Background
The climb was all in aid of raising money for Cancer Research UK, we planned the climb for June 2nd and the weather was absolutely perfect for it, a clear day, around 18 degrees with little wind. The planned routes were using the Snowdon Ranger path for the ascent and the Llanberis path for the descent, which should’ve taken roughly 5-6 hours combined.
The Ascent
On the day of the climb we arrived at the car park for the Snowdon Ranger path, which was unfortunately full. This led to us going to the next car park which was for the Rhyd Ddu path. The problem was we had not researched the route and there were no maps nearby, but there was a train which operates around the base of the mountain, which would take us back to the Snowdon Ranger path.
After arriving at the Snowdon Ranger station we began our climb. The path was more challenging than either of us had expected, with some sheer drops, very rocky sections and intermittent steep inclines. We soon realised after hitting some of the tricky sections that we would struggle. The path descriptions we had read online were rather deceiving, in hindsight we should’ve taken the Llanberis route up which would have taken longer but with a more gradual incline. The Snowdon Ranger path did in fact take us 5 hours, due to our underestimation of the required fitness levels.
Upon the path reaching the railway line, we were about 600 metres away from the summit still. It seemed so close, but 600 metres at the end of the ascent was an arduous task as we were both exhausted, but the views were fantastic from the final stretch approaching the summit.
The Descent
After reaching the summit later than expected and more exhausted than we had imagined we would be, we decided to try and get the train back down. However, the trains were all fully booked and there were no seats for the rest of the day. So we took around an hours break and decided to head back the way we came, rather than the Llanberis route which we had planned. This was partially due to the familiarity with the route and with it being later in the day, made more sense; also with the car park change it meant we would have been further away after the descent.
After completing the descent, which took about 2 and a half hours, we still had a 2 mile walk to the car park we had to park in earlier. This was due to a lack of public transport after 6pm in the area.
Thank You
It was a great achievement as well as probably the most challenging thing either of us had ever done. We managed to raise £280 (at the time of writing this) which is over 50% of our £500 goal, so I would like to thank everyone who donated to us, shared our page and to everyone who supported us through this challenge.
We are still accepting donations via our JustGiving page, so If you would like to donate and/or share our page you can find it here.
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