11th Sept 2005

Since my Scafell Pike climb was washed by the rain, I was very much down due to not able to accomplish the task of 3 national peak. But fortunately the RSA club (where I worked for RSA, in UK) listed September hikes & for my surprise it was Snowdon on list. It is England's highest peak. That too in 1£, unbelievable.

Out of 4 listed from my side finally we 2 landup to join the band of 24 people attempting 3 different routes. We started from liverpool at 8:10am and while collecting rest members on the way our 40 seater's coach. I didn't believed first when I got to knew that the fee was just 1£ including the insurance & travel. For RSA club member the cost is 1£ for rest its 5£.

We started at 8:10am from Liverpool & reached at 10:30am at Rhyd Ddu terminus from where we were supposed to start the trek. We started our trek by 11:00am with a very brief info about the surrounding by the Leader Peter morris who started his climb since from his childhood. He must have visited the mountain more than 30 times. Still he looks to be a strong walker at the age of 62. All the gang mates were above 45-45 yrs of age. Initially we thought it must be a boring one.

The trek was of different kind due to all these people to me. Most of the people on the trek used to tell their pack of experience which was quite enjoyable specially listening from their style. The entire gang were too interested to listen from our experience and very much we all became a team. In the first phase of the less gradient climb the day weather was bit open which allowed us to do some photography and later as we keep on going higher and higher we were in the cloud. I could not able to see anyone within 20 ft of the distance except the walking stick stamping sound. Suddenly before the last 400ft climb I was above the cloud lines with all rocky heads wearing the green coat. At one point of time during this last walk once again I was in the cloud and found a tall person greeting me like normal trekkers were trying to sale me silver bracelets etc. Initially I thought someone needs some help but later I confirmed that he is an mountain sales executive. This made me reminding about the Prince charles sentence about this mountain that 'It's an highest slum of Britain' (Actually he means to say Lanberis village).

This mountain has the train station which is more than 100 yrs old. While reaching towards the summit, one can able to identify the summit due to frequent train horn. On the summit the place was crowded by the trekkers. It has a cafeteria. And the good part is they are not allowed to sale Cigarettes. I liked that idea. We spent some time on the summit while most of the old gang band had 2-2 glasses of bear but I was happy sipping the hot coffee with Abhijit after the snacks. I can proudly tell with this that we had Paratha's on the summit. Thanks to Abhijit Wife.

We started our return journey by 2:00pm descending towards the Lanberis station parrellely moving with the train track. The train has only 1 boggy which is costing 14£ one way quite hefty amount but one can enjoy the ride in one of the oldest train that too in such environment. We went down with hide and seek game with the train till the next base in another 2 & half hrs. The entire return journey was quite rejuvenating with all experiences. We started at 5:15pm by our coach bus to Liverpool and reached in next 2 hrs. The trip was really unique though we didn't sweated much. By this I had completed 2 National peaks of UK

Photo Link.....

Written By:Rajan Rikame