While researching my post on Snowdon that started my series on great mountains I listed each time I had climbed the mountain and realised that I had never described the occasion when I climbed Snowdon in March 2007. A colleague at work had expressed an interest in climbing Snowdon, which is not uncommon as this mountain, more than any other, seems to exert an unnatural attraction to non-hillwalkers that has resulted in me leading another three trips up Snowdon with friends and colleagues. Despite the time of year almost guaranteeing wintry conditions I arranged this trip in March taking advantage of a four-day week at work. The weather forecast for Friday had looked good at the beginning of the week, but by the time Friday came around the forecast had deteriorated significantly, nevertheless my colleague picked me up and drove us all the way over to the valley of Nant Gwynant parking in the car park that during the summer is always packed to overflowing, but not on this occasion. With thick cloud overhead and cold temperatures we had the path to ourselves as we set off out of the valley climbing into Cwm Llan on the Watkin Path.
It was great to be climbing a mountain again after the winter exile, but we should have picked better weather as the views were terrible, though the craggy hillside was fantastic to see and as we climbed I exclaimed emphatic enjoyment at being in such tremendous scenery again. My colleague soon realised he should be brought a pair of gloves with him as the temperature plummeted, but I had deliberately brought a spare pair of gloves with me so I gave these to him. He seems to have also borrowed my walking pole as the pictures I took near Bwlch Ciliau clearly show him holding it. I don’t remember why he had my walking pole, but he may have realised that climbing a mountain is a much more serious undertaking than he had thought so asked to use the pole to ease his efforts up the steep path. The pictures that I took on this walk show that despite the poor weather we still had views south to Yr Aran and over the ridge down to Llyn Llydaw even under the dull, grey clouds.
From that point we were crossing the loose stones that lie on the steep southern slopes below the summit of Snowdon and I remember trying to carefully select the best, easiest route through this difficult terrain to ease the way for my colleague. The Watkin Path is the most difficult of the six official right-of-ways up Snowdon mainly because of the difficult traverse of these slopes. My colleague was rather annoyed when I told him we had taken the most difficult route, but I argued it is actually easiest route from Nant Gwynant and it could have been much harder. When we finally reached the western ridge the gradient was now much easier, but the weather was really harsh with bitterly cold wind and freezing temperatures as we made the final ascent to the top. At the time the summit building had been recently demolished and work had not yet started on the new building, so when we got there we found the astonishing sight of the tiled floor of the old building, but no building. The summit of Snowdon was covered in hoar frost, but no snow and it was stupendously cold.
We tried to find shelter behind the summit rock to have our lunch, but it was so cold I soon realised that it was silly trying to eat our lunch in this weather, so I suggested we both head straight back down without eating our lunch. Retracing our steps past the site of what is now the Summit Visitor Centre (Hafod Eyri) we continued past the top of the Watkin Path and across the narrow ridge of Bwlch Main veering left down the southern ridge above Clogwyn Du. I had come up this ridge in good weather in 2005 and would follow my steps of this walk coming down the ridge in even worse weather (but warmer) in 2008. I have not been along it since and it is not on any of the official routes up Snowdon, yet I remember it as being a good route with plenty of rock to keep me interested. This rock may have caused some problems for my colleague as I remember near the bottom he said the gloves that I had given him were now soaking wet, probably due to him repeatedly touching the wet rocks for support during the tricky descent.
Eventually we reached Bwlch Cwm Llan where we turned left to take the path into the valley and rejoin the Watkin Path for the short distance back into Nant Gwynant. This was a tough walk in bitterly cold, damp weather that really tested my colleague who was not used to climbing mountains, but he came through it in one piece and was able to drive us all the way back to Leicester.
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