Mount Snowdon: “Miner Down”

As the Welshmen in the bar said to my husband, “Pyg up, Miner down!,” so our descent from Mount Snowdon was along the Miners Track. It was a good choice. Even though both the Pyg and Miners tracks begin and end at Pen-y-Pass, they are very different. It’s much easier to do the more difficult stretch of climbing at the beginning of the day than at the end. These photos were taken last May. I got a bit behind because of all the events in Jerusalem, the Gaza war during the summer, the holidays….

In the first picture, above, you can see how lucky we were with the timing of our climb. The first half of the day was mainly sunny, with good visibility from the summit. By the time we reached the Llyn Llydaw (Brittany Lake) on the descent, the summit was covered with cloud. The weather in Snowdonia is very changeable and the extremes of wind and temperature make this mountain a challenge, although it’s not terribly high, as mountains go. An easy climb in good weather can be dangerous in high wind and fog. As the guidebooks say, it’s the weather and not the map that determines how difficult a climb is.

The descent from the summit to the lake was quite steep. I was very glad to have good hiking boots.

The side of the mountain has abandoned mines snaking across the rock.

This ruined building was the Britannia Copper Mine crushing mill.

A view of the same building, from beyond the curve of Llyn Llydaw. The sun broke through the clouds briefly.

Park services helicopters carry huge canvas bags of rocks for repairing the paths. You hear them constantly and see them more often than rescue helicopters, which are yellow. The park has miles of trails to maintain.

These ruins were the foundations of miners’ barracks by the lake. It’s difficult to imagine living in such harsh conditions, in the middle of nowhere, with only horses and mules for transportation.

Cool rock formations!