Just returned from Snowdonia today - as my first real attempt at directed scrambling or climbing and i decided to head up the Pyg Track to the summit of Snowdon, then take Crib Goch in reverse. Despite finding myself on some dangerous scree slopes as I diverted away from the ridgeline slightly, it was a magical experience. I believe I started to lose contact with the ridge at some point around the middle of Crib Goch - at the time it seemed like i had no choice but to climb around a particularly large and citidel-like section of spikey ridgeline although in retrospect I should have climbed over it. I did however get to see an interesting piece of what i can only assume to be ancient celt stonework on my detour - at the top of one of scree slops on the southerly face of the Crib lay a huge, broken but still visibly crafted and shaped into a column (on the unbroken side) stone. Remnants of the druids perhaps? Eventually I regained my position on the ridge but it was fair battle!

Overall there were definately some challenging and committing parts on the reverse although I didnt really find much issue in the height or exposure - strange since i usually find myself uneasy at the top of a ladder?

I left from pen-y-pass at 3:50pm, arrived at snowdon summit by around 5 and was on my way to the crib by 5:30. Only saw two sets of people on the entire scramble, both of which commented on the difficulty of the reverse as you reach the final stages and indeed there was some very fun back-climbing to be done as i reached the final descent. The route was in parts extremely committing, although i suppose this was often due to my own decision making. In the end I managed to reach pen-y-pass by 8pm and there was still a good deal of light - the timings worked out perfectly as i was alone for basically the whole experience!

I was wondering if anyone else had tackled Crib Goch in reverse, starting out from Snowdon's peak, and if so how did you fare on it?

The next day I climbed the north face of Tryfan directly starting from the easterly carpark at llyn Ogwen, descending down the West face, and found that to be a bit easier and quicker, (took me about 2hrs30mins with plenty of stops for pictures) although still extremely fun with a few intense scrambles again largely as a result of my own route-finding.

I was also wondering if anyone had any other suggestions for mountains in the UK (i am centrally located) which would be a natural progression in terms of scrambling/climbing difficulty? Suffice to say I am already looking for my next challenge!