The Snowdon Traverse

Fresh back from the Film Festival and I was straight out the door to meet a group in Llanberis for a traverse over Wales' highest peak - Snowdon. It was a wet morning with very low clouds, despite the forecast suggesting otherwise. Over a bacon sandwich in the cafe in Llanberis, I discussed the options with the group and by the end of breakfast they were still all super keen to 'go for it'! We got a lift up the Llanberis Pass to the high point at Pen y Pass and set out, just as the mists began to rise a little...

Having been 'dropped off', there was a certain air of commitment to make it up and over the mountain and back to Llanberis before dark. We'd not exactly left early, but the group were fit and strong and we made good progress. The views stayed with us until the final climb up the 'zig-zags' where we continued upwards into the whiteout.

Above the zig-zags area, we were exposed to the strong winds and the wind chill was immense. The forecast had predicted a -5 degree wind chill and I'd say that it was pretty accurate. By now though, the summit was tantalisingly close, so we wrapped up and pushed on. The views were....well... limited!

Up at the summit, I had both my Rab jackets on and gloves, so kept warm, but the wind was harsh on any exposed skin.

After a sandwich, crouched in the lee of the summit cairn, we made our descend from the clouds and began the long march back down to Llanberis on the main path. By the time we got back to the bunkhouse where we were staying we'd hiked 17km, taken over 23,000 steps, had ascended 777m and descended over 1000m. A reasonable day out by anyone's standards - especially having only arrived back from Kendal in the early hours.