Mt. Snowdon
Much better weather today and, after a hearty breakfast, we headed up Mt. Snowdon. A 9-mile hike up and down (or around 25,000 steps according to our guide). Lovely views on the way up.
We started at Pen y Pass, a pass created by the team of hikers who climbed Mt. Everest in 1953, the first British team to do so. They created the pass so they could use the Pyg Track to train instead of the Miners Track—well travelled by miners and tourists. We went up the Pyg Track and came down the Llanberis Track into the town of the same name. One of our members struggled on a steep, slushy bit as we neared the top and our guide thought it best to take a gentler trip down.
We had great views of the Snowdon peak at the beginning of the hike, however the clouds came down during the hike and we had no view from the top. Here are people queing to get to the very top.
Last night a ranger came in and spoke to us about visitor numbers to Mt. Snowdon—650,000 a year and climbing (ha ha). Today was a Sunday so we didn’t have the full on crowds of a Saturday, but plenty enough.
I noticed lots of people going up with dogs—every breed imaginable, from dachshund to Dalmatian. I took a photo of this Welsh springer spaniel for a friend in the states who has two. The dog is called Bryn, Welsh for hill, because she was a gift to her owner on her 50thbirthday, when she was over the hill.
Here's me on the way up, much drier than yesterday.
The path we took down was fairly gentle and somewhat paralleled the railway that goes to the top of Snowdon.
On the way down I had a good laugh when a dad said to his balking son, in a Welsh accent, “If I’m taking my chunky ass up there, you’re coming with me.” One way to get to the top is a small gauge railway, this car named for a famous Welsh woman (Dame Shirley Bassey).
The other thing to note is the large number of young men pushing/carrying mountain bikes up to the peak so they could ride down. I’m glad I don’t have testosterone coursing through my veins, causing me to do any number of stupid things. As I say, we ended the day in Llanberis, which is surrounded by slate quarries, a common sight in these parts.
April 28