Snowdon, end of April. WWYD?

[CluelessOnAPeakInDarien]

I'm a not-that-fit woman in late 40's, my friend is a few years younger and fitter, and our sons are 14 and fit-but-not-very-active.

For a few years now, we've talked idly about booking a hostel and taking the boys up the easiest path to Snowdon summit. Then last year we actually booked it!

Now I'm bricking it a fair bit. I've never done this sort of thing (apart from a touristy path up the side of Yosemite Valley about 15 years ago and some similar paths in Canada - younger and fitter then, and I still found the relentless UP quite unforgiving. Mind you, turned out I wasn't great at altitude and - no offence to Wales - but Snowdon isn't at exactly the same elevation!).

DH has been quite breezy about me doing it as he skipped up aged about 9 with family, but that was in summer. Late April - is that crazy? We know the weather can turn at any time of year but I'm wondering just how nasty it could be at Easter. The summit weather cam is down - last time I looked it just had raindrops on and a stern message to Stay At Home (which I assume had to do with the weather and not a Covid-hang-on).

So please, some advice. We would be taking the Llanberis path because we're newbies and I understand it's fairly hard to get lost on that (unless foggy??) but should we be doing some map and compass training just in case? We will all have hiking boots, lots of layers and waterproof top and bottoms, also lots of high energy food. Is it hysterical of me to want to take some of those foil survival blankets just in case we do manage to get there and the fog comes down? DS has just done his DofE practice so I'm hoping he'll find it easier without a tent on his back, but I'm worried about myself. I'm not all that fit and my hip/knee joints are really giving me trouble (though mostly not while I'm walking) which I think is a perimenopause thing.

We need to make some ground rules, I suppose. When to call it off if weather's getting bad, what to do instead if the conditions are bad and we don't go up at all, etc. Can anyone recommend some alternative itineraries locally if we don't do it? (We're driving up, spending 2 nights, it'll take 5 hours each way!)

There are loads of other things to do in that area if the weather on Snowdon isn't favourable. The first time we took DD when she was about 10 to that area hoping to walk up was at Easter and it just wasn't on - can't remember if it was snow or fog - but there are lots of other walks, castles, gardens, Electric Mountain etc - options for all weathers.
I'm trying to remember, I think we might have had a second trip when it just wouldn't have been nice. But anyhow, we did eventually- DH checked the weather forecast for the exact area very carefully, announced that the clouds should clear just about as we reached the top ... almost exactly right.

The llanberis path is just a long uphill walk. I don't think you could get lost on that route, and there are bound to be plenty of other people. It's a bit of a slog tbh but at least there was tea and a pasty at the top!

I'd strongly recommend you get a decent walking pole (or two) if you don't already have one - it's the coming back down again that's hard on joints.

If you look at the met office weather app for next week and compare Llanberis (at the bottom) with Snowdon Summit you'll see that it might be quite different between the two some days!