Sunshine and sunburn

After all the recent busy weekends away and time spent apart it was a well needed weekend spent with my wife, but since she’s been hearing of all my exploits and hankering for some of her own we had a blast up to North Wales for a spot of mountains.. Camped at Hafod y Llan at the base of the Watkins path up Snowdon. It can be a bit midgey and some say basic. But it’s got everything you need (apart from drinking water – but we came prepared) plus has fire pits and wood.



yes we are going up that...



Saturday we took full use of the paths proximity and since a) wifey hadn’t done Snowdon for a long time b) found it hard last time, c) had lost weight and d) been running loads we thought it a good choice. Also as it’s not the main path it’s not as busy. She was on fine form and blasted up in near 2:30, we didn’t hang round long on the summit as it was swarming, but pootled off down the Bwlch main path to stop and enjoy the view. Then carried on down towards Yr Aran, before a surprise pass of the MR helicopter had us pausing to see what they were up to. They ended up circling the Watkins valley, but then went to a flare on the summit of Yr Aran –hopefully for training purposes only! We carried on down and were very glad to get back to the campsite and cool down! Unfortunately we’d not taken swim stuff, otherwise would have joined the many others cooling off in the river!



yup that's the watkins path

heli out on training

Sunday was a climb of Cnicht from Croesor. Not one I’ve done before but very appealing mountain and certainly a nice ridge to follow. Plus some options for scrambling if you’re that way interested (wifey isn’t). However, after this from Llyn Yr Adar the path is very faint till you get to Llyn Cwm-y-foel when it’s a bit easier to follow down the side of the valley back to Croesor. We contemplated a tea stop (one next to the car park) but couldn’t justify it, plus needed to be getting on home.



some say it looks like a mini matterhorn



So roughly 14 miles and about 5000ft of ascent over the weekend, not bad at all!