My foster daughter had an extra day off school today as all the school staff had a Professional Development day. She’s not exactly the active type, but has expressed an interest in the type of things I get up to. So,with the fine weather forecast it seemed an idea opportunity to get her out. Snowdon seemed the obvious choice for someone looking to brag about their exploits, but not able to take much on in reality. The added bribe of a hot chocolate from the summit cafe, was enough to lure her on.

When we arrived at Pen y Pass, the sun was shining and conditions looked stable. As my foster daughter put it, “I thought you said it would be cold”. She might feel a little silly thinking back on that statement now. We actually made good progress to start with. By using the Miners’ Track on our way in, the going was pretty level with a well made up path. I couldn’t help noticing that some of it is even tarmac now, which is a development since I last used this route. However, once the path started to climb, progress slowed and teenage legs started to weaken. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well she coped with the scramble up to join the Pyg Track. On similar ground in the past, she’s struggled a lot. To be fair, she didn’t find it easy, but did keep going at her own pace.

However, as we approached the bottom of the Zig-Zags, things started to change. The cloud enveloped the summit and the started to descend until our ‘world’ shrunk to about a 20m radius. With it, the temperature started to drop and the path became covered in compacted snow, forming a nasty layer of ice. It took a lot of step kicking and time to make the following 300m but, once we reached the main ridge it was easier to follow the railway line than to stick on the compacted path. However, it was at this point that I realised that my bribe was going to backfire. With the railway covered in snow, it was clear that the trains wouldn’t be running and, as a result, the cafe wouldn’t be open either – oops!

We made it to the top and found a bit of shelter for our lunch, which was a fairly quick affair before starting back down. It’s always harder going down hill, especially when dealing with ice, so I wasn’t really looking forward to getting my foster daughter down below the freezing level. With patience and a lot of specific instruction, we managed to pick our way to the bottom of the Zig-Zagsbefore relaxing a little. However, due to our slow progress, daylight was now the issue and I found myself chivying her along from 3.30pm in the knowledge that we had an hour and a half of daylight left. We actually made it down to the car for 4.50pm, just as the light was failing but with a great sense of achievement on her part.