Snowdon Horseshoe, Snowdonia

The summer is in full swing, and a free weekend, of course its off to Wales again. Third weekend in a row for me! With a few of the group, others either busy or too scared – only joking! we decided to attempt the horseshoe!! Driving up on a Friday night we made way to Mountain Farm Campsite in Llanberis, which was remarkably easy to find, once you found the right street in the middle of the little town!

On entering the place, it was like a mini festival! Lots of campfires going and people drinking beer. Met the owner briefly who was friendly and chatty. I moved on to put up my tent. Considering the campsite is on a slope, it was difficult to find a relatively flat horizontal space! The neighbours seem chirpy enough and their van was comical. Looking from my tent with a nice cool beer as the sun setted, the Kendricks gave me an update that they would be another hour.. lol and my head torch was nowhere to be seen… so i could only drink and not read – tragedy.

  Phil, our other companion was doing some last minute packing for his latest venture abroad, so he decided to join us the next day.. So at about 11pm, the Kendricks turned up and after quickly sorting there tents we had a beer and reminisced old walks and times.

On waking up, the sky looked clear with a few hazy misty clouds above the horseshoe.. the weather looked good. I rustled up some tea and some breakfast. Phil kept his promise and showed up just after 8am . The tents packed up and ready to go, only one thing left to do. Get the cars out of the field. Didn’t really think about this the night before. My expert front wheel rust bucket would surely be able to make it!! No chance.. Luckily a few lads sporting Everton FC shirts, from the surrounding tents came out and pushed the car up and out of the field. I decided to avoid telling them I was a Liverpool fan. Rich’s car next – his clutch burning in third we decided to help him too :)

Once on the road, we headed up the Llanberis pass towards the Pen-y-Pass car park, on the off chance there might be some spaces. In vain unfortunately. There were a lot of cars, and the token twat who tried to kill us all on one bend.. so we made it back down to the Nant park and ride. I thought park and rides were for supermarkets?? Downing a few fizzy drinks we got on the open top bus and made the way back up to the car park where we started the walk (SH64735 55617). As expected the area was crowded as is often the case. Snowdon unfortunately is a tourist mountain and therefore many people attempt to climb this hill that are complete ill prepared. There were plenty of cases around that fit that bill.

For those of you who don’t know, the classic horseshoe route is about 12km long and begins and ends at the Pen-y-Pass car park. The route takes in all five peaks of the horseshoe. Typically in the anti-clockwise order of Crib Goch, Garnedd Ugain, Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), and the twin peaks of Y Lliwedd. The distance is not very far but some parts of the route are grade 1 scrambling! More on that later. The last time I did the horseshoe, I went the other way! For the kendricks it was their first time attempting the horseshoe.

We began walking along the Pyg Track, which since the last time I had been to Snowdon has had a bit of a makeover. Looks like a lot of rock has been airlifted in. I guess to cope with the sheer numbers of people. We made relatively good progress up towards the break in the path for the route up to the ridge (SH63335 55272). We took a breather and looked southwards over the deep blue lake called Llyn Llydaw. We then continued on up through Bywlch y Moch, with the looming Crib Goch above us. The weather unfortunately became overcast and some cloud had now appeared on the tops which was a shame, but that didn’t prevent us from good humour as we took another breather..

The number of people had dropped from literally hundreds (on the Pyg Track) to tens of people now as we reached the base of the steep climb up the eastern ridge of Crib Goch. Phil’s stomach unfortunately turned for the worst and he had a look round to see if he could find a suitable place to relieve himself. We played a little trick on him as he left his bag with us! We carried on further and Phil decided to call it a day as he was feeling even more rough than before. He took the right decision and began walking back down the hill. It was a shame but he would not have enjoyed the main ridge, whilst feeling queasy. Of course we didn’t leave the rock in his bag!!

So as one of the party began walking back down, the Kendricks and I attacked the east ridge and made good progress, although I lost them at one point! This was proper scrambling. One reason why I really like Crib Goch! We got to the top of our first peak in about 1h30m. Crib Goch at just over 3000ft (932m), although this day it was misty which was a shame. The mist did come in spurts and bouts so we did get glimpses of the spectacular north ridge (that's for me next time). Having a quick snack we headed westward along the main ridge.

At several points along here you literally can have one leg on one side of the ridge and the other, on the other – don’t look down if you are scared of heights. This is by far my favourite part. Its always interesting to see how different people approach the ridge. Some people seem to crouch down so close to the rock they are literally hugging it. Whilst others seem to walk along it like a footpath! Taking in the views around as we waited. Yep you guessed it there was a queue here. Sooner or later there will be an accident up here where some people who are inpatient behind some less experienced walkers will take a tumble.. We spent about an hour or so on the main ridge, mainly because of the queues, it is possible to get along here a lot quicker but that is at the crack of dawn or last thing at night!

Getting to the end of the ridge, we began climbing down to the col between Crib Goch and Garnedd Ugain. I always forget that it is quite a climb from here up to the next peak, with some great scrambling bits too :) We stopped to refuel first!! and out of the mist we could see what needed to be done. Rich didn’t quite believe there was a route!! After another hour we made it to the peak no.2, Garnedd Ugain (1065m SH61083 55167). This is the fourth time I’ve visited this trig point, every time in cloud. Maybe next time!! We didn’t stay here for long!! As it was quite nippy! We then began the small descent down to where the path rejoins the Pyg Track and then a few meters further on the Llanberis path which follows the train up. Both these paths heavily congested with people, many with just t-shirts and shorts, or jeans, and in adequate footwear. Now they were paying the price. The weather up on the top of Snowdon, was pretty miserable. Snowdon itself is quite exposed at 1085m and today visibility wasn’t the best.

To compensate we thought we would have a look at the new Snowdon Mountain Cafe. From the outside its quite an impressive building and hugs around the summit quite nicely. It reminded me of the huts I have seen in the Pyrenees a few years before. We worked our way through the doors. Blimey I have never seen so many people in one place. There were several hundred people there, I kid you not. I needed the loo, so I went in! They had Dyson air dryers!! Blimey this place was like a nightclub! All it needed was a band and it would be complete. I think the people who run the place were a tad overwhelmed with the sheer number of people there.

Exiting the place sharply, we were hungry so we began the descent down, first westwards and then at a point marked by a large stick like rock (SH60910 54255), we caught up with the top of the Watkin Path.  We made quick progress down the path and stopped for some lunch under some of the rocks. The weather had improved at this point. Whilst we were eating our lunch entertainment was provided by first a completely in appropriately dressed walker. She had smart black shoes, jeans and a nice top – and a black hand bag – obviously taking hiking fashion to a new level. She made a wise decision and turned around and walked back down from where she came. Shortly after that we saw a Beatles tribute band with guitars making strolling past. Couldn’t really quite believe it. I guess they were going up to the highest nightclub in Wales..

After feeding a seagull with some nuts, we reached the col between Snowdon and Y Lliwedd. The Watkin Path continues downwards (in SW direction at SH 61935 53697). Our route was not downwards but upwards :) Two peaks remained the west and east peaks of Y Lliwedd. After the traffic jams of the approach routes to Snowdon, this path was empty bar a couple of climbers at the top. We made it to the West Peak just as it cleared up, briefly! The gap in the cloud gave us a brief look over towards the Crib Goch main ridge we did earlier. After passing the twin peaks at 898 and 893m we began our descent down towards Llyn Llydaw and onto the miners track and made time to make one last video before we said goodbye to the horseshoe.

We managed to get back to the car park at around 4.30pm and did not wait long for the bus to get us back to the car.

Details:

Start and finish location: Pen-y-Pass car park (SH64735 55617)
Distance: 12km
Altitude Gain: 1012m
Time: 7hr (including stops) 
Walk: Hill and Ridge Walking, Scrambling Grade 1 in places. 
Group Size: 4

Last Comments:

If you want to visit Snowdon, I recommend you go either very early in the morning or late on in the afternoon on a clear day, thus avoiding the bulk of the crowds. The quietest route up is via Y Lliwedd, which is great!! Crib Goch should only ever be attempted with the correct walking/climbing equipment.