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After a successful walk in the Brecon Beacons earlier this year I had promised the 3 tiny terrors that we would climb Snowdon by the end of the year.
I wanted a route that would not be too difficult for them, one I had not done and also one that would avoid most of the crowds.
I decided on the Rhyd Ddu path for our route up and for the return we would take the South ridge to the base of Yr Aran then cut across the old slate works back to Rhyd Ddu station car park.
We had either Saturday or Sunday to choose from. The forecast for Saturday was to be showers / sunny spells and Sunday mainly sunny all day.
Saturday was chosen for low level touristy bits in the car and Sunday was to be the day of the walk.
Swallow Falls at Betws y Coed were in full flow
My wife was going to drop us off at Rhyd Ddu then drive round to Llanberis to catch the train up with her sister who was visiting from South Africa.
This gave us about two and a half hours to reach our rendevouz at the summit café.
The morning of our walk started out crisp and clear
We set off well wrapped up from the car park but within the first hour we had to strip off our outer layers. It was really quiet as we walked and met only 3 or 4 groups on our ascent.
After about one and a half hours we could see the summit café clearly and the train making its way up from Llanberis.
After the zig zags we reached the rim of Llechog. From here the cliffs below the summit looked amazing. The boys were all doing really well and enjoying every minute. We could see our route round and up to Bwlch Main which was looking pretty scary from down on Llechog!
Soon we were up on the ridge and the views now were fantastic.
Down to the left were the group of Llyns towards the Ranger path and to the right the quarries in the valley with the Watkins path clearly climbing through and up to the summit.
The level of exposure was nothing like it looked from below and I was quite happy for the boys to walk safely along the ridge to the top. They were now all walking confidently and although I was watching closely there were no problems at all.
The train had reached the top 10 minutes before we had anticipated and we were 10 minutes later than anticipated so we only had 10 minutes before Shona had to head back down to Llanberis. Her sister Sue was going to join us for the walk back down the South Ridge.
A quick stop for lunch then it was on our way back down Bwlch Main to the South ridge to Yr Aran
The section of Bwlch Main was as good going down as coming up. Sue was amazed at the views now unfolding in front of us.Last time I was on this ridge was in August with near zero visibility so today was a first for all of us
Reaching the point where the path peels off to the right for Llechog we climbed over the little sharp bit you can see in the photos above to continue down the South ridge with Clogwyn Du to our left.
This was a great section with a few scrambley bits that we had to go down on our bums.
We eventually reached the base of Yr Aran and headed off through the old quarries back towards Rhyd Ddu.
We had taken a lot longer coming off the mountain than I thought and were now well overdue. There was no phone signal in this area so we had to pick up the pace and got back to a worried Shona one and a half hours late and 5 pairs of tired legs!!
All in all a great route that I would recommend to anybody wanting a taste at ridge walking with great views all round.
One of the best route up Snowdon I think.
Well done tiny terrors. Till the next one!!
