Snowdon via the Horns

Monday 31st August 2009

Once again for an August Bank Holiday up Snowdon it was raining and for the second day running I had heavy rain, low cloud and strong winds. I was becoming resigned to not being lucky with the weather on this holiday. After parking in Nant Peris car park I caught the bus up to Pen-y-pass. I am astonished at how expensive it's becoming to walk up Snowdon these days. The parking at Pen-y-pass is now £6 and there's even a ticket machine in the Nant Peris car park, though fortunately on the day of this walk it was covered up. On reaching Pen-y-pass I started along the Miner's Track, but I didn't get very far along the track before branching off onto a faint path that climbed the hill to the right. This is a well designed path that zigzags up the hillside towards a line of hills called the Horns. In all my expeditions up Snowdon I’d never been over the mighty Horns of Snowdon before, probably because they are a small line of hills that are no more than two thousand feet high whereas Snowdon is more than three and a half thousand feet high. Nevertheless it was enjoyable to walk over the undulating tops, especially in the low cloud. Looking at an old map it would appear that the well designed path that I took at first was the original route of the Pyg Track built by miners hundreds of years ago before the steeper, rougher modern track was built that passes through Bwlch Moch. I didn’t stay on this path for long though as it doesn’t go over the top of the Horns but crosses the western slopes. Keeping to the top I passed over the highest points on the Horns relishing the bad weather that was making these low hills much more dramatic than they actually are. If I’d been able to see Crib Goch and Snowdon towering over me then the Horns would have seemed as insignificant as they actually are but in this weather they were the mighty Horns of Snowdon. From the top of the Horns I descended onto the Pyg Track at Bwlch Moch and followed the path all the way up to Snowdon.

The Pyg Track has become badly eroded in recent years, probably due to poor construction of the path in the past. The main problem appears to be a lack of drainage so when it rains heavily (which happens occasionally in Wales) the water pours down the path washing it away. Drainage is the single most important consideration in path construction but the people who built the current surface of the Pyg Track failed to take that into account. I am not a great fan of constructed paths but when it has to be done then the least that they can do is make sure they do a good job so someone doesn’t have to come along a few years later and do it all over again as is clearly going to be done here. Footpath construction is expensive; if the path isn’t going to last very long then it's money down the drain. Rant over. Eventually the brilliance of the original designers of the Pyg Track was revealed as the path cunningly crosses the hillside below Crib Goch incorporating some fun little scrambles up the natural rock faces. Despite the terrible condition of the path in places and the strong wind and rain, I still quite enjoyed this walk, especially once the scrambling started.

After battling the strong wind I eventually reached the Llanberis path at Bwlch Glas and made my way up the steepening slope to the summit of Snowdon. After visiting my old friend, the summit, I tried to get into the new visitor centre and found that it was closed, again. Last time I was here, in March, the centre hadn’t opened yet so it was understandable, but the centre opened in June and there were workers in the centre, but since the train wasn’t running it was shut. Instead I sheltered, as I had the last time, behind the centre, the most expensive wind-break in the world, and had my lunch. After eating I made my way down off the mountain, quite happy to be getting away from the wind and rain. My route of descent was the Llanberis path, a route that I've not used since February 2004 when I took a group of friends up Snowdon under clear blue skies. This path seems to be in just as bad a condition as the Pyg Track though there are signs that work is being done to repair the old repairs to the path. The weather gradually improved as I descended though the rain was never far away. Once in Llanberis I had a look around the tourist trap before quickly leaving along the main road making my way back to Nant Peris.

Nant Peris is a spectacular valley but it is difficult to walk in, which is a great tragedy. I was able to walk through the Nant Peris Park and enjoyed this small part of the valley, but relics of former quarrying and high, sheer walls on either side of the valley that stretched all the way up to Pen-y-pass bar any route up to the top for walkers and that is really frustrating as it is a stunning valley that can only be enjoyed from a car. During my walk through the valley of Nant Peris, returning to the car park, I enjoyed the best weather of the day, a brief respite from the rain, but despite the bad weather that accompanied me for most of the time it wasn’t a bad walk. I really enjoyed walking over the Horns and Snowdon is always a delight, despite the poor quality of the paths. I believe it is possible that if the paths had been left them alone in the first place they wouldn’t be in the condition that they are in now.