Wet and windy road to Snowdonia

Me (Alex Shrimpton) and Angus Walker set up camp at Garth Farm (North Wales) on the 5th August around 2pm. The campsite overlooked the snowdonian horseshoe and with beautiful views that could be seen for miles! The weather was great and it looked like the next day would bring a glisten of sunshine as well! We pitched the tents, explored the barren wilderness around us. Then had a nice chicken wrap and off to bed.

Next morning we woke up to bitter cold, winds howling around the valley floors, rain hammering down onto the tents and clouds overhanging the cliff edges and surrounding mountains. We had breakfast in the tents while we got ready for the climb.

Approaching the mountain was horrendous.  The rain hammering on the car roof, wind forcing itself into cracks and crevices along the valley, grey cloud low and overhanging the steep cliffs that make snowdonia notourious for mountaineers. This mountain gave us the feeling of natural power and endurance upon the great adventure ahead.

Climbing the mountain was horrendous with unexpected gusty 50mph winds hitting us off balance even on level ground.  Waterfalls cascaded down the cliff edges, rain stung our faces as the wind lashed and howled around our bodies.  Visibility was poor and reduced, hence the clouds hanging low with the weight of rain trapped within. We came to a vertical rockface and attempted it ,but as I stated before the conditions were horrendous and as the gusty, unexpected winds kept knocking us off balance at 50mph, we decided to turn back. We had gotten around 3/4 of the way up to the summit.  It took us 2 hours to reach this point, taking into account the weather conditions it was the right decision to make.


p.s-I have no photos because of the weather being so powerful and because of visibility being poor.