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Snowdon summit: beautiful or a hen’s breakfast? Discuss.

Paul Snowdon summit 800pxProbably the most-asked question I’ve been asked since moving into the shadow of England and Wales’ highest mountain is, ‘Have you been up Snowdon?’ Until recently the answer was no, but on my birthday a few days ago I took the train to the summit. I will pause here for the boos and tuts from veterans of the Pyg track, the Miners’ track, the Watkin path etc. My excuses were: a) it was my birthday; b) Christine was in Surrey with my younger son (on my birthday! c) I like trains and d) I was too lazy to walk.

The line has only been reopened for three months or so after a long closure to demolish ‘the highest slum in Britain’ (the old café) and to create a new café and improve access to the summit. Three years and an eye-watering £8.3million later we have Hafod Eryri.

hafodActually, it’s a rather fine building (at £8.3m, it should be!) but it’s still just a still just a place for a cuppa and a pee. Much thought went into the design and interpretation and I loved the Welsh poetry etched in the windows and the factoids carved into the granite floor. Behind and above Hafod Eryri is a concreted path and steps to the top. Yes, steps. Because 350,000 people visit the summit annually, the wear and tear on that small piece of the mountain is immense. It all felt terribly false.

To be honest, I hated all the steps and concrete and I understood Mark, my son’s view that despite living locally, working for the Beacon Climbing Centre and devoting his life to climbing, he had never been to the summit and had no intention of doing so. When I saw the scrum at the trig point, I could understand why.

However, five minutes later, I was there at the top and for about 45 precious seconds, was alone. Everything I could see on that glorious morning was down and for that brief interlude, nobody in England and Wales was higher than I was. It was magical and I can’t wait to do it again.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 14:51 and is filed under Snowdonia, Wales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • Helen Hunter

    Good to hear your thoughts on Snowdon’s summit as it is today. I had heard most of the recent saga of the new caff and the railway but did wonder what the final (expensive) result was like.
    Steven and I have nightmare memories of Snowdon unfortunately – and the old caff was just a grim stop in the middle!
    We stayed in a friend’s cottage at the foot of a track (but can’t remember which one). Our friend’s father was the type (up to his fifties) to climb the summit and return for breakfast before the rest of the household awoke. But Steven and I were there alone.
    It was a lovely day when we first started to climb – but just as we reached the last few hundred feet across the well-worn scree tracks the cloud descended and we became completely lost. It was very frightening crawling around in loose scree, but we did make it to that awful caff and had a cup of tea.
    Then we went down the pyg track I think – knowing that we would end up a fair distance from the cottage. The rain was torrential – we were exhausted. Then when we finally reached the car park we realised that it was Sunday and there were no buses to wait for at the bus stop.
    Thank the Lord we knocked on a driver’s car window and a v kind guy from Chester took us back.
    Leg’s shaking and frozen we climbed in to a hot bath and vowed never, ever to climb a mountain again!!