Tim & Rob Climb Snowdon Mountain for CharityMy best buddy Rob and I are going to climb Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales, to raise money for the charity Help For Heroes.
My best buddy Rob (who happens to be my brother-in-law) and I are going to climb to the summit of Snowdon in Wales to raise money for Help For Heroes. We are aiming to raise £1 each for every metre we climb. Snowdon has an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) and the planned route is about 8 miles long.
We will be completing our challenge on Saturday 20th March 2010 regardless of weather conditions (except if the weather is so bad as to be life-threatening).
Please help support our troops by making a donation online through the organiser BMyCharity.com. To donate safely online please visit our fund-raising page.
About Help For Heroes
Our chosen charity is Help For Heroes , a charity formed to help those who have been wounded in Britain's current conflicts.
What is H4H all about? It's about the blokes, our men and women of the Armed Forces. It's about Derek, a rugby player who has lost both his legs, it's about Carl whose jaw is wired up so he has been drinking through a straw. It's about Richard who was handed a mobile phone as he lay on the stretcher so he could say goodbye to his wife. It is about Ben, it's about Steven and Andy and Mark, it's about them all. They are just blokes but they are our blokes; they are our heroes. We want to help our heroes.
About Us
Tim: As some of you may already know, I was involved in a serious high-speed car crash in which I suffered multiple broken bones, including my knee, and muscular damage to my hips, legs, knees and ankle. This is going to be a challenging hike for me, but I'm determined to make it to the top!
Rob: I'm doing this because I can, and to raise money for Help For Heroes.
We both have family connections to the armed forces, and we both want to help support our troops.
I've Climbed A Mountain!!!
On Saturday 20th March 2010, my brother-in-law and I set off from Pen-y-pass along the PYG track to the summit of Snowdon. After climbing on, over and through rocks, mud, scree, shale, snow and ice we eventually made it to the top.
We started in the Pen-y-Pass car park at 9.30 am and ventured up to the start of the PYG track over some steep slopes and boulders. After about 10 minutes we reached the highest equivalent point on our Cheddar Gorge training route, only at Cheddar, there are quite a bit of flat or gentle slopes once the initial climb is over. Snowdon just goes on and on, steeper and steeper.
It didn't take long to arrive at the junction with Crib Goch, which led us to the style marked with the PYG track. It was then an easy upward walk around the lakes. We made a really good time along the rugged and challenging path which peters out until you're scrambling over and up rocks and scree.
We started to enter the mist and fog early on but it didn't cause us any problems. Due to the fog, we couldn't see the bottom as we climbed up, which was probably a good thing since neither of us is brilliant with heights!
A bit higher up the conditions got a bit worse, with snow patches on the path. At this point, some people started turning around and heading back the way they came while others like us ventured on. We also came across people who have gone further and turned around. They reported that things get a lot worse further up and a few more people turned back. Our "local group" was now down to about a dozen people determined to make it to the top. At this point, conditions were very poor and I decided that the best thing to do is to put the camera away and concentrate on climbing. Armed with some winter climbing gear (ice axe, crampons etc...) we encountered very thick and icy snow on the approach to the zig-zags and the ice quickly become more and more tricky. In this region of the mountain and with these poor conditions one mistake, one slip would mean game over.
When the going gets tough... the tough get on with it.
The last 100 metres of the PYG saw us climbing up a very steep snow and ice-covered mountain side with a huge drop. What remained of the path was about 8" wide with slush and ice on the surface and a vertical drop on one side. Then we lost the path altogether and were climbing up slippery icy snow, with a vertical drop on one side.
We made it to the top along with all the others in our local group (we weren't walking with them, but lots of smaller groups merged to form a pack - safety in numbers).
After some short celebrations at the top of the PYG, we ventured on to the summit. The snow was so thick the path and railway were buried. We could see the way to the top only where everybody else had walked and created a path, and after about 30 minutes we made it to the summit.
Up from the PYG we were blown around by 50-60mph winds which got stronger the higher we got. By the time we reached the top, we were defiantly windswept! At 14:07 we reached the top and took shelter behind the cairn. After a short rest, we posed for a few pictures before heading up the last final few metres. We had to crawl up the steps and hold onto the cairn as the winds reached gusts of 100mph+ and a -30°C wind chill. Ice formed on my hair and my clothes were freezing over - that's how cold it was! Even the water in my camelback was freezing up.
Despite all the ice and snow, we made it to the top without falling off, although at times it was close.
At the very top, you had to hold onto the cairn otherwise you will get blown off by the 100mph winds. There was not much chance of standing upright there.
After a short while at the top, we were eventually rewarded with a break in the fog which allowed us to look down on the clouds!
The PYG track is 3.25 miles long and took us 5.5 hours to complete. During our training walks, we took around 3 hours to walk 10 miles. This maybe indicates how hard the terrain and conditions were going up Snowdon.
Interesting side note: I got a faster internet connection using my mobile phone (HSDPA) on the summit of Snowdon than I get from the BT landline (ADSL) at home!
Because of the treacherous conditions, there was no way we were going to risk coming back down the zig-zags to the miner's track so we headed off to the railway line to Llanberis and would catch the Sherpa bus back to Pen-y-Pass and the Land Rover in the car park. The Llanberis path was uneven and steep, but we were coming down and made good progress. Unfortunately, good progress wasn't good enough as we missed the last bus back to Pen-y-Pass by 10 minutes. Another few miles for us to walk then!
We got back at the hotel around 7.30 pm, tired, sore and achy for a nice cold beer and a lot of food!
We raised a grand total of £1,295.11 to help support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded in the service of our country. A big thank you to everybody who helped by sponsoring us!
View my Snowdonia Mountain Range Photography photo gallery!
Total Distance Walked: 13.6 miles (21.8 km)
Time Taken: 9 hours 15 minutes.
