Climbing Snowdon/ top tips pls

[Thethingswedoforlove]

We are climbing Snowdon soon. Teens are fir enough but not super fit. I am taking this seriously. Ensuring the correct clothing and food and drink etc. We plan to go up via lanberris . Is it really boring to return that way? If we go back down the ranger path is there a bus that can take us back to lanberris? I plan to set off early. To bring a physical map and compass just in case. What else should I be considering? What else should I know?

@capercaillie thank you. I am struggling to find this bus info out so am tending towards returning down the same path we use to go up.

@Egghead68 useful tip re the fog. Thanks. Is there a good site you would recommend to use re weather at the top?

Forecasts - MWIS is good and very clear on possible summit conditions. The Met Office also does a mountain forecast and probably has a summit forecast for Snowdon. No forecast is completely accurate though.

Sherpa info

I did the Llanberis route with DS, 7 at the time, a few years back. Neither of us were particularly fit but we wore decent footwear and clothing and made it up and down in good time.

My tips are lots of easily removable layers as you’ll go through lots of temperature and weather changes. There’s a cafe halfway and at the top, so don’t over weigh yourself down with drinks and snacks, just the minimum that you’d need in the unlikely event that the cafe was closed or you got lost.

Lots of short breaks seemed to work well.

If I was planning a trip now I’d walk up but get the train back as it got a bit boring on the way down and I think the train would have been fun. I did suggest it to DS but he was keen to walk both ways.

We saw a group of student types, one wearing crocs, on our way up. We didn’t see them again so assume they gave up! We also saw a man jogging past us with his bike on his shoulder shortly after setting out. About 90 minutes later the same man came back down past us on his bike. We assume he’d been all the way to the top and back

@capercaillie thank you - will study those forecasts carefully. We have a choice of two days so will be enormously helpful.

@RelentlessForwardProgress really brilliant. Thank you

@TheSockMonster really reassuring. And some people are a whole other level of fitness, aren’t they?

They are! A fit looking couple in their 60s passed us on the way up and again on their way back down and stopped to tell DS how well he was doing and to keep on because he was nearly there. We’d just clambered up a particularly steep and ‘loose’ section and I felt like it was me that needed the encouragement at that stage, not DS!

We made it today in v good time. Thanks for all your guidance and advice!

Hooray! Well done

Thank you @RelentlessForwardProgress

Great, Which path did you decide to do?

It's on my list.

We just did Llanberis in the end as we are staying here so no need to faff about with cars or buses or anything. Plus my teens expressed total horror at the thought of doing anything more difficult than the easiest path. It was busy. But totally manageable (we set off early to miss the bulk of the crowds). Quite a feeling of camaraderie amongst the climbers. I really enjoyed it. Recommend.

Hi! Do you need to book the sherpa bus please?

www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/en/Residents/Parking-roads-and-travel/Travel-passes/Snowdon-Sherpa.aspx