Snowdonia, July 2023
This tale starts in Sam’s kitchen. It’s a sunny Saturday morning in July and it’s time to leave. We’ve got a 3-hour journey to get to Llanberis, the official start of this little excursion. Naturally, we’re not quite ready - I’m making provisions by raiding the cupboards, Sam hasn’t packed and Miles is no where to be seen. Mugs of tea and catch up chat is taking place and we haven’t decided who’s driving. Or where we’re meeting Worm - the 4th and final member of our little ensemble. Apart from that, we’re all set.
Several hours later, we’re bombing up the A49. Destination TBC.
A little while later, we meet Worm in a tiny, out of the way little place called Rowan where we’ve bagged the last outdoor table at Ty Gwyn Hotel. This place is the definition of remote, and they’re speaking Welsh inside the pub. This we take in our stride as we send in our native Welsh speaker, Miles, to order the drinks*. If we didn’t have to eat, sleep and start our walk within 4 hours, sat in the evening sunshine in this tiny little Welsh village would be lovely - as it is, talk turns to tactics and planning.
We’re about to attempt to walk the 15 peaks of Snowdonia that top 3000 ft AKA the Welsh 3000s. It’s a 45-50k walk, involving 4,500m (ish) of ascent, and needs to be completed within 24 hours.
How hard can it be?
As we wait for food, relying on Miles to have successfully ordered something served with chips, we hatch a plan of where to leave the cars and provisions. This appears to be the trickiest decision, especially as there’s only two road crossings. However, food is eaten, beer is drunk and a plan is made. We head to the Youth Hostel at the top of the Llanberis pass for a very short night’s sleep.
*He’s not exactly a Welsh speaker but lives in Wales and so this more or less counts.
Bleary eyed at 2am...
The cause of just a little angst
At the start of the Crib Goch route
On Crib Goch. The fog hiding the drops.
As we arrive at the Llanberis pass, we can’t quite figure out how to leave the car at the bottom of the hill (it’s several kilometres and about 600m of ascent) and keep us at the top. Luckily Worm is keen for a little warm up and volunteers to drive down. We watch, as the sun sets over the mountains, as Worm runs back up the road.
As he arrives, we notice he’s wearing a pair of 5-toe Vibrams and when asked, assures us they’re perfectly suitable all terrain footwear for a lengthy hike in the mountains. We try to convince him otherwise but he’s absolutely adamant. We shall soon see this didn’t quite turn out to be the case.
We had talked a good game of getting an early night but as we set alarms for 2.15am, we were fast approaching midnight - the perfect time according to Worm to watch the Tour de France highlights.
At a little after 2am, we were outside being buffeted by a strong wind. We couldn’t see anything, other than for the handful of head torches that were already on the climb up to Crib Goch - the first peak to climb and our route round to the top of Snowdon.
The path was initially easy to follow until we got close to the top, resulting in all 4 of us taking our own line towards the star of the ridge. We reached the top sometime before 4am as the first light was starring to rise up on the horizon.
There had been a lot of chat about Crib Goch - a notorious ridge that runs for hundreds of metres with sheer drops on either side. Specifically, the wisdom of trying to do it in the dark. However, as we reached the start of the ridge, we were met by a thick blanket of fog obscuring the view. Occasionally the cloud would part revealing just a glimpse of the drops on either side - something that reduces some people to a crawl across the ridge.
It was easier going than we’d expected and because we couldn’t see very much, we accidentally climbed the Pinnacles - three lumps of rock that rise up from the ridge - which we’d all agreed were best avoided.
Safely down on the other side, with one peak in the bag, the fog started to lift and for the first time caught a glimpse of Snowdon.
We shared the Crib Goch trail
Miles searching for a cafe at the top of Crib Goch
The Crib Goch ridge
Snowdon was busy, even at 6am, whilst covered in cloud and doing its best to blow everyone off the top of the mountain. Conditions were pretty miserable. We grabbed a snap but didn’t linger. We had Nan Peris and breakfast to aim for. It was around gone 5am as the first bits of sunshine broke through as we followed the railway line off the top, before turning right and descending down an incredibly steep side of the mountain. This wasn’t marked on the map - we thought the conventional wisdom of following actual paths would “take too long” so we half slid, half ran down the side of the mountain, with Worm beautifully demonstrating a half slide, half run tumble with pirouette. Must have been those grippy Vibrams…
Thanks to us taking route 1, we lost 1,000m pretty quickly and found a well trodden path leading towards Nan Peris. We crossed a stream over a narrow, old stone bridge, passed a gaggle of houses and found the car. We had arrived at checkpoint 1.
My erstwhile provision packing was about to pay dividends as banana and peanut butter bagels were retrieved from the cool box. I was especially grateful of this haute cuisine when I saw Miles unwrap a whole baked potato and pretend to enjoy it.
7am. Straight from the foil. No filling.
With a perimeter zone having been established around the loos, we set off on a near 900m climb to reach peak #4 - Elidir Fawr. We were now taking on the Glydes, a separate mini-range within wider Snowdonia. We were approaching 6 hours on the trail and the first signs of tiredness and soreness were being felt. The first signs of doubt were also starting to creep in as the Vibrams - Worm was basically barefoot - were no match for the size of rocks and boulders that we were now climbing over.
The skies had cleared, the wind had dropped and the trails were quiet around Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach. The views were incredible.
As we saw Tryfan for the first time, it dawned on us that we were only just approaching half way. I upped my bagel in-take.
Still smiling at this point
The mountain trail between the Glyders
Peak #5
Tryfan