Hello - new user here as you can see, and new to Snowdonia (usual stamping ground is the Lakes). I'd be very grateful for some thoughts on this:
We're heading up Snowdon (reasonably sensible weather allowing) over the bank holiday weekend with a small group. Two of the guys are off legs for various reasons, so will take the train up to meet us and make sure I haven't incompetently managed to maim or lose their girlfriends; and the rest of us will walk up. Although the walking group (4 or perhaps 6) could of course just walk down again like on any other mountain, a one-way train descent appeals, both for social convenience (so the others don't have to wait for us at both ends) and, well, enlightened laziness/novelty value
.
Your kind advice is requested on two fronts
1) Route: I was thinking Pen y Pass (most probably via Park/ride via Nant Peris, from what I read) to Y LLiwed and up (I read that toward the end it's better to aim off to Bwlch y Saethau to avoid the scree scramble); hopefully to catch the train with our friends for the down trip, but with the Pyg Track descent as our backup plan. Given that some will be going up from Llanberis and some/all of us returning there, we need to be on this side of the mountain.
Questions are:
(a) roughly how long extra is this likely to take compared to the Pyg Track - about an hour?
(b) how daunting is the scree climbing toward the end near summit, for those not used to it? I read somewhere it's better to aim off onto Bwlch y Saethau and follow the south ridge from there, so may try this.
(c) if we don't get the train down (see below), roughly how long is the Pyg Track descent? I'm keen to avoid this because one of the group (the youngest and fittest!) struggles with her knees in descent, and from what I can see the Pyg is a bit of a big stone staircase. So it would be very useful to know how much to allow.
Which leads onto...
2) How practical is it these days to 'catch' a train down from the top, on a bank holiday Sunday? We'd read that you need to book because walkers planning a walk-up & train-down trip tend to get caught out otherwise, so we planning to do this; but the current info now seems to be that you can't book, and a return ticket is only valid if stamped at departure at Llanberis. Any advice on whether / how best to take our chances (does an early start make a difference?).
Sorry for all the questions. I just don't want to be over-optimistic/over-ambitious given that it's a mixed group of friends (our friendly local is one of those who are out of action and taking the train, so I'm a stray Lakes person acting as Snowdon guide for a bunch of other out-of-area people...).
Thanks very much!
