The Not Snowdon In The Snow trip 2017

Llanberis path on Snowdon In The Snow trip

The last few years have seen me join a trip to Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa (traditionally called ‘Snowdon In the Snow’) with a group of friends – some old, some new. I’ve organised it a couple of times too, if my unreliable memory serves me well.

The trip this weekend comprised seven of us and was organised by Jenny.

The annual (to date) trip originated before I first attended in 2012.

read more >

Snowdon In The Snow 2016 jaunt

Snowdon In The Snow hike trip Llanberis Path

Last week was that time of year again for the annual pilgrimage to Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon summit: Snowdon In The Snow. Pilgrimage? Well, the same route repeated each year, albeit with varying group composition and often with a physical / meteorological challenge to get to a snow-capped pinnacle feels like a pilgrimage to me. I’m not religious but I was praying for decent weather and the chance to see (for once) some views from the top. Hallelujah (ok, I’ll stop now) – the weather was with us and we had great views in the biting air on the summit.

read more >

Offa’s Dyke challenge walk for The Red Cross

Offa's Dyke Clwydian Hills red Cross Hike Challenge walk

Hot on the heels of the recent Yorkshire 3 Peaks hike, I just completed the Offa’s Dyke challenge as a Red Cross fund-raiser. Credit where it’s due: the vast majority of the money raised in my case was actually by my walking compadres on challenges like this: Taru, Jenny and Karl (a.k.a “The Butterley Booters’ .. named after a local reservoir and a local beer). … read more >

A Snowdon jaunt

I headed over to Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon on Saturday with some Marsden mates and my son (also a mate). I knew them all but (stick with me) they didn’t all know each other before the walk. I forget how a big a village / small town Marsden is.

Five of the guys hadn’t walked up Snowdon before so there was a nice sense of excitement. I’ve been on a few ‘Snowdon in the Snow’ trips over the last 4 years, always sociable fun and a good day’s walk. But being in January or early Feb, they had all been susceptible to poor weather. In fact, last year saw four of us battle a blizzard and turn back (sensibly) just before the Clogwyn Coch area.

So this year’s trip, falling as it did in the third week of March, could have brought clear skies and amazing vistas.

read more >

Mindful on Moel Penamnen

Rhiw Fach Quarry Cwm Penmachno Hike

I just spent a weekend in a cottage with no TV, no Internet and surrounded by hills. I could have stayed for a month or three. This, coming perhaps surprisingly from a blogging, tweeting, instagramming, facebooking chap. It’s really very nice to just sit quietly and read a book or have some thoughts. Although I’m not that good at sitting still actually, as Anita kept telling me. But I tried to do some ‘mindfulness’. Then realised maybe you just have to be mindful.

I got into the mindfulness groove a bit more up on Moel Penamnen. The things I was mindful of:
– Both my boots are leaking now
– that wind really is very strong
– my achilles tendon has been aching a lot on the last few walks
– the clag up here just isn’t going to lift is it?

read more >