Sponsored Snowdon Climb

photography_bloke

Well-Known Forumite
Good folks of the forum, I need your help

On the 11th July I will be taking part in a sponsored trek to the summit of Snowdon - I'm a regular visitor to North Wales, although I've never climbed Snowdon (or indeed, any other mountain!) before, and it's long been on my list of things to tackle.

And just to add a further level of complication, the trek is taking place at night - so it's a Midnight Climb!! Around 8 hours of climbing up and down a mountain with the aid of nothing but a torch - and I'm liable to trip over my own feet in daylight...

This is going to be quite the challenge - I'm doing it in aid of the Alzheimer's Society, who I also ran for in the 2013 Stafford Half Marathon. Both of my grandparents on one side of the family suffered with dementia, so I have personal experience of the condition and the effects it has

I would be really grateful for anyone wishing to sponsor me on this trip - the Just Giving page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/photography-bloke/

Or if you'd prefer not to use Just Giving drop me a PM and we'll sort something out - any amount, large or small is very welcome!

Thanks to everyone in advance :D
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Have mentioned it on facebook but gonna put it here too, as this sounds interesting to me. What sort of pace/incline are we talking, what sort of expected timescale?
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
What sort of ... incline are we talking ..?
It depends which way you go.

Both times i've done it, i've gone up the miner's track, which is fairly steady until the almost last bit where you gain a lot of height over a short (crow-fly) distance onto the horseshoe. I've only ever come down the pyg track, which is more of a continual up, with a bit more up up to the horseshoe but nothing too terribly horrendous. At least that's how it felt on the way down, sort of thing.

It's a great walk but it isn't one in the park.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
What sort of fitness levels are we talking? I did Stafford to Prestatyn in one day on a pushbike with no training but I couldn't walk for a few days!
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Second time i descended on the watkin track, which was the kind of track you were kind of sort of glad you were descending on, definitely glad you weren't ascending on, ideally wishing you weren't on it at all.
 

Tanglefoot

A few posts under my belt
Good luck with your adventure, we walked Snowdon, we took the easiest route, Llanberis Path, as most of us had dogs, think this to be it the safest route but the most boring, before our event we looked at all the routes, the Ranger Path is the one I would attempt if we were in a smaller group,
We toyed with a midnight walk but the event insurance and advice from the mountain rescue put us off, but you should have lots of light, we wanted do walk it with a full moon for best light.
 

Jade-clothing

Well-Known Forumite
Good luck with that. I've climbed many a mountain including Snowdon but I don't think I would have wanted to do it in the dark! I did it the opposite way to Withnail, going up the Pyg and down the Miner's but having done it that way would have preferred to do it Withnail's way - especially if it was dark. I have climbed a mountain in the dark though, did the Wrekin at midnight a couple of years ago. Climbed it many a time in daylight but it's a completely different experience in the dark.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
Went up Snowdon many years ago. As far as I remember we went up the Snowdon Ranger path and came down the Watkins Path. It was a school trip, we went in twos & threes and never saw a teacher all day. Wouldn't like to do it in the dark. Nowadays I rekon the only way I'd get up there would be on the train.
 

photography_bloke

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks :)

Yeah, 15% already pretty good going - thanks for your donation :) I haven't passed it round at work yet, so fingers crossed that total should go up when I do - I hit £380 when I ran the half marathon, so hopefully I can hit the target!
 

photography_bloke

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks :)

We'll have to wait and see what happens photography wise - the trek is at night, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get, but I'll certainly try :D
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
There's not much night at the moment, especially at that height, if the air is clear - there is potential for some nice views....
 

photography_bloke

Well-Known Forumite
Well, I'm back!

It rained - a lot!!! In fact I'd say that most of the water present in the Earth's atmosphere descended on Snowdon on Saturday night... 50mph winds, driving rain, zero visibility and even the radios the guides were using to communicate weren't working. Coming back down the track had turned into a full on river, and my glasses were steaming up which led to a minor fall...

Still, we made it up and down in one piece, and I met a very nice person on the car park heading over who I ended up doing the whole trek with, which made the climb that much easier :)

I'm afraid there's no photos though :( It was just so wet and windy, and with low cloud you couldn't see more than 10 metres - I missed both moon and sun rise completely :(

Huge thanks to everyone who sponsored me - the page is still open and any further donations will be very gratefully received :)
 
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