The Snowdon Horseshoe

Saturday 14th October 2006

While uploading these reports from last year I noticed that I had not written a report on this walk that I did a year ago and yet it was an amazing walk in sensational weather. I guess the reason I didn't write a report for it at the time was because it was a one-off, I drove all the way over to Snowdon and then having completed the walk I drove all the way back. My reports are generally first written in a youth hostel after the walk, but in this instance there was no youth hostel, there was just back home. Well, it may have been a year ago but my memory is not all that bad and I have the pictures that I took while on the walk to remind me. So to start I need to give you a bit of background. Way back, almost 2½ years ago, I walked over Crib Goch for the first time with the intention of completing the Snowdon Horseshoe by going over Y Lliwedd afterwards, however the weather intervened and I chickened out soon after I left the summit of Snowdon. Jump forward a year and I decided to have another go at the horseshoe and I had set things up perfectly by staying at the Pen-y-Pass Youth Hostel, but yet again the weather intervened and I chickened out again, this time of both Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd, though I still had a great walk on the Pyg and Miner's Track.

Having been thwarted twice by the weather I decided last year that I would wait for perfect weather conditions and then dash up to Snowdon to do the horseshoe, however those weather conditions never seemed to come when I was free. I was always busy doing something else when the weather was right and the weather was never right when I was free. Eventually we coincided in the middle of October last year when one Friday evening while I trying to decide what to do the next day I read the forecast for the following morning around Snowdon and jumped at the chance to do the horseshoe. I got up very early and left home soon after five in the morning (when I would normally leave for work so it was not a great hardship) and I was at Pen-y-Pass before eight. There was no stopping me and I was soon on my way up the Pyg Track under clear blue skies with the sun only just beginning to appear over the horizon. I zoomed up to Bwlch y Moch and the scramble up to Crib Goch did not trouble me at all. I had waited a year and a half to go over Crib Goch in good weather and now that I was doing it I was going to enjoy every moment. At the eastern end of Crib Goch I gazed around in awe at the scenery around me with the Glyderau behind and Snowdon in front of me, but before I could get to Snowdon I had to cross Crib Goch. Standing up I walked carefully along the very top of the ridge with my senses on constant alert, and then suddenly my left foot slipped a fraction of an inch on a damp patch of rock. Instantly I dropped to all fours clutching the rock. I still do not have a good head for heights despite my attempts to exorcise my fear on occasions such as this. I consider it a very healthy fear of falling hundreds of feet to my death, and it has kept me alive thus far!

At the summit of Crib Goch I again surveyed my surroundings and took more pictures, but this was only the lull before the storm for ahead of me were the Pinnacles of Crib Goch. Previously I had gone around the Pinnacles but this time I was determined to go up them all and largely succeeded, although I missed out one pinnacle that I couldn't reach as it was not on the actual line of the ridge. Descending to Bwlch Coch I now made my way up Crib y Ddysgl enjoying my time immensely now that the extreme exposure of Crib Goch was behind me. Arriving at Garnedd Ugain I was once again astonished at the clear views all around me and, even more surprisingly, by the warm weather. Still gazing out on the scene all around me, I passed along the mountain top and up to the summit of Snowdon. Despite the number of times that I have been up there I still think of the summit as a magical place that just takes my breath away, no matter how many people one has to share it with.

Descending south-west from the summit a little way and before I'd reached the Watkin marker stone, I impatiently dropped down across the screes. On reaching Bwlch Ciliau I began the ascent of Y Lliwedd which, though fun, does not really compare with the traverse of Crib Goch. At the summit I had my lunch before beginning to descend to Llyn Llydaw. I had never been on this part of the walk before and I found it rather tricky. It is steep and since north-facing it was still damp from the dew; I recall slipping over whilst climbing down there, though fortunately I was unhurt. Once at the edge of Llyn Llydaw I joined the Miner's Track and followed it back to Pen-y-Pass and my car. It was still really only lunch time but since I had started the walk at eight I had already done a long, but great walk. The Snowdon Horseshoe is recognizably one of the greatest mountain walks in Britain and having down it now I whole-heartily agree.