On the spur of the moment we had decided to get the tent out of the loft and take all of the kids camping for a couple of days seeing it was the start of the school summer holidays. It was a mad dash around the house making sure we had got everything we would need for a couple of days before checking on the internet where to go. I had been wanting to walk up Snowdon again for what has seemed like ages and had been telling the girls that they needed to get themselves walking fit for the climb.
We arrived in Llanberis on a glorious sunny morning, pitched the tent, donned shorts and walking boots and went for an easy bimble into the village. The summit stayed out of sight until the early evening when the cloud finally lifted and the kids could all see how far they had to walk the next day. Rather than putting them off, they were more excited than ever....little did they know how tough it was going to be for them.
We set off the next day round about lunch time with rucksacks packed full of food, water and warm clothing. It always amazes me how many people go walking to places like this unprepared, and judging by the amount of times we saw the rescue helicopter flying above, there were people who still hadnt learnt their lessons.
The climb was fairly uneventful and very busy on the trail. The first half of the walk was fairly easy and all of the kids were still in good spirits until about a mile after Halfway House when the path became incredibly steep.
By this time we had been walking for around 3 hours and all of the kids really struggled at some time within this, but with plenty of words of encouragement they pushed on through it, determined to make the summit, after all thats what they were there to do.
We climbed through the cloud base and went higher and higher until finally I was able to say that we made it. Extra clothing was put on as it was absolutely freezing cold. I just couldnt believe that some people were up there in shorts but I supposed they had gone up on the train and thats exactly the way they were going to get back down.
We took the obligatory picture at the trig so that we could log the Virtual Cache there and took the details of the trig to log on trigpointing before grabbing the most expensive cup of coffee we had ever had from the local cafe. I couldnt believe that there were no cold water taps in the toilets so had to ask for some cold water for the dog (which they were loathe to give us).
Poor little Sprocket, even with all of his fur was shivering cold up there so lay on the rucksacks and had his Mummy's coat wrapped snugly around him (poor baby)
Return Journey - no easy way down for us...it was all by foot again except this time it was so much easier. It had been such a shame that the cloud was so low however on the way back the clouds briefly moved, brilliant sunshine shone down on us and gave us the most spectacular views. The kids were absolutely amazed and all 4 of them shouted "wow look at that" all at the same time. Just those few seconds made the whole experience worth it.
We finally made it back to the campsite after being on foot for nearly 9 hours. The kids were so proud of themselves for getting to the top and back, a feat that not many of their age can say that they have achieved. Yes they struggled at times, but rather than give up and turn back, they pushed through it and gave it their best shot. Even more amazing was the amount of energy they still had when they got back. Unbelievable.
So, what next.....we have warned them off that Scarfell Pike is next on the to do list and then Ben Nevis. Surprisingly, they were well up for it.....MAD!!!
Posts
At least Scafell Pike is not as high as Snowdon is. Ben Nevis is the "biggy".
ReplyDelete