Snowdon

One thing on my list of this to do this year was to climb Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales, at 1085 meters high. Coinciding nicely with a friend's birthday camping trip to Wales, that gave me the perfect opportunity to go to that part of the country. I drove to Wales after work to the Cae Gwyn Farm, a lovely campsite with nice facilities, wasn't such a fan of the midges that were crawling over every part of exposed skin. And I forgot the insect repellent.

Half of the people went for a little biking session and James, Lindsay and I went to climb the mountain. A nice leisurely morning, I was sharing a tent with James and Lindsay with my own little  cosy compartment, very snug. I'm all about the glamping, air bed - yes, pillow - yes. James and Lindsay's part was much more glamped than mine with proper sheets and duvets. 

The campsite was about an hour's drive to the car park, we did have a mis-hap with the map reading and parking and started to walk in completely the wrong place. Once we did figure out where we were and got to the right parking place, the car park was one in one out. It took us about half an hour to get parked before we started walking anywhere.

We were going up the Miners track which starts out very nice and follows a scenic path by a few lakes, then the path connects to the Pyg track by a very steep incline of scrambling up rocks. The last section up Snowdon was in a cloud, it was wet and miserable, the track pops out on to another trail that lead to the train station and cafe area. It was a lot busier at the top with people who clearly didn't prepare for rain and were just walking in trainers and a t-shirt. There is a lot of encouragement from people as you pass then, everyone underestimated how long it was to the top, it's alright we got there in the end.

Walking by the lakes

At the top I could see nothing but an endless cloud. No beautiful view over Wales, no bright sunshine to lift our spirits. We got a well deserved drink and food at the top and thought about getting the Snowdon Railway down. Unfortunately, all seats on the train down were booked, walking down was the only option.

Near the top

We took two hours to go up and two and a half to come down, a respectable time. The track is pretty straight forward, you'd need at least a basic fitness level if you wanted to climb Snowdon. I wore my heart rate monitor on the climb to see what kind of workout it was. Going up kept my heart rate in the right zone for the most part, coming down I just wasn't hitting the zone at all. Overall, I did manage to burn just short of 2000 calories, which is about four trips to the gym.