pace as quick as possible without the risk of getting a twisted ankle (everyone's fear of disaster at this point) we pressed on.

As we descended the route got easier and the weather got better and the light faded, until we stepped foot on the road at the bottom it was just about completely dark. We has made it, and just in time too, although our relief was short lived as we remembered we were now on the wrong side of the mountain and the car was 12 miles away!. Llyn Cwellyn

Sam saw a bus stop up ahead and we went to check, but it looked as if only 4 buses came every day, plus they all went to Caenerfon so that would be no help. There were some light of a house up ahead so we thought we would go and explore, but lucky of all things that had happened that day, it was a youth hostel. Sat inside we phoned for a taxi which cost £30 but the warm ride was greatly appreciated.

In total we covered 12 miles in 6hrs 30min and bagged 950m of accent and decent and learned a lot of lessons about mountaineering in bad weather!