Some of my work is seasonal, and can unfortunately be rained off on occasion. This was going to be the case for the last weekend in August, so after contacting my customers and letting them know, I faced a predicament: the last few days of the summer break with bad weather and bored children!
My eldest already had plans that involved seeing his friend he had missed all summer, so my wife and him were busy. This gave me the opportunity to make plans with M (10) and K (8). M had wanted to do a mountain hike for a while, showing interest ever since I started doing them last year. K, however, was not so keen.
We set off on Thursday from Kent, armed with some snacks and a heavy metal playlist (the kids enjoy it too, I promise!) for the long drive. Several hours and a couple of toilet stops, some heavy traffic and an en route McDonalds later, we arrived at Llanberis. It’s a lovely village which serves as the starting point for the most popular path up Yr Wyddfa.
We didn’t have much of a chance to explore before we set up camp for the night due to it starting to get dark. We pitched up quickly at one of the many local campsites and settled in for the night. There is always a sense of excitement whenever we set up, but M in particular had the excitement mixed with nerves; she really wanted to reach the summit and was worried it might be too difficult. Eventually, all were settled and soon sleeping.
The campsite we chose was Camping In Llanberis. It is tents only with no option for electricity, and I booked it on the day as I was kind of winging this whole trip. It ended up costing £24 (£12 per adult, £6 per child). The toilets were in good condition, and there’s a shower available for an extra cost. There’s also an area to wash up, which we didn’t use as we didn’t cook here.
The next morning, we woke up early to the amazing views just before sunrise. Eager to get on with the day, I searched on my phone for somewhere local to get a hearty breakfast and a good coffee. I was a bit surprised to see that most places didn’t open until 9 am. On one hand, being a village, I understand this, but also being a hotspot for early rising outdoor enthusiasts, I couldn’t help but feel like this was a missed opportunity. We headed to the Spar to grab some snacks for the hike and arrived just in time for them to be putting out the hot sausage baps. We found somewhere to eat these and got going.
We parked at the car park opposite the Snowdon Mountain Railway station, which was empty when we arrived and cost £14 for the day. I recommend researching this before you go, as I believe there are cheaper alternatives. We crossed the road to make a quick toilet stop and make sure our water bottles were filled, then started on the Llanberis Path with hopes of reaching the summit!
Off to an energetic start, with a time check of 07:40, the initial gradient felt steeper than I anticipated on a made path through a farm. At this point, I started to worry that maybe I was expecting a bit much from the children, and M’s face told me that she had some concerns too. Undeterred and not willing to call it quits before we properly got started, we carried on.
Things started to feel more like a mountain hike once we were off the made path. It wasn’t long before we were able to see some spectacular albeit slightly foggy views of the hike ahead. At this point, the energy really picked up, with the children pointing out cool-looking rocks and plants. M was doing well to conserve her energy whilst K wanted to power onwards and upwards.
About a third of the way into the ascent, K started to hit a wall. We were able to push through it with a few treats and a very big conversation about Pokémon and which ones we would be likely to find on a mountain. Eventually we reached the Halfway House, which at the time was only able to serve through a kiosk window. We stopped for around fifteen minutes here, the kids having hot chocolate and myself a coffee, which came to around £10.
M and K were surprisingly eager to get moving and carry on up; the thought of being halfway gave their motivation yet another burst of energy. From here, there are some really terrific views of the path ahead. Unfortunately, the summit was covered in clouds, but M wasn’t deterred by this—she was actually eager to be in them.
As we got higher, things started to slow down a little, M and K came close to stopping, and the last kilometer up was a challenge for us all. It was much colder than I anticipated near the summit, and I needed to lend a layer to K. The cold got to him, and we did have some tears. Thankfully, a lot of people on their way back down had some very kind words of encouragement for them both, reminding them of how well they had done to get this far and that the summit was so close now.
I had been recording the journey on AllTrails (Link here to the route), but had tried not to use it as a motivational tool for the kids until this point. I showed M and K the route from start to summit and pointed out where we were. This helped a little along with another short break. The weather was intensifying, with high winds now adding a slight bitterness to the chill.
The children really soldiered on through the final stretch of the ascent. They “Parkour” hopped from rock to rock and sang songs from K-Pop Demon Hunters to help keep them pumped on the way. When we finally reached the summit, it was surprisingly quiet. A small queue in front of us on the steps leading to the trig point gave M and K a moment to really take in that they had hiked this far and bask in the sense of achievement that I could see on their faces.
They held hands as they climbed the final steps to the summit, and laid their hands on the trig point. They had achieved this, and I was a very proud dad. A lovely family behind us in the queue offered to take our summit photo so we could all be in it together. The views from the top were non-existent, and we had decided to give the visitor centre a miss, so we started to head down out of the clouds to find a spot to have our picnic.
The journey down was slow and unrushed. We had achieved what we had set out to achieve, even though there were times they felt like they couldn’t. We stopped for our picnic about a third of the way down and had another hot chocolate at the Halfway House because they had earned it. We also stopped to get some photos of the little waterfalls and fairy lake they had spotted on the way up.
The trail length is just under 15 km, with 985 meters of elevation gain, and the summit is 1,085 meters. We set off at 07:40 and got back to the car park at 15:05. We weren’t winning any awards for speed, but I hope that this will be a memory to last a lifetime.
The next time I take them on a big hike like this, I am going to try to be more prepared! I will pack some hand warmers and gloves whatever the weather as it changes a lot whilst on the mountain.
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