It’d become something of a long standing joke that every time I tried to summit Snowdon, I’d been beaten back by awful weather (a severe weather warning and wind strong enough to knock you over on Crib Goch). So on the 25th April 2009, with the prospect of some good weather, I made my way over to Wales for the day, to try to finally complete the Snowdon Horseshoe.
Kit
With showers and occasional gusts expected but nothing too cold I went with my trusted base layer/tshirt, Mountain Equipment Kongur Gore-Tex jacket on top, walking trousers and Scarpa Manta boots (B2 boots more because I wanted to wear them than needing to) combination. Then a light fleece and over trousers in my 43litre pack, if it got particularly cold/windy/wet on the route. My friend also kindly packed the contents of the car footwell in my pack to “help with my training”.
Getting there/The route
If you’re driving then by far the best option (if you can get there early enough) is the car park at Pen y Pas, although with limited places and us setting off from Leicester there was no chance of getting a space. The next best option is to drive down the road back toward Llanberis, look for spaces on the road or head to Nant Peris and make use of the Sherpa Bus park and ride service (cost £4 for a car then £3.50 return to Pen y Pas).
There’s countless sites/books out there that provide a far better and more detailed discussion of the route than I can, so find links to those sites below…
and I’ll just cover the exciting/interesting parts of the walk on the day.
Quick information
The route is listed at around 7 to 7.5miles, gains over 1150m over the route and should take around 6-7hrs. We got round in around 5:30hrs at a decent pace in good weather. It’s not considered a walk as such but a Grade 1 scramble, which means there could be a fair bit of exposure to heights and you’ll most likely need to use your hands to clamber up rock to complete the route. In bad weather it’s not worth attempting unless you know exactly what you’re doing as terrain is regularly exposed, steep and rocky.
You’ll pick up the summits of Crib Goch (923m), Garnedd Ugain (1065m), Snowdon (1085m) and Y Lliwedd (898m). So 3 of the Welsh 3000s and the highest point in Wales, not bad!
The walk
The initial walk takes you out of the top right of the car park onto the pyg track and ascends at a really nice gradient to get you going. By the time the track divides, with options to go either left to Snowdon or right for Crib Goch, I felt warmed up at the decent pace we’d set off at.
Naturally there was little discussion to be had, we were going via the knife edge ridge of Crib Goch to have some fun scrambling on one of the really famous routes in Snowdonia.
With clear weather and plenty of people going the same way, it was easy enough to follow the path up to the ridge of Crib Goch. Our attempt before we’d gone too far to the right and ended up on more exposed sections of rock. This time we made short work of the scramble up to the start of the ridge.
Once up onto the ridge, I was happy to at last see the summit of Snowdon, after the previous 3 times it was shrouded in clouds/rain.
The ridge itself whilst a little daunting at first, really isn’t too bad, if heights don’t bother you that is! So we took some photos, watched people move slowly like crabs across the ridge and then made our way across the top.
As notes will no doubt mention, if you’re feeling confident of your balance or there’s not much wind then walking on the ridge is no problem, if not then drop down to left (that’d be the Southern side) where you’ll find decent footing and be able to hold onto the crest for extra security. Not that if you were on the ridge you’d consider it, but the right hand side of the ridge is not a good place to go, it’s near vertical and has one hell of a drop! The true summit of Crib Goch is toward the middle of the ridge in an exposed position but with fantastic views, if you miss the cloud/fog.
A small climb down onto a grassy area is soon followed by a scramble up onto another ridge toward the summit of Garnedd Ugain. And then it’s a gradual slope down to meet up with the main trail and alongside it the train track that goes up toward the summit of Snowdon.
After what’s come before the trail is not only really easy going, you’re also in the company of the “prawn sandwich” crew up to the overcrowded summit. Still the view, if you get one, is worth whatever you’ve put up with en-route, which luckily for us on the day was pleasant weather.
After a bit of lunch looking out over the Horseshoe it’s down a steep scree slope to meet up with a path that heads up Y Lliwedd via a fun scramble that perhaps looks worse than it actually is. Coming down back after the summit my knees were feeling less than great, the terrain whilst interesting definitely takes it out of your joints if you’re carrying any weight.
The Snowdon Horseshoe is an amazing route, definitely one to try even if you just do Crib Goch, get to Snowdon then come back down the main trail. The views and sense of adventure you’ll get from the walk are fantastic and probably not matched on other similar options in England/Wales. But, and it’ll be mentioned time and time again, be aware it is exposed up on the ridges and if you’re not keen on heights or have never walked on a ridge before it’s probably best to build up to it or avoid it completely.
