Snowdon - times three!

As part of my UTMB training, I feel that lots of long uphill and downhill work will help, getting used to using poles, getting used to long, relentless downhills - the sort of thing that becomes tortuous towards the end of the West Highland Way race as the hills get bigger.

So, I set off for North Wales late Friday evening to do just that....

The plan, do three ascents/descents. After a brief overnight stay at the cell like Travelodge in Cearnarfon I arrived at Llanberis around 4am, parked up in the layby just on the edge of town then set off for the hill at 4.37 am.

Llyn Padarn, Llanberis 4.37 am Saturday 6 June

Snowdon Mountain Railway trains stoking up at 4.40 am

The weather was cool, with a few spots of rain in the air, with lots of low cloud around. I ran the half mile or so to the foot of the climb then got out the poles for the 4.5 mile uphill slog on the Lllanberis path. The ascent was fairly uneventful, saw a handful of walkers (all on their way down - 3 Peakers presumably) and hit the summit at 6.19 am. It was cloudy when I arrived, but that very suddenly, and dramatically, cleared to provide some stunning views:

Snowdon Summit, 6.19 am.

Looking into the Snowdon horseshoe:

The view north:

After a quick snack I folded away the poles and headed down the hill. Still very quiet but the path was starting to get very wet - in fact there was so much water compared to the ascent that I began to wonder if I'd taken a wrong turn (which on the Llanberis path you just can't do!). Anyway, with no misadventures I arrived back at the car at 7.19 am, exactly one hour after reaching the summit.

Llanberis was starting to get busy now and I got chatting to a fell runner parked next to me. Turned out to be John Vernon (West Highland Way family) over from Sheffield for the 1000 metres fell race (a 22 miler finishing on Snowdon). Turns out John is also running UTMB this summer!

After a change of kit and more food and drink set off at 7.39 am for leg two. Once again the climb was very straight forward, but the rain was incessant by now and the wind on the top made it very cold.

Second summit, 9.26 am

To get a chance to recover I went in search of shelter by the new multi-million pound visitor centre on the top of Snowdon - which bizarrely remained closed all day. No outdoor shelter of any kind has been built into this (which seems like a missed opportunity), but the north side of the summit was out of the wind and I warmed up from the hot air emanating through a steel shuttered door (no idea what it was powering).

Again, poles got packed away and I was glad to be running to start warming up (given that it was only 9 or 10 degrees in Llanberis, it must have been around zero on the summit and that's before factoring in wind chill).

I soon starting warming up and was enjoying the run off the hill when I suddenly found myself heading for the ground. I'd tripped (I blame low visibility.....). I hit the ground palms down, right knee, thigh, elbow and shoulder. I think I was more in shock about what a disaster this might be than from the actual impact and despite feeling sore (and glad no one was around to see me) decided the best option was to keep on running. The throbbing in my elbow and knee soon calmed down and I made the rest of the way down incident free and arrived at the car at 10.26 am.

Luckily, Pamela's car comes with a first aid kit so I was able to clean and strap up my wounds and then sat in the car to warm up, get dry, change kit and feed. At this point, with the rain still pouring down and feeling sore and cold I could have packed in, but fitness wise I was feeling good and decided I'd come to do three ascents so that is what I'd do.

Eventually I set off in the rain again at 11.10 am for the third and final summit.

Llyn Padarn 11.10 am.

The hill was really busy now with charity walkers and endless ill equipped groups who seemed to have taken a wrong turn off Bangor high street. Still, none of them made the news unlike the well equipped fell runners.

So apart from crowds, the third and final ascent and descent was uneventful and my run down marginally quicker than the first two - I think ostensibly as I wanted to get away from the all those people! Although I did get to see more trains on this run and took several pictures for train mad Asa.

Timings; I set off at 11.10, reached the top at 1 pm and was back at the car for 1:58 pm. The rain continued while I sheltered in the car, dried off, changed, ate more stuff, drank loads of coke and water and then headed home at about 3 pm.

Overall I was very happy with the whole exercise (apart from falling over) with all climbs taking between 1:40 and 1:50 and all descents @ 1 hour.

So, that was the equivalent of about 30 miles and 3,000 metres of ascent, about 30% of UTMB....but, in only just over 9 hours and in fairly rubbish weather. So quite encouraging.