Last weekend we packed up our gear and drove to Wales looking for a chance to get out of the city and see part of the UK we’d never experienced before.

A road trip only one week after completing The Sugar Free Challenge was a risk… who doesn’t like to snack en route? Luckily, a 4-hour walk/scramble up Mt. Snowdon the next day seemed to balance everything out. I’ve learned that I’m much better at the big picture of healthy living… micromanaging my diet last month has thrown me out of joint a bit.

Anyway, more about our time in Snowdonia…

Snowdon is the highest peak south of the Scottish Highlands. The trails to the top are straight forward in terms of navigation but the terrain becomes quite steep and rocky as you progress up the mountain.  

I was being my usual self… totally freaked out that things out of our control would doom us. I was worried we’d run out of day light or get physically blown off the mountain as we set off later than expected and it was ridiculously windy.

I could control one outcome, walk fast and try to get back quicker… avoiding the daylight issue and dealing with the wind as and when the gusts would come.

The route is estimated to take six hours. We booked it. We were up and down in three and a half hours. Round trip to our car and back would have been four maybe four and a half hours total.

We took the Miners’ Track on the way up and Pyg Track on the way down, which according to the Visit Snowdownia website are the two best tracks for Drama… oi.

Here are our before-and-after photos from the base of the mountain to the top of the summit…  haha! So wind blown by the time we got to the top and no view at all – just grey.

We got to the top, took a photo and literally started running down the mountain… it seemed easier than walking at the time and definitely quicker. The rocks were slippery and wet and the wind was strong, so taking smaller quicker strides made each step a bit less of a commitment on terrain we couldn’t really trust.

What would I do differently next time?

Even though the weather was less than ideal, it was 100% authentic to the area. It would have been nice to see the view from the top but given our circumstances, the whole experience was extremely rewarding. Wet and windy, but totally worth it.

I would however invest in better water proof gear and walking boots if I did a walk like that again. We are all soaked from about 15 minutes into the trek as we only had water resistant coats and trousers with us. We all wore running shoes as well and by the end of it, we had sore ankles and knees. It took a few days for my ankles to recover.

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Side note/ final thoughts today… The realization that wet and dark winter weather has arrived and will stay has fully sunk in. Today it got dark before 4:30PM and it has been raining ALL day.

Too keep motivation up, I’ve signed up for ClassPass this month! I plan to test out a few different trends and share my experiences. Today, I’m doing a bit of a ClassPass marathon with my roommate, Kailee. Wish us luck – 5 classes in 1 day! Will it be easier or harder than climbing Mount Snowdon? TBD…