Northern Wales: Conquering Snowdon

Some might call us crazy. Some might call us brave.

After our beautiful hike in the Peak District, we decided our family was ready to tackle something bigger…something higher…and something more famous. We came all the way to Wales to do that—to climb Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. Yeah! Take THAT!

Okay, so Snowdon is just 1,085 metres (3,560 ft), but it is the highest point of the British Isles if you don’t count the Scottish Highlands. So it’s still pretty cool. It’s located right in the Snowdonia National Park, so beautiful views were automatically guaranteed.

Before our trip, I researched extensively our options in terms of trails, as there were six or seven ways we could go up to the summit. After much thought and discussion with Robert (and lack of proper hiking gear), we decided to stick with the easiest, but longest (and most popular) trail called Llanberis path. 

Distance: 9 miles (14½Km) (there & back). 

Ascent: 3,199ft (975 metres).

Verdict: We are crazy.

We checked the weather forecast for this day and saw that it was going to be cloudy at first but by 1pm the summit would be clear. We decided to leave our house at around 9 in the morning, drove through the mountains to the village of Llanberis, hesitated for the last time whether or not we should take an old fashioned train up the mountain (and pay 120 british pounds, or $180)…parked on the side of the road and started on our day-long journey. Well, at that time we did not know what to expect at all, after all, we were traveling with kids who love throwing all sorts of surprises at us.

The first mile of the trail was actually quite challenging and steep—it was paved and through the village, so we had no right to complain. But! These two already decided that they are not up for any hiking.

After a bit of pep talk and encouragement, promises and threats, we decided we didn’t want too many people to keep passing us, so we picked up our pace. You know who was the most cheerful, not whining, fast and adventurous hiker of all? This kid! He doesn’t look like a hiker here, more like a person in the desert, but you get the point. He was so easy to please and such a good helper!

The way that the trail looks behind Alex is how it looked for about an hour and a half. It was pretty rocky but doable, and not very steep. But even during that bit of the hike, we had one miserable boy to drag—Mark. Oh My Goodness! We heard everything from him, from “Hiking is just not my thing” to “I am dying”. We were taking turns with Robert to hike with him and be his cheerleader. Usually, Alex would just skip ahead and wait for us by a designated landmark.

Our plan was to stop at the Half Way house (a café and a bathroom break place) and reassess the situation. This point was actually more than half way on the path, but only in distance-wise, not ascent-wise. Mark just couldn’t figure out why we would have to keep going after the Half Way house if we could just go up half way to this house and then back down. Two halves make a whole, right? Poor guy…he was not enjoying this.

Here is Robert and Mark resting at the half way point. 

Oh, I must add that on the way to the house, we found a small red camera along the trail. We picked it up, looked through a couple of pictures trying to figure out who it belonged to. We asked some people around us if they’d seen that person (it was a bright red-haired lady with glasses tattoos). Then we figured we’d try to locate her at our half-way stop. And guess what! I walked up to the group of ladies resting right next to the house, and somehow recognized the woman from the pictures (the fact that she had red hair and glasses helped). She was sooo happy! Wow! It made us feel good inside and hopefully will remind kids of how it is still possible to do good deeds to strangers.

Back to our hiking story. After a quick recovery stop at the house, we decided that no mountain is too high for the Watsons. Even for Mark. So we decided to persevere.

The next hour of the hike was grueling. First the trail started to get rockier and rockier and not as comfortable to walk on. Then it started to get steeper and steeper. By then we had to be taking breaks every 10 minutes.  The older kids actually took off without us and plowed through the rocks themselves while Robert and I were cheering Mark on.

As the trail was getting steeper, the views was getting grander. 

Seeing the train tracks did not help Mark-haha.

Oh why, oh why did my parents decide to hike the mountain?

Then came the hardest part of the hike. Seriously. I did not expect it to be this difficult on the “easy” trail. It was just about 30 minutes of this, but it was slow….and we were still about 45 minutes away from the summit.

Oh, how beautiful these mountains are!

After that difficult passage of the trail, we had a bit of a break where the path got more even and we were able to just walk and enjoy the view. We took a few pictures, this is very close to the summit.

Here is the sign that points to the summit. We are maybe 5-10 minutes away from the top! Notice how sunny it is!

Almost there! Look how crowded it suddenly became.

And then finally! We climbed all the way to the top! Not to the Half Way house, Mark—to the very top!

Kids were proudly showing off our Ukrainian flag.  That metal round thing shows how far away we are from different cities.

As we started making our way down from the summit to the Summit House (café and a rest stop on the very top), the clouds came in and suddenly it was freezing and gloomy.

We realized right away how lucky we had been all along our hike to have such clear view and beautiful sunny skies! We could see everything.

As a big reward for our hike, we bought lunch at the restaurant there. Mark enjoyed some yummy pasties.

We also tried the best Welsh Oggies ever! They were the first ones we ever tasted, but seriously, they were so good after a long hike.

We even bought a Coca Cola (!) which is a rare treat-haha. We were very proud of the kids making it all the way to the top.

After almost an hour of resting and buying a couple of souvenirs to remember our hike, we got ready for our descent.

Family picture before we go. Beautiful area!!!

Yes, here are these two parents that decided to torture the kids and hike Snowdon-haha.

Feeling accomplished! Although the hike is only half-way over.

Awe, even Mark feeling happy now after a warm toasty pasty for lunch.

But not for long….Going downhill was even more difficult than uphill in some places. That passage of the path where it was really rocky and steep was a very difficult one even for me. Several times Mark said that he was done and he quit…and then we’d tell him that he just couldn’t stay on the mountain thus we had to go down.

Katya snapped this picture of us trying to convince Mark that we have to keep going.

Somehow it worked. A while before the Half Way house, I joined K and A and walked down with them. Mark and Robert were about 300 meters behind us, slugging along. Mark started to break down. He was tired of a long hike. Done. So Robert picked him up and held him for maybe a couple of minutes, just to comfort him. That was all that little Mark needed. After that he walked the rest of the way. Robert distracted Mark with singing songs, stories and making videos of him, and Mark was actually enjoying the experience and all smiles.

We all took a quick break at the bottom of the Llanberis path, just right before the very steep but paved part of the hike. Everyone was happy to be almost done.

When we made it to our car, we were exhausted, a bit sunburnt, but so happy we did it! Huge accomplishment for our kids! We were very proud of them for not giving up and finishing something that was very hard for them. It took us about 7.5 hours total to go up the mountain and back….wow…

We drove home, relaxed, eating a slow-cooked roast and potatoes dinner (we brought our slow-cooker and food and I prepped it in the morning so it would be ready for dinner) and watched X-Factor till late. One of the best days spent as a family ever!!!