So to start my story off, I will tell you what we did the night before climbing Snowdon. Ether had a fund-raising gig for Daf's sister to go to a choir competition in China. Let me tell you, the girl has some pipes!!! Anyway, most of us were out for this and then everyone met up at the pub to play some pool and have a night cap. Let's just say we all had a late night and some of us later than others...I won't mention names... *cough*Brighid*cough. :) We had originally planned to meet at my flat at 6AM but we changed it to 7AM, but some of the group didn't get the message. So we started out the day unorganized and people running about trying to get there packed lunches ready at the last minute (raising hand).
So we set off at about half past 7, oops. The drive was nice; you cut through the moors (sp?) and Betws-y-Coed which is a cute little town. And then, the mountains start coming into view. At this point I'm thinking I should have gone to bed earlier. :/ After driving around the bottom of the mountain for about half an hour, we finally find somewhere to park...D was right,
we should have set out earlier to avoid some of the crowds. We had to walk probably almost a mile to get to where the trails started, this is when I knew I had gotten myself into something I may regret later. I was huffing and puffing all the way up. (In the picture from right to left: Dafydd, Peter, Brighid, Chris, "D"/Dave)
We started walking up at about half past 8. It was a nice cool morning, there was a breeze, and the sun was behind the clouds, but of course I had my shades on because I am just that cool, Joe Cool to be exact. The views were absolutely spectacular! You don't see anything like it in Texas, that's for sure! The picture at the top of this blog is from about the first 20 minutes of our hike.
Halfway up to the top, we stopped for lunch, at about 10:30. It's crazy how much energy you use up!! The terrain was rough and I wished I had had boots on because I cannot tell you how many times I rolled my ankles. My thighs and buttocks were burning, the sun came out so it got hot, and we didn't bring near enough food. Let me tell you what though...climbing up Snowdon is like walking on a stairclimber for the whole day. But when you get to the top, you realize that it's worth it. It took us about 4 hours to get to the top. The top of Snowdon is at 1085 feet, so it's a good climb. We could have done it quicker, but we were talking our time, stopping to take pictures and just enjoy the view.
We started our climb down which took significantly less time than going up even though we took the longer route down. We went down around the lakes left by glaciers and the water was beautiful and clean and cool. We finally made it down and the whole trip took us about 7 and a half hours.
I won't lie, I was really sore the next day and was in bed by like 7:30 or so. I was absolutely knackered!!! But it was a great day to spend with friends and enjoy being outdoors.
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