Halfway down from Y Lliwedd GW/NW-008, a group of walkers in their early twenties asked how far to the summit.  "About twenty minutes of mild scrambling" I replied, "Are you doing Snowdon after?". "Is this not Snowdon?" came their exasperated reply! I thought they were joking, but alas not; they really thought they were climbing Snowdon! We chatted for a while as they followed Jimmy and I and went in the correct direction. It turned out that this was their first ever mountain walk, and that they did not have a map with them. Nonetheless, they eventually rejected our offer to lead them to the summit, preferring to forge ahead rather than match the slow and steady pace of Jimmy and myself. Well, OK, the slow and steady pace of myself, with Jimmy having to stop and wait for me every few minutes!

   

As the path began to slowly gain more height, we found a relatively sheltered spot and took on our first helping of soup from the flask. Today's offering was Minestrone, something fairly common, but one that Jimmy hadn't had before. He liked it and requested it again in the future. Other foods carried, and intermittently nibbled were Nutri-Grain Oat-Bake Bars and Quiggins Kendal Mint Cake - both chocolate covered and original. However, the best and sweetest taste was undoubtedly that of the water from our hydration packs - delicious!

We had heard and read much about the technical difficulty and danger of the steep scree route up Snowdon at the top of the Watkin Path, as well as the challenge in actually determining its location. In the event, we encountered no such problems. We turned right into a sort of gully, and slogged our way steeply upwards. Jimmy used his pair of walking poles to good effect, but I preferred to hold my trekking poles halfway along, so that I could get my hands to the ground and rocks, and scramble my way up.

   

A wonderful sight was that of the finger rock as the Watkin Path emerges onto the rounding off of Snowdon's summit area. However, we were not at the summit just yet. More steep climbing was demanded until the eyesore of the building site emerged through the mist.

No more were we protected from the wind by the face of the summit we were climbing. We were near that summit, and the wind was blasting in, bring horizontal rain with it. The elements were by now starting to get the better of my boots and waterproofs, and I crossed my fingers that this would not compromise my chances of success. The summit of Snowdon was, as ever, heaving. The lack of trains, cafes and decent weather never seems to keep the masses away from here, and today was no exception. We struggled for a photo position on the crowded triangulation station, then dropped down to the next "level" down. Jimmy snatched the camera to take a photo of Mike Peters, from 1980s band "The Alarm" who was up here doing an outdoor acoustic gig. Just like last year when we were last here! I hadn't realised, but Jimmy pointed out that this was the Saturday that was exactly one year since our last visit, which also coincided with a Mike Peters set!

       

We settled into the one side beneath the trig point that afforded complete shelter. Inexplicably, none of the masses were sheltering there, in spite of it being the perfect spot. Their loss, mine and Jimmy's gain. We settled in and called on 2m FM.

There appeared to be an intermittent problem with the RSS antenna. I identified the problem as being with the BNC plug, which needed some wiggling periodically to restore proper reception. Until it completely came off! Then I remembered that I had noted the intermittent a couple of weeks ago, after accidentally dropping my handheld and the feeder (and ultimately the connector) taking the strain. I had forgotten all about it. And now remembered! RSS disconnected, and helical antenna restored, I continued. I made 5 contacts, while Jimmy made 12, in a 26 minute activation. Jimmy set off slightly ahead of me to take some photographs of the building site (and what a "sight" it was), before I rejoined him to begin the steep descent back to the Watkin Path finger stone and beyond to the top of the South Ridge, which we would follow towards Yr Aran GW/NW-019.

Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 5 watts: