Snowdon - steep, wet and very, very windy

Last weekend we spent the weekend in Snowdonia, North Wales.  The scenery was amazing but the weather was pretty grotty which meant we didn't get to see much.  We were really only there for one reason - to climb Mount Snowdon.

Snowdonia was formed approximately 450-400 million years ago (the Alps are 60 million years old in Comparison) as an oceanic plate, lapetus, slid under the continent of Laurentia.  At the time Wales would have been the site of huge amounts of volcanic activity.  As well as volcanic rock, you will also find lots of sedimentary rock in Snowdonia as the formation of the mountains was underwater.

It felt like we were underwater as the drive though the mountains to our hotel was through sideways rain and high winds.  We stayed in a lovely little hotel well hidden half way up a very, very steep hill.   I knew we were in proper Welsh Wales when we sat having a drink in to the hotel bar and a sheep casually wondered past the window as it was eating the grass.  It mowed the lawn of the hotel gardens and then wondered back up the hill.

A rare sight of some blue sky.

The weather didn't improve overnight so the likelihood of reaching the summit was looking slim.  This became even clearer when we arrived at the car park to a long speech by the car park attendant about the conditions on Snowdon and setting our expectation about how high we should go.  The advice was heard loud and clear - do not attempt to reach the summit today.

There are seven routes up to the summit of snowdon.  We opted to take the Llanberis Path.  The total walk was nine miles long, 3200 ft high and a six hour walk.  The Llanberis path is the gentlest and longest route up Snowdon.  The path is well defined and easy to follow with cafe midway.

The first 20 minutes or so of the climb was by far the worse.  Whilst the surface was the best (a nice cement road) it was by far the steepest part.  Every time you got to a bend and thought it was over, there was another section, and another, and another.  

Once we were off the road and on to rougher terrain I'd got a bit more in to the swing of things.  We had managed to lose the crowd that were following us up and had got into a rhythm - whilst still stopping for breath a lot!   As we got higher and higher the conditions got worse and worse.

I had every layer on I had with me, it was a great day for trying out my hiking gear.  But, it was truly awful.  I'm not going to lie, I hated every step.  The rain was getting heavier meaning the path was getting slippy.  And the wind....... it was blowing my clothes so much that I literally looked like I was wearing clingfilm!   I was not a happy girl!!

Strike a pose.

We finally made it to the halfway house.  A little cafe exactly half way up the route.....a VERY welcome break and mentally a massive boost.  We took full advantage of the facilities and stopped for a cuppa and a Welsh cake, and of course a toilet break before assessing the weather.

X marks the spot of the halfway house.

I wasn't the only one who wasn't exactly enjoying the day.  The lady sitting next to us in the cafe sent a text that simply said "words can not describe how awful this is".  It was such a shame as it was clearly the weather making conditions difficult for everyone.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse so rather than continue a little further up and risk getting caught, we decided to head back down so we had the rest of the day to explore a bit of the area in the dry car with heated seats.  Any views we had on the way up had disappeared and been replaced with thick cloud, with nothing to see it was really was "head down and get off this mountain as quick as we can".

Although I didn't make it to the top, fitness wise I could tell that I had it on me.  Had mother nature (and mountain rescue!) been on our side we would have made it to the top, I'm sure.  So the weekend wasn't a complete waste - I got an idea of what lies ahead of me, I got try out my walking poles and I got to eat Welsh cake!!

Here's hoping the tropics of Africa are kinder to us.