Climbing Snowdon 2.

T his lady actually had shorts on and by the time they had got nearly to the top of the mountain the temperature was a lot different and she got quite surprisingly cold - although it was June. She hadn't taken her trousers with her so, in fact, her legs seized up with the cold. So somebody walked down and fetched her trousers from the coach. Alan, the Team Leader, ended up having to carry her part of the way up but, as you can see from the photographs, it didn't wipe the smile from his face.

A t no time was the safety of any member of the climb compromised - here it was safer to go on up to the top and take a warm and comfortable train ride down the mountain. It was a good thing that the path was at this point fairly smooth. Later on nearer the top it became appreciably steeper and, when she was able to walk, she did so - a few steps at a time before needing to rest.

It not only looked desolate here but, exposed as it was with scree banks on either side of the track, it was very windy although, surprisingly, not as cold as it looked - probably because, by then, the walkers had started to 'warm up' a bit from the climb.

Here the path is climbing gradully through banks of marsh grass with occasional patches of heather. You can clearly see the erosion on the path caused by countless boots tramping up this very popular route to the top.
Our walkers had, by now, started to space out a bit as the going became rougher.

One of the hidden advantages of such an 'ever upwards' climb like this was that, periodically, one was forced to have a pause for breath, adjust the back-pack or unwrinkle a sock. Then the walkers could see how high they were getting and that the summit was getting a shade closer all the time.

At this point, by walking slightly to one side, there was a magnificent view of the two lakes far, far below and in the distance on the far horizon it was just possible to make out the sea towards Anglesey in the NorthWest - hidden from all but the sharpest eyes by the haze and cloud.