At the Summit

Thank you so much for all your good wishes and apologies for not posting earlier but it helps if you don't let your iPad battery discharge completely. JJ's shuts off automatically but mine doesn't and I was obviously too tired to press the off button after downloading all my photos.

We were all kitted out feet well plastered in appropriate places and ready to hit the Ranger path at 10 O'clock, when the heavens opened and we had to retreat to the car for ten minutes. Fortunately it was only one short but torrential downpour.

Having set off, it took me four hours of watching the rear ends of my husband and friends to reach the top, although I did manage to flag them down after about three hours so I could have something to eat. I really was Mrs. Grumpy at that point. I was even passed by a three legged Chihuahua/Yorkshire terrier cross who was going great guns for the top.

We could hear the train chugging up the mountain from Llanberis but it was so misty we couldn't see it at all until we were almost at the point of crossing the track. Very eerie. Len was so busy looking at the track he tripped over it and did a quite spectacular forward roll.

The older ones of you will remember what the old January sales were like and which I avoided like the plague in case I was killed in the crush. Well the top of Snowdon is rather like that. Whilst we had been enjoying struggling up a rather quiet path, they all converge at the top and it's every man for himself to reach the summit, or possibly the pee tea shop. I definitely felt like I shouldn't have been there.

Anyway this is JJ and I smiling smugly politely for the camera at about the nearest to the top we could get. I'm sure if it hadn't been August there would have been a little more room up there.

On the way back down we passed a tot of THREE YEARS AND THREE MONTHS walking his way to the top with not far left to walk, amazing.

We then passed a couple sitting on a rock at the side of the path and the guy was wrapped in one of those silver foil blankets they give to marathon runners when they finish. I didn't take much notice, just making one of my usual quips about looking very fetching in silver and carrying on down the zigzag, when the RAF rescue helicopter appeared over the hillside and hovered over my head. I was probably about twenty feet from the couple I'd seen and there was a full rescue under way. They dropped someone down then the helicopter headed off into the distance whilst an assessment was made, then came back and the girl was winched up, quickly followed by the paramedic and patient. Rescue

It took us almost four hours to get back down the mountain due the terrain, none of us wanting injuries of any sort, but it is certainly a track I would recommend.