APRIL 2023 · ADVENTURE
Yr Wyddfa - Miner's Path
Snowdon massif, Eryri
Yr Wyddfa — Snowdon — gets the most visitors of any mountain in Wales by a margin that makes comparison meaningless. The train goes to the top. The Pyg Track, the Llanberis Path, the Snowdon Ranger — all of them are worn to their bones with use.
The Miner's Path runs lower. It follows the old copper mining route up from Pen-y-Pass, passing Glaslyn at the foot of the summit pyramid. The mines are still visible — the ruins of a stone mining structure on the hillside, roofless walls on rocky ground. I wasn't going to the summit. I was staying low to watch the weather work on the mountain from a distance.
The golden-lit mountainside ridge catching a break in the cloud — that's the light you wait for.
Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) — April 2023
The tent was pitched in the valley floor, small and dark against open grass and rock outcrops. An olive bivouac, low-profile. Overnight; the following morning early, the clouds were already building. Yr Wyddfa's summit is often in cloud by mid-morning, especially in spring. You get a window.
Glaslyn held the light early — that dramatic mountain lake green-grey in the valley, the peak above it cloud-wrapped, the yellow boathouse on the rocky shore at the water's edge. A hiker in orange appeared at the lakeside in the morning. Another in orange later on a rocky slope, facing the misty valley. The mountain was working through its sequence: clear summit, then cloud capping the top, then the cloud thickening until the summit was simply not there.
The layered rocky ridge with lichen and dark striations is from lower on the path. The rock here is old and fractured and holds moisture. The golden-lit mountainside ridge catching a break in the cloud — that's the light you wait for. It lasted a few minutes.
By afternoon the summit was snow-dusted and fully lost in mist. I'd been watching it all day. Almost no one around in the busiest mountain zone in North Wales.
Hiker in orange jacket standing on rocky slope overlooking Glaslyn lake
Hiker at lake shore facing steep mountainside shrouded in mist
Solo hiker walking narrow path across sparse mountainside terrain
Olive bivouac tent pitched in grassy moorland beneath Snowdon peak
Small dark tent in open valley surrounded by sparse grass and rock outcrops
Bright sunlight breaking through clouds illuminating distant valley
Dramatic alpine lake nestled in boulder-strewn valley with forested slopes
Dark mountain peak with rocky outcrops beside still alpine lake
Yellow boathouse on rocky shore with mountains and cloud cover beyond
Moorland valley with winding stream beneath steep rocky mountainside
Steep valley rimmed by dark mountains with dramatic cloud formations
Weathered rocky mountainside with yellow-brown sparse vegetation and mist
Layered rocky ridge with lichen and dark stone striations beneath clouds
Cloud-shadowed valley framed by bare rocky peaks and moorland slopes
Golden-lit mountainside ridge ascending beneath dramatic cloudy sky
Sunlit moorland valley with stream flowing beneath dark mountain slopes
Lake with hiking trail tracing mountainside and cloud-wrapped peak beyond
Hiker in orange gear facing misty valley and towering mountain slope
Weathered stone mining structure ruins on rocky hillside
Snow-dusted mountain peak shrouded in clouds and mist