Climbing snowdon

this is the village where the hotel was situated- the road was like the heads of the valleys! eek! except scarier. 

hotel.

Welsh poem- translation greatly appreciated!- as you can see the day I arrived in n orth wales there was glorious sunshine and pretty views- skip forwards 12 hours- 7 am at the car park at the foot of snowdon- you will see the weather was not on our side:

you can't see the mountains properly because there was thick fog and very heavy rain.

This is us after an ours climb- by this point our waterproofs were completely soaked through as it had rained so heavily.

We walked up the P.Y,G track, which I do not think is the easiest track. the rain had made the paths into little streams, making all the rocks very slippery, and our visibility was poor.

I think I would have enjoyed this experience much more in good weather- in poor weather it is genuinely terrifying.

rest stop- we managed to walk off the path we were supposed to take- which is easy on snowdon and especially easy in poor weather- we stopped for some food and a rest and this was our view.

These photos are Simons- My camera was a bit crap in the rain because the lens is so big. the rain drops  got all over the lens and ruined all my photos.

Damn you snowdon weather.

This poster was in the car park at the foot of snowdon- knowing that we were climbing in very poor conditions and that there were weather warnings out I think this did make us feel a bit uneasy- of the 8 of us only myself, jess and Karl were climbing novices, and Helen is training to do mountain hiking as a group leader for a living.

We managed to persuade someone to take our group photo at the foot of the mountain- don't we all look dry and happy?!

And this is us at the top- Soaked to the bone!

on the summit!

This is how I WISH we had gotten to the top- I quite seriously hated every second of the hike. I know I've climbed mountains in good weather with friends in wales and with traff in spain and really enjoyed it- but this was scary. you can see how poor our visibility was.

View on the way back down- the fog had lifted a little if you compare this one to my photo from the way up.

Me, Karl and Helen, and some fog.

Going up took us 3 hours- we had expected it to take us 2, but our detour and the weather held us back. the way down took us about two hours. I'm really proud of myself for doing it, and for climbing the highest peak in wales!

This is us after dinner, just about recovered and able to walk in betws-y-coed.