40 Years – Carry On up the Khyber!

It all started 40 years ago with a weekend camping in Snowdonia, so we felt it only appropriate that to celebrate the anniversary we take a stroll to the summit of the highest mountain in England and Wales, the mighty Snowdon.

Our route of choice was the quieter Watkin Path, the South Face of Yr Wyddfa.  This path has (at least) two well known events in it's history.  The PYG may well have been used by Sir Edmund Hillary to train for Everest, but Watkin saw Gladstone giving a speech and, far more importantly the filming of Carry On up the Khyber.  It goes without saying that we stopped a conveniently passing ITV cameraman to take a group photo at the Gateway to India. In keeping with the Carry On tradition, and in consideration of the weather, it also goes without saying that many comments were made regarding the risk of being blown off whilst on the mountain.

Having postponed our original walk date due to extreme weather warnings, we were relieved to see that our rescheduled walk also had a weather warning, but only for strong wind this time...  Setting off, we could see that the summit was as ever covered in cloud - this was to be a typical trek up Snowdon.  Watkin is one of the longer routes up Snowdon, starting at around 100m, and giving a roughly 8 mile round trip, and includes a lovely section of scree as you near the top, heading into the clouds.

Once we reached the top we felt the need for a few more pictures, though there was not a great deal to see.  Then, out of respect for the cultures of some of our southern groups, we thought we would stop at a cafe midway round the walk - a very unusual occurance for North Wales!  We were so glad that we did, for we saw the lovely lads from the Birmingham Bulls RFC while we were in there... looking great with their red hoodies and firm thighs.  A few of our group have suddenly found a new fondness for rugby.

Our return journey avoided the scree slope.  Instead we just had a horizontal hail storm to contend with as we crossed the rather exposed Bwlch Main ridge, before descending to the quarry tramway and back down onto the lower section of the Watkin path.

A great day out, thanks to Andrew for organising

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