A dry day. We tried to follow a guidebook route which included a scramble up the north ridge of Crib Goch, leading onto the thin ridge leading up to Snowdon. I noticed a lot of mountain flowers on the way up to Crib Goch, and later on the steep path down from the summit of Snowdon.
The approach described took a line alongside a stream, finding a scrambly way up the rocks (we tried to avoid the slimy bits) until we reached the north ridge proper, with its shattered ground. The exposed traverse of Crib Goch seemed shorter than I remembered, though we still had Garnedd Ugain to scramble over before we reached Snowdon. We walked up to Snowdon’s summit amongst the crowds once we joined the top of the Pyg Track at Bwlch Glas. The train went by as we reached the col.
We started the steep descent from Snowdon in the mist, but found the top of the Gribin ridge, our descent route, easily. We spent a bit of time on this ridge, trying out different lines of descent and ascent a few times before continuing. Once off the Gribin ridge, we joined the Miners’ Track: this felt like it went on for quite a while. A bit of interest was added by the landing of a rescue helicopter, guided by an orange flare – apparently on an exercise. Having reached Pen-y-pass car park, we checked the posted weather forecast for the following day, then started the long walk along the busy narrow road back to where we had parked further down the pass. We spotted a couple of climbers on a nearby route as we sat for a while with a cup of tea before driving off.
