April 18, 2018: View from Atop Mt. Snowdon

This photo was taken from the summit of Mt Snowdon, North Wales (1085m or 3560 feet).  It is the tallest peak in England and Wales.  The net elevation gain was about 2500 feet (750m) over about 7 1/2 miles (12km).  Takes between 3-7 hours for most people. 

We walked to the summit in late May on an unusually clear day.  We could even see the coast of Ireland off in the distance.  Apparently we were extremely lucky as it is the rainiest place in the UK and one of the wettest places in all of Europe, receiving an average of 175 inches of rain per year (almost 15 feet).   We talked to an older Welsh guy in his late 70’s who said he had been to the summit over 20 times and had never been able to “see more than my hand in front of my face before”.

The Miner’s track was first made in the 1830’s to move copper ore, and the PYG track is a bit more enigmatic, and is believed to be an acronym for Pen-Y-Gwryd hostel (in which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stayed while training for the first ascent on Mt. Everest (much taller at 28.8 thousand feet).

Share the Post:

Comments

1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
6 years ago

Beautiful views!

Featured Destination

recommended by TravelGumbo

Gumbo's Pic of the Day

Posts by the Same Author

Learning a New Language for Travel

Adina shares some reasons and benefits for learning a foreign language before you travel. It takes a lot of time, energy and commitment to reach this goal, but doing so offers great rewards.

Read More