hillwalking snowdonia

"gwilym" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit of
scarfell, last

term.

Quoted message said:

which route should I take?

Just follow the "railway twack" :-0
--
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CB <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

"gwilym" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit of
scarfell, last

term.

Quoted message said:

which route should I take?

Just follow the "railway twack" :-0

ITYM "Wailway twack".
--
Gordon

Wait until summer. Choose a good day for weather, and take the Pyg track,
rhyth DDu or Watkin Path.
"Gordon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

CB <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

"gwilym" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit
of scarfell,

last

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

term.

Quoted message said:

which route should I take?

Just follow the "railway twack" :-0

ITYM "Wailway twack".
--
Gordon

On 22/3/04 5:08 pm, in article
[email hidden], "gwilym"

Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit of
scarfell, last term.

which route should I take?

It depends on the weather. The Pyg track is OK for most
parts of the year, is pretty good and you really can't get
lost. C Goch is fine if you like excitement but don't try in
poor visibility or high winds. The Watkin track from the
Beddgelert side is good. The Snowdon Ranger path is the
easiest (I think).

Collins and the Ramblers have a new - and good - guide to
Snowdonia which talks you through all of these routes.

On 22 Mar 2004 09:08:28 -0800, [email hidden] (gwilym)

Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit of
scarfell, last term.

which route should I take?

First convince an aggressive state,( the usual suspects out
there pick acording to geopolitical bias) that its direst
enemy is sitting in the caff upon a barrel of anthrax while
reading Trail. After the airstrike... Command and Conquer!

Good Luck

Richard Webb

Please heed a little wisdom from an "old man of the hills"!

You will never, ever, conquer any mountain. To do so implies
that you are, in some way forcing the mountain to submit to
your superiority - a physical impossibility.

You will, if you are lucky, reach the summits of many
mountains but you will never conquer them. They will still
be there when you are long gone. When you venture on to a
mountain do so with the utmost of respect for the mountains
and nature and never with a sense of superiority or an idea
that you are going to conquer the mountain. Go with a sense
that you are privileged to be there and that to attain the
summit will be a bonus.

If you think that this is a load of sentimental twaddle
please consider that I have been walking and climbing
without serious mishap for over fifty years.

Go out and enjoy yourself.

PSBy all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will find
- far more enjoyable mountains.

With best wishes. "gwilym" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit of
scarfell, last

term.

Quoted message said:

which route should I take?

Sorry, I meant to add a little mantra that's worth remembering: "Mountains
bite fools".
"Michael Hobby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Please heed a little wisdom from an "old man of the
hills"!

You will never, ever, conquer any mountain. To do so
implies that you are, in some way forcing the mountain to
submit to your superiority - a

physical

Quoted message said:

impossibility.

You will, if you are lucky, reach the summits of many
mountains but you

will

Quoted message said:

never conquer them. They will still be there when you are
long gone. When you venture on to a mountain do so with
the utmost of respect for the mountains and nature and
never with a sense of superiority or an idea that you are
going to conquer the mountain. Go with a sense that you
are privileged to be there and that to attain the summit
will be a bonus.

If you think that this is a load of sentimental twaddle
please consider

that

Quoted message said:

I have been walking and climbing without serious mishap
for over fifty years.

Go out and enjoy yourself.

PSBy all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will
find - far more enjoyable mountains.

With best wishes. "gwilym" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit
of scarfell, last

term.

Quoted message said:

which route should I take?

On 24/3/04 11:20 am, in article [email hidden], "Michael

Hobby said:

By all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will find
- far more enjoyable mountains.

Really food advice this. Snowdon can be - well - a little
boring, not least because you often seem to be doing the
walk with the rest of the world!

If you're in the area have a look at the Glyder Traverse,
Tryfan and the Carnedd Dafyd and Carnedd Llewelyn. And then
there is the Nantille Ridge and the Rhinogs ....

.... I always leave Snowdon for times when I'm with children
or when the weather is very misty - you can always follow
the path !

Quoted message said:

By all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will find -
far more enjoyable mountains.

And far more that are not nearly such good fun. Its a one
off, enjoy!

Richard Webb

I'm afraid it only starts to get enjoyable when it's devoid of the masses
and only then by some of the more demanding routes. The Pyg Track, which I
now never use in the summer, has suffered everything that is objectionable
about "footpath conservation". Short of closing the hills I do not know what
the answer to human erosion is. The first time I went up via the Pyg
Track(circa the mid 1950s) it was an enjoyable single track path. My
philosophy is that the more you "repair" footpaths, the more you encourage
the wrong sort of people to use them. I am not being elitist but a lot of
people who now venture on to these paths are neither mentally nor physically
equipped to be on the mountains in the first place.
"RJ Webb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

By all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will find
- far more enjoyable mountains.

And far more that are not nearly such good fun. Its a one
off, enjoy!

Richard Webb

"And far more that are not nearly such good fun. Its a one
off, enjoy!"

Sorry, but I cannot accept that there are "FAR MORE"
mountains less worthy than Snowdon. Snowdon - Yr Wyddfa - is
a desecrated mountain, if only because of what it is. It is
overcrowded, overwalked and overfrequented by those who do
not really appreciate mountains as places of beauty,
serenity and solitude.

My own feeling is that the best way to "improve" Snowdon is
to demolish the slum near the summit, rip up the railway
line, reverse the footpath "improvements" and prohibit
access for five years to allow the natural environment time
to regenerate.

"RJ Webb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

By all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will find
- far more enjoyable mountains.

And far more that are not nearly such good fun. Its a one
off, enjoy!

Richard Webb

RJ Webb <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

On 22 Mar 2004 09:08:28 -0800, [email hidden]

(gwilym) said:

I intend to conquer snowdon, having reached the summit of
scarfell, last term.

which route should I take?

First convince an aggressive state,( the usual suspects out
there pick acording to geopolitical bias) that its direst
enemy is sitting in the caff upon a barrel of anthrax while
reading Trail. After the airstrike... Command and Conquer!

Too the best of my knowledge there is no oil on Snowdon.

I've seen shale on Coniston OM - might be a better prospect.
--
Gordon

"Michael Hobby"
<[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Sorry, but I cannot accept that there are "FAR MORE"
mountains less worthy than Snowdon. Snowdon - Yr Wyddfa -
is a desecrated mountain, if only because of what it is.
It is overcrowded, overwalked and overfrequented by those
who do not really appreciate mountains as places of
beauty, serenity and solitude.

You can still have it all to yourself if you get up early
enough. Snowdon's a big hill taking the whole lump of it.
There are still parts of it where you might well be able to
find solitude to sit and appreciate the surrounding beauty
even when the summit and popular routes are heaving. I can't
remember ever seeing anyone else in Cwm Glas for example on
the few occaisions I've been that way. And I can vividly
remember sitting on the narrow North Ridge of Crib Goch for
a while admiring the stillness around me and then being
shocked by all the people as I popped out onto the junction
with the more popular East Ridge.

Michael Hobby said:

Short of closing the hills I do not know what the answer
to human erosion is.

Spreading out. The problem is too many people visiting the
same popular hills, the honeypots. If everyone spread their
walking out over all the different hills in the UK there'd
be very little erosion on any of them.

We need more honeypots to spread the tourists out, because
it's the tourists (or the "casual walkers" or whatever you
want to call them) that tend to concentrate on the honeypots
and thus cause the most erosion.

Paul
--
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Quoted message said:

Too the best of my knowledge there is no oil on Snowdon.

But there may be oil on a hill 400 miles away. That will do.

Richard Webb

Michael Hobby said:

Sorry, but I cannot accept that there are "FAR MORE"
mountains less worthy than Snowdon.

Unfortunately, Snowdon is not just the highest mountain in
Wales, it also happens to be a bloody good one, boasting the
best ridge walk south of Scotland. I'd be much happier if
Snowdon were a shapeless lump like Waun Fach in the Black
Mountains, but it isn't, the scenery and photographic
potential is superb.

Quoted message said:

Snowdon - Yr Wyddfa - is a desecrated mountain, if only
because of what it is. It is overcrowded, overwalked and
overfrequented

But only small parts of it, specifically the summit and the
six major paths to the top, which are narrow congested lines
snaking their way to the summit. The total area of
congestion is actually very small, you don't have to walk
that far from a path to avoid the worst of the congestion.

And the overcrowding is only a problem at certain times. It
can be avoided at night or very early in the morning, and
during bad weather. It is less frequented during midweek and
in winter. Trying doing a night walk to the summit in
blizzard conditions on a Wednesday in winter! ;-)

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by those who do not really appreciate mountains as places
of beauty, serenity and solitude.

Those would be the "tourists" or "casual walkers" that I
mentioned.

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My own feeling is that the best way to "improve" Snowdon
is to demolish the slum near the summit, rip up the
railway line, reverse the footpath "improvements"

I agree.

Quoted message said:

and prohibit access for five years to allow the natural
environment time to regenerate.

Difficult, and unnecessary. Only access to the footpaths and
summit would need to be prohibited, the rest of the mountain
is pretty much unspoilt.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

By all means climb Snowdon, but there are - you will
find - far more enjoyable mountains.

I have climbed Snowdon a mere 4 times (preferring to spread
my walking out) and have often enjoyed solitude up there.
The first was a wild camping trip where we had the mountain
to ourselves during the evenings and early mornings.
Another was the horseshoe walk in hill fog and rain where
we met only one walker all day (not counting the summit of
course). My most recent ascent by the Watkin path started
at dawn in September and we enjoyed a cool ascent in almost
complete solitude. We only passed two separate walkers on
the way down.

Paul
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sh the

Quoted message said:

slum near the summit, rip up the railway line, reverse the
footpath "improvements" and prohibit access for five years
to allow the natural environment time to regenerate.

Make my day!

Leave it alone.. Its a great experience for loads of folk,
and a rocky overgrazed lump ideally suited to being a
touroid venue.

Plenty of other hills for us in the know. I hated the thing
once. Did all but 10 of the Munros and over half the
corbetts before setting foot on the summit. Even had a day
on Crib Goch and Carnedd Ugain without going on to the
summit. Then one day on the horseshoe and the party
atmosphere got me.

I would hate it to happen to any other hill, but Snowdon is
just fine. A different experience, and always enjoyable. I
am a convert!

And then again I have had days of solitude and adventure
cl*mbing on some of its less fashionable crags.

Richard Webb

PYG track does have a "granny stopper" section low down .
Rocky path on a rocky hill, no problem. Better than an
assault on freedom and "closing" the hill.

Gabions on zigzags suck though, but so does the railway you
meet after that FCGBNI-ing upright boulder

Richard Webb.

Gordon said:

Too the best of my knowledge there is no oil on Snowdon.

There is a trail of the stuff up the railway line and a tank
of it to run the genny with at the caff^H^H^H^Heyesore at
the summit.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the
"Westminster Gasworks"