So we begin, after filling up at the local service station, I entered the postcode of our hotel The Legacy Royal Victoria into my Sat Nav and off we went – or so I thought! After forgetting the ongoing problem with my car (I need a new battery), whilst stationary I plugged the Sat Nav charger into the 12v plug socket and it drained what little battery I had. Luckily, I had my Dad’s battery charger in my car from my previous failings, thus, our start was delayed by only 20 or so minutes! And off we went. After enjoying the next 2 2/12 hours of the drive through the English and Welsh countryside everything was going perfectly, until we stopped to check out this view (Mt. Snowdon is the central peak):

After turning the Sat Nav on again, it said we were approx. 10 miles from our destination, and as we turned the right it told us to, we thought we would get there within 20 minutes and could then relax for a while. But oh nooo. The Sat Nav (and local Welsh signs) took us on a wild goose chase around the cliffs and villages of Snowdonia National Park. We got to the hotel around an hour later, and I must admit, I was seething. Stupid *****y Sat Nav, I’m taking it back etc. etc. – you get the picture. After checking-in and unloading all of our luggage we headed for Caernarfon Castle.

After taking a walk round, we decided to go for something to eat as all things considered, the area surrounding the castle seemed somewhat unsafe (drunk locals, men in vans, and dark alleys didn’t help). We dined at The Black Boy Inn where I had the traditional Welsh Pie and a local ale – it was delicious!

The next morning, after a hearty continental breakfast at the hotel which included a selection of meat, fruit, cereals and bread, we got dressed to climb Snowdon. Again, or so we thought! As we headed into the lobby with our food and water, thermal under garments, walking sticks/boots and general warm clothing we thought we were all kitted out – not so. Some guys in the lobby asked us where we were going, and I replied “Climbing Snowdon for the first time, on the Pyg trail”. He then asked if he asked if we had a map and a compass, to which I replied ”no, we have the Snowdonia iPhone App” (which contains the trail map and directions). The look of utter confusion/worry on his face was quite unnerving. I then ended the conversation and we headed to my car to fill up our water bottles.

After filling up we started our walk to the bottom of the trail, which lasted all of 25 steps. As we were on our way we heard voices, and turned round and saw the same two guys literally running towards us. ”You’re not SERIOUSLY climbing Snowdon today, are you?!” – “Yes, why”?. It went something like this… ”Because you don’t have a compass or map, you’ve never climbed a mountain before and the weather up there is terrible” also, ”you have jeans on, which when you get wet, will give you hypothermia and then you’ll DIE! (I had waterproof trousers in my bag). After also telling us that an extremely experienced climber managed to die on Snowdon last year after falling through some snow, our fate was sealed – we weren’t going to climb Snowdon today. We felt a mixture of things – silly, naive, frustrated and somewhat let-down. We really wanted to climb Snowdon, however, looking back, I think we did the right thing.

After some debate we decided to explore the area and throughout the day managed to visit Dolbadarn Castle, Llyn [Lake] Peris , Padarn Country Park where saw some people dive into ice cold old quarry sites and complete the 5 mile Padarn Lake Walk.

After a quick stop at The Heights to sample some more local ale we got some food from the local convenience store and spent the night in the hotel. During the evening we agreed that after seeing other walkers who seemed less equipped than us heading back from climbing Snowdon, after doing some more research on the route and like problems we would face, we would head up the ‘easier’ Llanberis Path and see where it took us – the summit or not. After visiting the local shop for water and food we followed the signs saying ‘Snowdon Footpaths’ as we assumed it would lead us to join the Llanberis Path (it should have done). After about 20 minutes of following the ‘signs’ we were approached by two workers working on the Snowdon Mountain Railway line – ”Where are you heading?”, us: ”The Llanberis Path to Snowdon”. Workers: ”You’re going the wrong way”.

Basically we had followed the signs correctly, or so we thought – however it seems the signs stating ‘public footpath’ were not the ones we were looking for – damn. After being re-directed by the helpful workers to the correct path (via the explicitly forbidden railway track), we got on the correct trail and were finally on our way up Snowdon. At this point I should mention that Emma was sure that one of the workers was wearing a ‘leather gimp suit’ as she put it – I’m not convinced.

After a further 2 & 1/2 hours walking up Snowdon, we decided to turn back. A numbers of reasons contributed to this, Emma’s trousers were sopping wet, visibility was around 15 metres and we had reached the point the the iPhone App, internet guides and the locals describe as ‘the death-trap ice rink’ – I also had this quote resonating in my head: ”Beware here if there is any snow or ice and you are not prepared with crampons and ice axe. There are steep cliffs below and accidents have occurred here in the past. Turn back here if in doubt.” Unfortunately we had neither. It was a little disappointing as we had reached 3/4 of the way up, however we still had a really fun time and will be back to conquer Snowdon in the summer months!

Due to the weather I didn’t get to take many photo’s, however here are some I did manage to capture.

The Halfway House (A.K.A The Shrieking Shack by me).

This little fella was pestering us for food around 2400ft up Snowdon – he got a nibble of a Snickers bar!