Since the last expedition in 1997, with Jacob and Eddie, probably no one had made an successful attempt to traverse Crib
Goch and reach the top of Mnt. Snowdon (1085 msl or 3557 fsl). This is why a
seconds expedition was launched, and dispite dreadful warnings in advance,
still 13 people showed up on Saturday morning, ready to sacrifice their lifes
for glory. Our mini bus was parked at the bottom of the Llanberis pass, since
the top car park is always full these days and the driver thought he was not
skilfull enough the turn the thing anywhere between the top of the pass and
Dublin.
At the Llanberis pass, the expedition was strenghtened by two extra experienced fell walkers from London, who happened to be in the area. The Pyg Track was easy and brought us quickly up to the foot of Crib Goch. Here, fear or common sense finally caught some of us and therefore the expedition split up. One group would follow Pyg Track up to the top of Snowdon. The remaining nine were still happy to die, and whoever managed to ban this possibility out of his or her mind, was happily remembered by our ever optimistic tour operator Etienne: "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE". We soon reached the edge of the ridge and had short lunch break to enjoy the view. From this point Crib Goch runs almost horizontally towards Snowdon, and those who did not yet suffer from fear of height had plenty of opportunity to catch up. Slowly but surely we battled ourselves closer to Mnt Snowdon, and not even Retro Patellar Chondrositis could stop us.
Through little patches of snow, we reached the point where the two
mountains are happily married together and from there we followed the
easy route to
the top of Mnt. Snowdon. For the time we were in the clouds, but as luck would
have it, soon after we reached the top, the view opened up dramatically and we
were impressed by a sun covered yellow brown landscape as far as we could see.
This was certainly something to ring home about, and that was exactly what
happened all around us. In our direct vincinity, we saw at least 17 people on
their mobile phones using the
official guidelines. I imagine a conversation goes like this:
SON: "Hi dad, I'm on Mnt. Snowdon.". FATHER: "Jee, son, how interesting, I was just
wandering what you were doing the last 10 minutes since you rang me to tell me
you were near the top. Tell me, what is it like?". SON:
"It's marvellous, I can
see lots of people ringing lots of other people and in between these people you
can see bits of mountain". FATHER: "Unbelievable, you wouldn't expect that on Mnt.
Snowdon, that you can see other mountains. Please tell me more interesting
facts". SON: "No, sorry haven't got time, have to ring mum as well". FATHER:
"Euh, she's
just here with me in the same room and she listened in to our conversation".
SON: "No, no tell her I will ring her in 3 minutes, when I have worked out how
redial works. There are still people looking at me, so I've got to hold on to
this fanstastic moment in my life. See you dad." "Tuut tuut tuut " We quickly
decided to leave the top, the culture shock was too great since the 1997
expedition, and the other half of the expedition wasn't found. They either all
had died horribly on Pyg Track or got tired of waiting for us and had inside
knowledge of the pub opening times in the valley. 
We followed Pyg Track down to the start of the Miners track at the top lake. We took a rest at the lake and some of us explored an old mine, which ran for a few 100 yards inside the mountain. Others decided to take a mud bath or go for a swim and strain their knee in the process. Its what you do in life. The run along the lakes on the Miners Track is a long one, but the sun was kind on us. We finally caught up with the rest of the expedition who were waiting outside??? the pub near the mini bus. The guest members of the party were given a lift back to their base camp on the other side of the Llanberis pass, asking the utmost of the drivers skill not to knock any of the stone wall down on either side of the narrow road.
Since it was too late to bring the mini bus back to the garage where it
was rented, we went to the Last Inn straight away and ordered the usual "simple
but nutritious meals, celebrating the fact that 13 - 13 is zero deceased
