Even
on a murky day in December, Snowdon still sees plenty of people heading for the
summit. A small group of us decided to
forego the ways of the masses and after alighting the Snowdon Sherpa bus at Pen-y-Pass
we headed for an ascent of the Y Gribin ridge.
The
easy Miners’ path took us to the outflow of Llyn Glaslyn which we forded and
then started on the scramble. It was
raining, but not heavily, and as the route started to steepen, the rock became
uncomfortably slippy and the mist obscured the top of the ridge, giving rise to
doubts about its ease or more likely, difficulty. Caution seemed the sensible decision and we
made our way back to the Miners’ path before taking on an off-piste scree slope
to reach the PyG track.
Which
is where we met the masses we were originally hoping to avoid.
On
the approach to the zig-zags the path started to fill out with snow. Although the path was not overly crowded,
there were still plenty of inappropriately dressed walkers. Trainers, wellies and even deck shoes were
the footwear of choice for many who were slithering the way down the path, as
often as not on backsides rather than on feet.
No doubt they would probably get off the mountain without incident and
have a great story to tell in the pub but it wouldn’t have taken much of a slip
for a serious accident to spoil their day.
Even
in my winter boots there came a point where I decided it prudent to put on my
crampons. As I was strapping them on, I
heard a voice behind me that said “good move”, from a similarly shod and
obviously experienced walker.
I
almost felt overdressed in my winter boots and crampons, but the ease with
which I made progress soon overruled that thought.
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