Another mountain day and another early alarm call! Straight out of my sleeping bag, splashed water on my face and climbed into the minibus. To their credit, the team had all managed to get up and were ready to go. As instructed, they brought duvets and pillows and were soon back asleep as we made our way down the Conwy Valley towards Dolgellau. Up front, I enjoyed the peaceful quiet of the roads and seeing the mist that hovered over the river.
After marveling at the spooky mists hovering above Llyn Trawsfynydd in the low morning light and following a huge hare along the road to the car park, it was about 05:30am by the time we were setting off up towards the summit of Cader Idris. The sunrise view totally justified our early start. It was surprisingly cold though - only 4 degrees! (I even got an ice warning light appear on the dashboard display!)
The challenge of the day for the students was to climb Cader, Tryfan and Snowdon in a single day. We made good progress upwards as the sun climbed. The air clarity was spectacular.
As we neared the summit ridge, a bank of cloud rolled over the top creating some fantastically eery conditions. The rising sun, still low in the sky looked more like the moon.
And then, joy upon joy, as we reached the summit of the mountain, the clouds parted and lowered below us revealing the phenomenon that is a 'brokenspectre' - a circular rainbow with your shadow projected into the centre of it (the photo doesn't really do it justice). It was quite a moment - and all before most people were even usually out of bed!
With two more mountains to go, we didn't stay long on top (and it was really cold!). The descent was quick and by 10:30 we were parked up at Ogwen Cottage where Nick and Aled took over from me.
I managed a little snooze in the afternoon back at The Cottage and then went over to Llanberis to meet the team as they descended with Kelly from the top of Snowdon. They were looking a bit red from the sun, but otherwise in remarkably good shape and high spirits. I was impressed, and we all celebrated together; first with some champagne, before just making last orders at Pete's Eats Cafe in the village for a well earned feed.
I saw the sun dip back under the horizon on the way home - a long day!
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