We took over the entire Pen y Pass youth hostel, who provided vegan food all weekend :)
Unfortunately it was a Welsh summer, which is to say, dangerously, horrendously, wet and cold! Jasmijn had to commandeer a gear rubbish bag from my pack to try to stay dry/warm...
Scary drops into the clouds near the summit
Finally, we made the summit at 1,085 m, where our attempt to light candles for the birthday cake I smuggled up for Jasmijn, and to have about 300 of us up there at once, was thwarted by freezing sleet and high winds. Welsh summers...!
Candles on the summit, which refused to be lit in the wet and cold
A spot of salsa near the summit...
And then several hundred of us crowded miserably into the summit cafe. At least this time it was open. My last 7 visits it had been closed.
On the way down the cloud finally started to clear and the famous Crib Goch ridge started to tempt us tantalisingly...
And so Guy and I decided to head straight up the mountain for it
It probably would have been easier to take the path. And definitely smarter
Finally, we made the ridge!
Guy happy and perhaps a little surprised to be still alive!
The ridge trail awaited us :)
The most spectacular ridge on the British mainland
Guy takes in the awesome views
Llyn Llydaw, where the legendary Afanc - demigod of the rains - resides
View to the West
Soon we reached the pinnacles, which must be climbed to pass further
It's a most interesting trail
If a little steep
Definitely not the easiest route
But finally we made the top! Only to discover it was the wrong top...
Then we discovered we'd somehow missed this extremely fun bit!
So we dropped our packs and reversed - and did it again! :)
The views up here were awesome
The Glyderau range to the north of the tiny road barely visible in the valley far below
Crib Goch
Heading for Crib Goch summit
Crib Goch AK 2
Taking in the views
The awesome NW ridge. The record time from here to the tiny town in that valley is about 15 mins I think - partly set by running down that scree slope!
While I was there a rescue helicopter appeared just in front of me...
Two crew were winched onto the ridge, where they attached themselves to a climber...
And winched him or her up! I never found out why...
Crib Goch helicopter 3
And then it was on to the summit...
Finally it was out turn to descend, to Pen y Pass - just visible in the distant valley
It was an awful long way down...
The view back up the way we'd come
That night we all enjoyed some seriously strange and fun music by a vegan band
And the next day we stopped off in Betws y Coed on our way home
Betws y Coed AK & GD
Betws y Coed JdeB
We encountered this girl in a park. Needless to say the children loved her :)
Then we encountered this rhino made of recycled bottle caps, whom we all loved!
