I picked the perfect weekend to climb Snowdon or so I thought. We drove up Friday night and arrived in Snowdonia at 5am and decided to park up and sleep. We didn’t get much sleep as the rain was heavy and the wind was howling. At least by 8am it had subsided. We headed for Big Pete’s for breakfast, although I only wanted a large cup of coffee. We couldn’t check into the Royal Victoria Hotel until 2pm so I changed in one of Big Pete’s cubicles. My friend and her sons wanted to do some shopping first as they were not fully prepared for the weather. I left them as I wanted an early start to my climb.
I headed towards the hotel to drop off anything I didn’t need for my climb. I asked the receptionist where the Pass was for the start of Pyg’s Track. I heard 5 minutes by car. So I headed off just as it started to rain again. It was a lovely walk along the quarry and lake and then passing some smaller villages. I suddenly realised I had walked for a long time, nearly an hour and still no sign of the pass. The walk began to go uphill and also the road got narrower. I had to give way to cars coming the opposite direction. I was getting a little anxious as I really wanted to start the climb at 10am at the latest and now it was nearly 11am. I can’t have gone the wrong direction as I have seen the bus to the peak go past me. As I was walking I realised I had heard the receptionist incorrectly as she obviously said it’s nearly 5 miles and not minutes. So after nearly 2 hours I finally reached the start of Pyg’s Track. The walk had been beautiful but I had to crack on with the climb as it was nearly noon. It took me a while to get my walking sticks the right length and then I started the climb up Snowdon. It was quite steep straight away. I had a text from my friend that she and her son had already started on the railway line route down in town at 10am. I was annoyed as I had just started mine. The rain eased off a bit but the wind picked up. As you headed to the point where it went right to Crib Goch which has one of the hardest routes on Snowdon, there seemed to be some kind of wind tunnel which literally blew me off my feet. I tried taking photos of the views but they were blurry because the camera shook each time. A couple of guys headed up Crib Goch and I followed the others down to continue on Pyg’s Track.
As I followed the path it disappeared into a steep wall of water. It wasn’t torrential but a small waterfall affect which you had to climb across. I was thankful for my waterproof boots. It was quite slippery what with the rain and the wind. Sometimes you had to scramble on your hands. As you got higher the wind picked up even more. After the last text from my friend warning me of 80 mph winds my phone died. It really started to get windy and the rain started to sting my face. Every time I saw someone on the way down I asked them how far it was and they told me that they turned back because it was too windy. I had a moment when I thought I should turn back too as it might be dangerous but I shrugged it off immediately. I hate giving up. So I persevered slowly and made sure I ducked when the wind blew hard and made sure of my footing at each step. This is probably why my climb took a lot longer than I had scheduled even with my late start.
At one point I couldn’t see anyone ahead or behind me. Visibility was really poor and the wind got even stronger so I just sat on a step and waited. It felt like ages but after about 5 minutes I could hear voices and then shadows. A couple of European guys appeared and asked me how far up they had left. I said I was waiting for somebody to follow up and they seemed surprised. I followed them up, they were pretty quick but I could still see where they were going. Eventually more people caught up with me as I was going way to slow. The climb was hard, it was steep and windy and rainy. I picked the worst weekend to do this trip. It has been sunny for the last 6 weekends and I picked the only weekend with a severe weather warning. After a long and hard trek up I finally made it to the top or so I thought. I came upon a crossroads where the other tracks met and was told by another climber that I had another 15 minutes to get to the top. This part was the windiest of the whole climb. I had trouble holding on to my walking sticks and camera as well. I was either going to impale myself or someone else with my sticks. I was so glad to have brought my sticks as they helped me a great deal to reach the top. I dug them into the ground hard whenever the wind blew and I managed to stay on my feet. I saw many people fall over and one man even got picked up by the wind and thrown 5 steps down the trail. A little to the left and he would have been blown off the mountain. As I took my last few steps I could see the top with some kind of sundial on it. It was so foggy there were no views at all. As the weather was so bad everything was closed, so no hot drink at the café and no ride back on the train. So I had to walk back down the same way I walked up. The wind never let up and this time I was going a little faster down the hill with the wind at my back all the time. I took a detour and joined the Miner’s Track a third of the way down. It was practically scree all the way down with large boulders to clamber over. But half way down this track it turned into a lovely even path albeit a little longer than I expected. By the time I reached the bottom of the pass it was 5.15pm. I should have been back at the hotel by 5pm to meet a friend but as I had no phone I didn’t have the time. I rushed to get the bus which was waiting, I realised it was the last bus only to find the driver having a break in the café. At least I didn’t miss the last bus as I really didn’t want another 90 minutes’ walk back into town in the dark as well. While waiting I bought a very expensive t-shirt, £15!
I finally got back to the hotel who gave me the run around with my rooms. Eventually got into the right room and charged my phone to bring it to life. I wondered where my friend and her sons were as they should have got back much earlier than me. Reception told me that they had been taken to hospital. Once I got the phone working I got a text from her saying that they had mountain rescue help them because one of her sons was blown off the track by the wind. He hit his head in two places and cut his arm and leg. She sprained her ankle running to him. Everyone is ok now but I was so glad I was not with them as I really would not have wanted to abandon the climb. I am so selfish.
No matter how bad the weather was I think it enhanced my experience and made the climb a lot more memorable than if it had been a sunny day. I climbed the hard way and I liked it.
