Saturday 11th October 2003
A cold start
Dan was awake first. He got out of the tent into the cold morning. The car said it was two degrees Celsius, and it felt it. Jon got up about 15 minutes later and informed Dan that the temperature inside his part of the tent was a massive nine degrees Celsius. Just goes to show how much warmer a tent will keep you!
After breakfast, Dan got a message from Mike to say they were running a little late. Jon reckoned we should head off to the start point on our own, especially as the sheep in the field next to the campsite were starting to smell bad. We drove to Pen-y-Pass only to find the car park was full, so we turned around and went back down the hill to a lake near Pen-y-Gwryd. Dan stood near the road to attract the attention of the others when they passed.
Dave and CY arrive
Dave and CY had turned up late last night, but were fresh and ready for a long days walking. Jon, Dan and CY piled into Dave's Landy (Author's Note: I'd rather not talk about the gear changing when sat in the middle seat) whilst the rest went in Mike's car. They drove us up to Pen-y-Pass, dropped the cars back down at the lake and caught the bus to meet back with us. Now we could start walking.
Below is our route for the day. Green is the path Dan, Jon, Simon, Jacqui and Andy walked. The purple is the different way that Mike, Dave, CY and Caitie walked, and gold is what Jon and Dan walked to get the cars as they were first back to Pen-y-Pass.
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Our route for the day
We set off on the Pyg Track, stopping below Crib Goch to take some photos and to eat some food. It was so humid, that Dan's camera misted up entirely when he took it out of his bag, so he had to rely on the 1940s medium format folding camera he was using.
The ascent of impending fear
The point at which the track split had a warning on it - "Warning: This is the path to Crib Goch", or something along those lines anyway. We started the walk up until the path ended. After that, it was all scrambling all the way up. It was at this point the group split up. Dave and CY were ahead. Then it was Mike, Caitie, Dan and Jon. And then behind them was Simon, Jacqui and Andy.
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This is what we climbed up to reach Crib Goch
Scrambling (clambering over rocks that you can't walk on, but isn't steep enough to warrant a rope) isn't Jon's favourite activity, so Dan slowed down to make sure he was OK. After climbing for a while, Mike, Dan and Jon stopped to chat to some guys waiting to go over the ridge. It was then that the cloud cleared and we could see how high we were - and it definitely felt high, very high. A small element of panic was suddenly evident in Dan's mind. Jon was already well into the panicking - he's not keen on heights.
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This shows how high we were up Crib Goch
Mike was far more confident that Dan or Jon, so easily lost us - even with Caitie to help and occasionally push up. Near the summit just before the ridge, Simon, Jacqui and Andy caught up with Dan and Jon. Simon was helping Jacqui out and looked very much like he knew what he was doing.
"I think we should wait for Simon to go ahead," suggested Dan.
"Good idea," replied Jon.
The smell of fear
As the five of us sat at the start of the ridge, Dan started to wonder what he had let himself in for. He could see the ridge go off into the distance, looking far worse than he had thought it would be. Simon led, Jacqui followed, then Dan, Jon and finally Andy. We started to edge slowly across the ridge on our hands and knees. Before we had moved very far, Jacqui's fear got the better of her - she froze and was unable to move. With some coaxing from Simon and a brief threat about Mountain Rescue, she started to move again. Dan breathed a sigh of relief - stopping on the ridge had given him time to think, and that wasn't good.
It was made slightly worse by the fact that some people made it look very easy and were overtaking us by just walking across the ridge as if it were a normal path.
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The dreaded ridge of Crib Goch - we went along the top of all that!
The ridge had a near vertical sheer drop of around 1000 feet off of the right hand side, whilst the left hand side that you move along is around 45 degrees, occasionally steeper. Thankfully, there were many handholds and footholds. However, at the time it felt much, much steeper - as if you'd fall off if you'd let go. Some bits were much nastier than others - places where you had no choice but to shuffle across the top of the ridge on your bottom with your legs either side.
Jacqui and Dan kept asking people who passed coming the other way if it was much further - most people said it wasn't that bad or that we were almost there. Apart from one woman...
"Is there much more to go?" asked Dan.
"Yes," the woman mouthed silently as she nodded her head.
"Bugger!" said Dan, to himself.
Then it got worse
After what seemed an age, but was only about an hour, we stopped at a very safe bit for some water and food for anyone who could stomach it. Other people walked passed, but Dan held onto the rocks for dear life anyway - he had been relatively OK up until now (if you ignore the heavy breathing to successfully control the fear). It was the "escalator" bit which really freaked Dan out - to the stage of the taste in the back of your throat you get just before you vomit. But with concentration, some breathing control and much talking to the voices in his head he was OK.
The escalator was a series of high steps with a sheer drop off one side - it looked very, very daunting. One wrong step and that, as they say, would be that. Dan had looked at the map recently and had realised that we were only half way across the ridge towards Snowdon. Jon, who had got over his fear, took a photo of Simon climbing the escalator. Dan was far too scared to get his camera out.
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Simon on the escalator - the drop on the right hand side was near vertical and around 1000 feet! (photo courtesy of Jon)
Dan had been expecting the other side of the escalator to be bad as well, but the ground levelled off a little and it felt far safer. Jon was fine now and with no fear left, he stormed ahead. Dan kept up, but remained sceptical as he had seen the map when no-one else had and knew there was still at least 1/2 kilometre to go - and the contours of the map showed no letting up.
It must be said that Simon had been absolutely amazing crossing the ridge - he was looking after us all to make sure we were OK and checking out the route ahead to see how bad it was. Thanks, Simon - much appreciated!
Back on a path
We walked across the well defined path, which felt an immense luxury, across to the next outcrop which was called Crib-y-Dydsgl. We initially tried to go around it, but that path soon disappeared. So, it was back to scrambling up rocks again - nothing to it this time, though - not after Crib Goch. We were walking (yep, walking, not crawling!) along the scree slope. But, as we had walked down a little too far, we headed back up towards the peak. Jon looked over and got the fright of his life - it was a sheer drop over the other side. Pushing on, we put in a good pace and soon reached the trig point.
The summit of Snowdon
Just at this point, Dan got a text message from Mike to say he had met up with Dave and CY on the summit of Snowdon, and were going to do the rest of the Snowdon Horseshoe. Jon and Dan started walking at a fairly quick pace to reach the summit, which they soon reached. Snowdon was exactly as Dan remembered it from when he was a kid - misty with no view.
We climbed the steps to the summit where Jon totally failed to impress a girl. She was texting someone on her phone, which appears to be the "in thing" to do these days - sending an SMS from a mountain summit.
"That's the phone I worked on!" said Jon.
The girl just giggled and walked off a short while later once she had finished texting.
Dan smiled to himself as he sent an SMS to his sister, Rachel.
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ndy, Jacqui and Simon on the summit of Snowdon
Andy, Jacqui and Simon arrived shortly afterwards and climbed to the summit as well. We then made our way to the café for a very welcomed, but expensive, cup of tea. We had made contact with Mike who, with Dave and CY, had got their descent slightly wrong so had come back to the summit to try again. Dave gave Andy the keys to his Landy in case they got delayed.
The descent
After we had warmed up a little, it was time to descend Snowdon and go back to the car. Jon and Dan led the way, soon leaving the others behind. We started off going down the Pyg Track before cutting across to the Miner's Track. We stopped occasionally to take some photos, especially at the base of the Glastyn tarn.
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The Glastyn tarn, below Snowdon
The path was constructed with large slabs on the edges with smaller, uneven stones in the middle. We found it far easier to walk on the edges - in fact, we jogged down the mountain along those larger stones. By now, we couldn't feel pain anymore so used it to our full advantage and overtook other people with ease. Once we were back on the level the mist came down further and it started raining.
"I hope Dave, Mike, CY and Caitie are OK," said Dan, looking up towards the mountain they were on, now shrouded in mist.
"They seem experienced," said Jon. "We'll give them until 8pm before calling out mountain rescue."
Back to the car and civilisation
We reached the car park where we had started, but decided to continue down to the car without stopping. We overtook some more people on the road and soon reached the car. Dan drove back to the car park and, as we were taking our boots off and eating some food, Dave, Mike, CY and Caitie arrived at the car park. Dave, CY and Caitie took torches, as the light was failing, and headed back up the path to meet with Simon, Andy and Jacqui. Dan took Mike to collect his car.
A very welcomed evening meal
We all met up at the car park again. Dan and Jon then went back to the campsite for a shower in the pitch black - it was completely dark by now. Straight after that, we headed into Betws-y-Coed and grabbed a table for eight at the same pub as the night before. The rest arrived about 15 minutes later. For variety, Dan ate exactly the same again - lamb shank and a baked potato, followed by apple pie and custard. And, after an experience like today's, the beer has never tasted so good!
After the meal, Dan and Jon left to drive back to the campsite. We were expecting to be in pain tomorrow as any pressure on the legs hurt a lot. Jon had also bruised his legs from the scrambling across the ridge.
We went to bed after a quick bottle of Stella each, not necessarily looking forward to another day's walking.