#25 Snowdon - PYG Up, Miners Down

8.51 Miles

846 metres 

The weather was forecast to be rubbish and it didn’t disappoint.  Ideally we should of set off later in the day but the morning fitted in better with Marks day off, so it was an early start to the day.  Leaving Manchester before 6 meant we were the first in the PYG car park and hit the trail just after 7.30.  Admittedly the empty car park may have been due to the weather forecast!

Sorry it's blurry....did I mention the rain?

 It started raining soon up the first climb on the PYG track so the full waterproofs were called for.  It then got wetter and wetter! Oh and windier!  The rain varied between sideways and torrential.  It was a hard climb and going this way round involved a harder initial climb than the Miners but got some of the climb out of the way! 

At times the gusts were strong enough to wobble you across the track and in places it was better to pause and hold a rock before carrying on.  I knew I was getting wet under the waterproofs, but as I was working hard (OK very hard) I’m not sure if I was leaking or just condensating (sic) badly.  I’d guess it was condensation but the rain was so heavy that my pockets filled up with water!

After the zig zags we hit the railway tracks, and the wind was even stronger!  Not sure if it was the weather or because we were early, but the café was shut!  Gutted was an understatement!  I was looking forward to the cheap and nasty sausage roll as well! 

We didn’t hang about long at the top due to the awful weather and began the descent. We decided to go down the miners track and it was surprising how easy this descent was.  The last time we climbed this route and struggled to locate the track, yet it was obvious!  Though in our defence the only 2 couples we saw coming up this route were off the track, so we weren’t the only ones to make this error.

The track from the bottom of the miners to the car park is fairly easy and good underfoot when compared to the rest.  However some sections have been ‘repaired’ and these were not the easiest to walk on.  The rain stopped about a mile before the car park.  The weather meant that the route was very quiet, we only saw one group of 6 on the way up and a few couples on the way down.

I took about 2 hrs. 40 mins to get up, about 50 mins quicker than in May though the route was different then.  I had been told that 2 hrs. 15 is a good time for an average ‘hill walker’ so I’m pretty happy with my time!