It has been no less than 15 years since I climbed Snowdon via Llanberis Path. I was accompanied back then by a Slovakian friend, very experienced in hiking in her native High Tatras. For her, that “easy” Snowdon trail was a walk in a park. She wore jeans and trainers. For me, it was a 6 hours of hell, during which I was constantly being overtaken by young children and dogs. I recently wondered if, after all these years, my physical stamina got improved at all or if I had another go I would again end up in pain and self-pity. It doesn’t take me long to organize a day trip so I checked trains to Bangor, Sherpa bus connection to Llanberis, weather forecast which assured me that Thursday would be sunny but not hot, and I set my alarm clock for 5:30 in the morning. Snowdon, let me try again!

What really made a huge difference this time, apart from me being slightly better prepared – layers of clothing (necessary – temperature changed so much that I wore a short sleeved top to start with, then added a hoodie and a windproof jacket), Deuter backpack with a hip belt, re-hydrating with coconut water – was taking my nordic walking/trekking poles with me. Without them I would have probably crawled up the summit. When after 3h 15 min (some 30 min spent on a couple of stops) I finally reached what seemed like a never ending queue to the summit, I felt just fine – no tiredness, no leg ache. Poles rule (pun intended 😉 ).

I could not be bothered queuing so I went to Snowdon Cafe which wasn’t open during my trip in 2008. I was told it only just recently re-opened after the pandemic, and so did the Snowdon Mountain Railway, closed for three years (!) for maintenance. Taking the train up and down was out of the question, I came to challenge and push myself, however I would happily use it if I had people with me who couldn’t do the hike. The cafe had clean toilets, a gift shop and light snacks – no actual restaurant. It’s good that it’s there; a much needed shelter from wind and rain. The sky looked dark and gloomy at some point but thankfully it stayed dry.

While the visibility was not ideal, I welcomed the clouds and the wind which was so strong that the landscape changed from one minute to another. As I was refuelling, the dreaded queue got much shorter. It suddenly occurred to me that 15 years ago we didn’t all have smartphones and people didn’t linger on the summit taking endless selfies 😉 I quickly went up, stayed maybe 30 seconds, snapped two pics and went down, allowing others to do the whole Insta ritual.

The views were breathtaking, I could even see what must have been Harlech Beach but it quickly disappeared under the clouds. While majority of people reaches Snowdon via Llanberis Path (and probably half of them if not more by train), there were quite a few exhausted individuals emerging from what I suspected were these tougher trails. Llanberis Path is accused of being boring and to be honest, I agree to some extent. Not much happens until the Halfway House and the steep stretch that follows is probably the least pleasant bit – but very doable with a good pair of poles. It gets much better in terms of views from there onwards.

Going down was tougher than up. I did not use my poles because I needed to be able to access my phone quickly (trouble in my block of flats…) but I should have! Annoyingly, there was a 40 min wait for the next S2 bus to Bangor so rather than wait at the stop I hopped on S2 going in the direction of Pen-Y-Pass and stayed on it all the way to Bangor. Lots of people use this service to get to Pen-Y-Pass from a car park, from Llanberis or Betws-y-Coed. It’s such an excellent solution and it helps to avoid congestion and illegal parking. Well done Snowdonia National Park – or should I say Eryri, as it’s now officially called. In Bangor, another hour of waiting for a train back to Chester. It’s all very well encouraging visitors to leave cars at home but it inevitably means wasting lots of time for connections. I was home by 10 pm. I had the best sleep in months afterwards 🙂

Just to mention, I initially thought about doing this trip in late summer, but upon reading Ant Middleton’s “The Fear Bubble” where he describes both his Snowdon climb (not the Llanberis path of course) and his Mt Everest adventure, I decided to do it there and then. If Ant says you can do it, you can!