Although it's hard to get up at 03:15am, on days like today it's really worth it. I spent the night sleeping in the back of the van, so that I could be up and ready to greet my bleary eyed students before setting off to Cader Idris. We were well on our way up the mountain when the sun burst over the horizon in spectacular fashion. We all stopped, stared and had a little 'moment'.
As soon as the sun was on us, the temperature flew up to about twenty degrees. The shady sections were blissfully cool though.
As the day woke up, they valleys all filled with clouds that were flooding in from the coast.
We were on the summit by 7am and could have stayed there all day, had we not got other peaks to climb. Before we left, we sat in silence for two minutes. Apart for a couple of flies that buzzed past, we could hear nothing - there wasn't even a breath of wind. Stunning.
Ideally, we'd have descended to the lake for a swim, but the day was still young and there was a plan for climbing Tryfan and Snowdon still, so we retuned down the Pony Path and into the clouds to where the minibus waited.
In the Ogwen Valley, I swapped with Aled, who took the team up Tryfan, while I went for sleep after cooling off in the river, which was blissful after a long and sweaty eight hours of driving and hiking.
Later that night, after Aled had passed the leaders baton to John, who had successfully guided the team up to the summit of Snowdon, we were reunited at the Lake in Llanberis. The group dived straight into the water before celebrating an incredible day with a toast and a big feed. A record thirteen hours from setting out on Cader, to arrived at the Lake in Llanberis, with three big peaks climbed. Impressive stuff.
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