Weather Links

MWIS. Weather forecast for mountain regions. Only active Friday to Sunday. Highly Recommended.

Met Office. Now it's improved to a 5 day forecast! Great.

Snowdonia Snowline - States the altitude of lying snow in the Carneddau.

Metcheck weather

Advertise your Snowdonia Business here! Email for info.

Accuweather

Snowdon Weather Station Project. Weather data, but is down at the moment. The Webcams show Elidir Fawr and Moel Eilio.

Snowdon Sherpa Bus Timetables

Welsh Highland Railway.

Travelline Wales.

theTrainline - Timetables and online booking

The Welsh 3000s - website just about the 14 peaks.

The BMC - British Mountaineering Council.

The Mountain Bothy Association - yes, there are bothies in Eryri...

TAC - The Angry Corrie Scottish hillwalking fanzine, read it free.

Eryri - Snowdonia National Park.

Oggy Cam . Ogwen Mountain Rescue and a Ogwen Valley webcam.

BBC North West Wales.

Graham's Wales Photos. Loads of excellent pics on Eryri in here.

North Wales Photographs Beautiful photos of North Wales by Simon Kitchin.

Cambrian Mountains National Park A 'Should-Be' fourth welsh national park.

Snowdonia Society Charity which looks after the interests onf the National Park.

eryriway.org.uk Sister site to walkeryri, emphasising long distance trails.

Friends Reunited?

Snowdon from Rhyd Ddu down to Pen y Pass.

18th July 2005 (11.5km, 990m ascent)

I've made my opinions on Snowdon quite clear. We were once rather intimate, but we drifted apart. I don't like the company she keeps these days. Still, we sometimes daydream about old friends, and remember the good times through our rose tinted glasses. The bad times seems to fade with time. This seemed like a good time to become re-acquainted.

It had been a gorgeous weekend, which I slept through and was left with the drizzly Monday for walking. I couldn't see the hills for rain and low cloud from Caernarfon, and wondered why I was bothering. Ah yes, an old friend. I had to get my story straight. I needed to make sure that what I'd done in the last 12 years sounded sufficiently impressive, after all, she was getting a new cafe worth seven million pounds, what could I offer?

So, stomach pulled in, I ascended in the clag from Rhyd Ddu up, for the first time, the Rhyd Ddu path. Always good to show old lovers that you've changed, moved on, and are no longer tied into the same routine as you were used to. This was especially true, as the last time I'd been rather more fit, trying to make my days on the mountain shorter and shorter. Today it would be savoured, and my fastest times definately not bettered. One would be hard pushed to recognise this as Snowdon, as the path starts off quite rough and narrow.

I passed a shepherd and his dog, who gave a curt hello, obviously and rightly more concerned for his flock - this is his workplace. Still, I was thinking what I would say. "Oh, hello, I've been in Lincolnshire for a few years".

The imaginary laughter was still ringing in my ears as the cloud cleared finally, and the red scree cliffs below Bwlch Main came into view. Of course, she wouldn't give up her charms that easily. The wind had picked up, and the Bwlch can be treacherous in high winds. Still, as it happened, it was no more than five metres where the path is exposed on both sides, and the summit loomed large in front.

The last few minuites to the station took much longer than I wanted, perhaps I was apprehensive about it all. Whatever the reason, Y Lliwedd was looking suitably impressive. It was here I saw my first walkers of the day, obviously shunning the path I'd ascended by. I could hear a train pulling into the station, and some socially challenged children throwing rocks onto the scree slope to my left. She's surrounded herself in what I hated the most.

The summit was crowded. I admired from the station. Too many people were there, it felt uncomfortable. This was a reunion that would have to wait longer. She didn't even notice me in the legion of admirers.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the purgatory that is the Pyg track. This must be one of the singularly worst tracks in Snowdonia, and my knees gave 2 votes to this effect. Some good parts, but it's much better as an ascent. Finally Pen y Pass. Relief for my knees, but I was already planning how I could return and regain what I'd lost over the years.

I have added the route below, but it's easily followed on a map as the paths are labelled, and are VERY clear on the ground. If in any doubt of your ability to complete this route off the map, get expert advice. The article above certainly does NOT constitute a guide to this walk so don't let mountain rescue drag you off the mountain with a copy of this in your pocket, it will make us both look foolish!

Height Profile of the route (image courtesy of Tracklogs)

Click on icons to download the route.

	Recommended route (tracklogs and Memorymap).
	Route in .gpx format, this should load into EasyGPS and then you can load it onto your GPS or convert it. See this page for more information about different file types.
	Sample route in .trk format. E-mail me if this works or not,
	Not looking likely at the moment.

General Links

Snowdonia attractions Several great reviews about some of Snowdonia's better known attractions. 

English-welsh dictionary Links and resources to help you translate that welsh word into English.

Walking shoes - Another site that I found that sells walking shoes online.

Merrell Walking Shoes from fitnessfootwear.com, decent little site i found for Merrell walking shoes.

Whalley Warm and Dry - paramo stockists, great service and range.

V-G Walking and Backpacking. Inspirational website detailing one to three (and more) day walks around the UK.

Trekking Britain. Route descriptions & experience as opposed to guide book.

OutdoorsMagic - Forum based website, lots of information on here.

Phil George - Mountain Leader Training in Llanberis.

Peak and Fell Walking - A photographic guide to walking in Britain's National Parks.

Wild Tramp.co.uk - New site on walking in the UK. Looks promising.

Tracklogs IMHO the best mapping for PC.

MemoryMap Still good, but route handling clumsier.

Viewranger mapping for smartphones.

Fugawi and Anquet are also popular.

Quo The new kid on the block.

Multimap - Free online mapping.

Get a Map - Free online mapping from the OS

Access Land in Wales - online mapping from CCW.