In a change to my scheduled plan I decided to drive to, hike, and drive home from Snowdon in a single day (instead of 3).
It wasn’t I was bored with camping, more that I decided I had some other stuff to do with the two extra days off I would gain; a report I had to do for work, a Sunday lunch with Kate, and sleep on a proper bed.
It took me around 5 hours to get to Snowdon from the Lakes and I arrived around midday. It was another beautiful day; blue sky, warm sun, slight wind. Perfect walking weather! I managed to fluke a spot in the visitor centre car park (if you ever seen how many people hike Snowdon on a sunny bank holiday weekend you’ll understand the odds of this) so I was parked right at the start of the track. The views around Snowdon are lovely and I was already starting to reconsider about camping over for the night.
I set off along the Pyg track – one of three routes you can take from the visitor centre (and I have to admit, the easiest) however after about 30 minutes it splits into two, one of which is the route up Crib Goch which is the Hardest route. I very nearly got my bearings wrong here but in a most uncharacteristic way I stopped and asked directions.
The rest of the walk very very pleasant as all the paths follow the mountain round with the mining lakes below. As hinted at earlier, I was amazed how many people were on the mountain and I was both happy and sad about that. Sad that I had to share my experience with so many people, but happy to see so many people out enjoying the mountain.
As we approached the top the wind really picked up but it was still gloriously sunny so wasn’t a problem – apart from trying to keep my hat on!
For the trip down I went via the miners track which is a longer steep decent but then a fairly flat walk out.
Next time I’ll try the Crib Ghoc route 🙂
steveslaw 