Not urbex, hence i've posted it in here
Snowdon.
Visited with just me.
Ascending Snowdon has been on my list of things to do for a long long time, having decided to take some time away from underground mooching, and having a great weekend of weather forecast, i couldn't think of anything better to do than to give it a go.
I asked a few people who had some knowledge of the place what would be the best route to take up, and it was decided that the miners path would be the one for me. I set off from Manchester nice and early to get to the Pen-y-Pass Car Park in good time, i was there for about 8am, there wasn't a parking spot to be found! I was told i could drive 4 miles down the road to some alternative parking and get a "shuttle" back.
I arrived at the alternative parking and it very quickly became apparent that the shuttle was in fact a bus, I felt cheated and lied to, I hadn't just driven 110 miles to park my car and get on a bus, oh no..
my options were to either turn around and go home, or walk from here, i decided i would walk, I could see where i wanted to be, and obviously the quickest way there would be straight up, the route looked fairly simple from where i was standing, i had drank a few redbulls and i could still taste the kebab from the night before, what could possibly go wrong?
I grabbed my camera and a few bottles of water and off i went, my first challenge was to cross a stream, the water wasn't deep but i didn't want to get wet feet so early in the day as i felt this could cause disaster, i walked along the river bank for a while and came to a bridge, over i popped and up i went, and up and up and up...
the path up ranged from steep grass and brambles (i was wearing shorts) to scrambling up loose rock and shale to full on climbing the rocky outcrops, i would say it took around 2 hours to make my way up, but this wasn't even to the top of Snowdon, i probably still had far again to go, feeling tired and hot in the 32 degree heat i decided to just follow the railway and Llanberis track from here, and this probably took yet another hour or so.
Once at the top, i attempted to grab a couple of pictures but it was SO busy, i think half the worlds population had turned up, i watched someone getting air lifted off the hill/mountain and then i went into the cafe for some drinks, where i was held up off dick turpin (cost me a fiver for 2 drinks and a mars bar).
I drank my water and headed back down, i set off towards the Llanberis path and where you turn under the railway headed off to the right, i eventually found a route which looked doable so headed down, at first it wasn't too bad, but it quickly turned into loose scree which made the going slow, once i was 3/4 of the way down there was flowing water, i know that this would have to run into the stream/river which i had crossed when i left the car, so i just followed it, down a couple of waterfalls and eventually to the stream, there was a path at the side of the stream, but i opted to walk in it, my feet were blistered, i was badly sunburnt and my legs were cut to shreds, i have never been so glad to see nut deep water.
i was probably about 3/4 of a mile from the car, i rested for a short while before walking across a field to the road, then it was straight down the road to the carpark, where i was greeted by the lovely site of my car which i had left 2 cans of redbull in, unfortunately they were that hot, i couldn't even pick the cans up, never mind open them, i just started the car, turned on the aircon and waited for the car to cool down so i could drive to the nearest shop.
and that was my trip to snowdon, total time away from the car, about 8hrs
Video in 1080p goodness here...
http://youtu.be/U1g4sX48tHw
There are some pictures here -
http://www.dspexplores.com/?p=712