Clare and Maya attempt to climb Snowdon

On Wednesday 28th May, my daughter Maya and I travelled to Llanberis in Wales. We planned to climb Snowdon the next day to raise money for Willen Hospice, in memory of my Husband, my daughter’s Dad, who tragically passed away in 2022 from cancer. This was a challenge that my daughter decided she wanted to do, along with Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis which we hope to undertake in the school summer holidays.

The weather was bright and sunny when we arrived that afternoon, but unfortunately, the following day, Thursday 29th May was due to be very windy! We sought advice from locals and they were all very aware of the forecasted high winds but were unable to give us any firm advice as to whether to climb or not.

Despite being desperate to carry out this challenge for such a worthy cause, my main priority was our safety. We decided to take a rain check and see what happened the following morning. 

On the day of the climb, the weather was quite miserable, but it wasn’t raining. We set off and called into the Snowdon train station and were advised we could try to climb, but others would soon tell us on their way back down if it was not possible to reach the summit.

We headed off feeling a bit deflated, but we were going to try nonetheless. Even at the bottom of the mountain, it was very windy!

As we climbed higher, we started to get damp from the atmosphere/cloud vapour, but the rain held off. The climate itself wasn’t particularly tough, we had our walking poles with us and sturdy walking boots. We had plenty of food and water and made sure we stopped for snacks en route. 

We spoke to almost everyone who was coming down and the advice seemed to be that it was too dangerous to summit. We continued and I told Maya that we were safe to carry on at the height we were at, but I would make a decision after assessing each step of the way.

We could barely see 5m in front of us as the cloud was so low. By this time we were both completely drenched despite having waterproof coats and boots! The winds were blowing us into the rocks at the side of the mountain and both of us fell at least once due to being unable to keep our balance. 

The weather was absolutely horrific, the worst weather I have ever experienced. Kust before the final man-made steps which take you up to the summit, there was an open expanse of about 5m. At that point, I told Maya we were not going any further. If the wind had caught us at that point, there were no rocks for us to be blown into, it was just a sheer drop.

We took a very wet photo at the highest point that we reached and then we started our descent. The descent was the worst part for me, Maya found it a breeze! That’s what comes of having old knees!

We established that neither of our walking boots were 100% waterproof! We were both squelching all the way down. My toes were very sore by the time we got to the bottom, whereas Maya was quite bright and cheerful as we were walking down rather than up!

We were on the mountain from 9:30 am until just before 4 pm. We were both disappointed not to have been able to touch the monument right at the top, but it was not through lack of energy or being physically unable to complete the challenge, unfortunately it was purely down to the weather.  

Hopefully we will have better luck on the next two peaks! Thank you so much once again for your wonderful donation which enabled us to stay in Llanberis the night before the climb and the night after, and gave us a little towards petrol also. We really appreciated it. Wishing you all the best for the future.