Climbing Mt Snowdon

Having recently climbed Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike, I wanted to complete the trilogy and conquer Mt Snowdon, highest mountain in England and Wales, second only to 'Nevis in the UK. So on Tuesday at 7am, my Dad and I set out on the long drive to North Wales. I'd chosen to avoid the tourists and climb up via the Rhyd Ddu (pronounced "rhee thee" in Welsh) path, as it is one of the quietest yet most spectacular routes up Snowdon. 

The path started off slow and gradual. The sun was bearing strongly down on us - the car read 28° at the base - one of the hottest days of the year and a rare treat for Wales! This was the first time I'd climbed with the full gear with me, the weight wasn't too bad but I found myself getting breathless much faster. 

The Rhyd Ddu path started slowly and gradually, but the scenery was beautiful

Dad on the path

After a while the path started climbing quite steeply, and we started to get some real views. Many people in the climbing community sneer at Snowdon for being a tourist mountain, however this was definitely a real climb and as taxing as any other mountain I've climbed up. 

The views were spectacular once we got a little higher

A couple of hours later, we finally sighted the cafe at the top of Snowdon, the end was in sight! From here the path lead along a steep ridge flanked by very high near-vertical cliffs. The final stretch involved some decent scrambling over a narrow ridge - this was my favourite part of the journey! 

You can just see the cafe at the top in this photo. Steep cliffs flank the left of the path.

I'm not sure how I feel about having a restaurant at the top of a mountain, but I must say that having a place to sit down and drink a cold orange juice after several hours climbing in the scorching midday sun was certainly appreciated! It was strange when my phone logged on to the WiFi and started downloading emails 1085m up a mountain - in a way it was a little sad. I was really proud of my Dad - he's just turned 62, so for him to climb up with relatively no difficulty was impressive. 

After a much needed rest we climbed the final few metres to the summit stone for some photos. The view was amazing, and seeing how high we had climbed was incredibly satisfying. After a couple of minutes the tourist train arrived at the top of the mountain, and suddenly the summit was flooded with people all taking photos of themselves at the top. I felt a little angry about this, almost as if they hadn't earned the right to take photos here - this place should be a special reward for those that had physically climbed here shedding blood sweat and tears along the way. Oh well. 

View from the summit of Mt Snowdon. There's the little tourist train pulling into the station.

Me sitting on top of the summit stone

Dad and I at the top

We started our long descent back down - it was a little cooler now and the bag was much lighter descending. At one point we decided to have a little run when the path was smooth enough - this was going great until I heard a loud crash and looked round to see Dad lying face down on the ground! Thankfully I had my newly acquired first-aid kit with me, and after cleaning up Dad's cuts and grazes and applying the appropriate plasters, I was secretly a little pleased that it had actually had some use (and that Dad was ok, of course!)

Dad making use of my new first aid kit, applying anti-septic cream to his wounds

The mountain railway

Finally we arrived at the base just as the sun was starting to sink, and started on the long 5 hour drive home.   

Tomorrow morning I leave for Zurich, Switzerland, and on Saturday the real climb begins. If you're inspired by all the hard work I'm doing to raise money for Make A Wish charity, then head over to my page at http://www.justgiving.com/joe-goes-up/ and give a couple of pounds! 

Joe x