The decision to make the trip to climb Snowdon was made a few months ago with a couple of mates - Matt and Ed - as a boys' weekend with a (small) bit of adventure.  And some beer.

 

  

Friday evening saw us arrive in Llanberis, our home for the weekend. Blue skies and bright sun left us with high hopes for the ascent the next day.   

 

                         

 

 

 

Sadly, the next morning was a bit different. Following an evening in 'the best restaurant in town' (coincidentally, the only restaurant in town) we eagerly threw the curtains open, expecting to see lovely countryside and bright sunny skies. We didn't.

 

                      

 Undeterred, we still decided that the top deck of an open bus was the right way to get to the start point for the walk (the Pyg pass, for those who have done it before). 

 

 

 

The first part of the walk was easy. I suspect it would also have been very picturesque if we had been able to see more than 10 feet. 

 

                       

 Then it got a bit rockier - still OK. Then it started to rain a bit more. Still OK. Then we headed off the path up a scree slope, and for the next 90 minutes or so did some 'proper' climbing. No photos of this bit as I was busy hanging on. Still, I didn't swear as much as I normally do on The Trail Of Death, so it can't have been that bad.

 

After about thee hours, we finally got to the top. It was so wet and windy that it wasn't worth getting the camera out, so especially for MTB Berko readers I've sourced a picture that represents what we saw. If you get someone to throw buckets of freezing water over you while looking at this, you'll pretty much get the same effect.

 

 

 

I know this will offend many of the more hardcore members, but we ended up taking the train down. We were asked to remove wet clothes before boarding; when Ed pointed out that that would actually involve all three of us stripping naked they agreed that wet seats were a small price to pay.

 

 

As a pause for thought, while we were coming back down, the annual Snowdon race was going on. The winner ran up (and back down) the mountain in 1hr 7 minutes; roughly 45 minutes for the ascent, and 25 minutes on the way back down. As you can see, they all looked like they were having a whale of a time. One for you next year, Lloydy?

 

 

 

So, after an afternoon of rest, we went out to find a nice pub. As there wasn't one, we ended up in some place that only served pints in plastic skiffs. But although it most definitely wasn't the Riser, the beer still went down very well…