Seal and babes

Did you mean the cable car travelling up the Great Orme Mike? My sis-in-law was visiting so we were on the pier and watched it, completely chickened out though:-)

gaynorsl said:

Did you mean the cable car travelling up the Great Orme Mike? My sis-in-law was visiting so we were on the pier and watched it, completely chickened out though:-)

Now that's something I'm desperate to do, the cable car, and one day, I will, and the tram.

I meant the children's playground at the summit, by the tram summit station.

A little story about that play area, I took our son up Snowdon when he was 7½ years old, after a few months of building up his stamina and basic hill skills for a child of that age, which was basically how to make a 999 call, how to look around you and describe your surroundings and basics like keep warm no matter what.

Any way, I digress, it was a spring bank holiday Monday, twas the only decent weather day for that week, and Snowdon yielded perfect views for miles, tens of miles around.

Generally my son and myself (well I was until my accident) are quite physically active people, we'd planned the following day to be a chill out day for him, knowing he'd be tired.

How wrong we were, it was a big mistake!

A couple of hours after getting up, he was getting restless, so I took him to that play area, and boy did he run and climb around. You wouldn't have believed he was shattered the previous day after ascending Snowdon!

A truly wonderful memorable couple of days Mike, thanks for sharing!

A lovely story, Mike, and a great memory for you. Children just seem to have endless energy. An Aunt of mine used to tell her four children to run around the outside of their house three or four or more times and then come in and tell her who won the race. Not sure they worked it out until they were adults that the purpose was not to win the race but to tire them all out while distracting them from whatever they'd been squabbling about and to give her a few minutes of peace and quiet! It worked with her grandchildren as well but of course they were lucky enough to have the space to do that.

Good story Mike, you did well to take a 7 nearly 8yr old hiking up Snowdon, in my experience the youngsters get tired after a short while and Dad ends up carrying them around:-( I haven't been to the top of the Orme so hadn't seen the playground up there, but apparently I might be trying a climb up Snowdon in the near future, oooh could be put off with the white stuff appearing today.

Gaynor, White stuff?!! On Snowdon or down where you are? Reminds me, we were told that in Anchorage, Alaska, they call the first snow on the mountain tops 'termination dust'. It means that this is definitely the end of summer!

gaynorsl said:

Good story Mike, you did well to take a 7 nearly 8yr old hiking up Snowdon, in my experience the youngsters get tired after a short while and Dad ends up carrying them around:-( I haven't been to the top of the Orme so hadn't seen the playground up there, but apparently I might be trying a climb up Snowdon in the near future, oooh could be put off with the white stuff appearing today.

It was actually easy, he challenged me to take him up, after hearing one of his school friends had been up Snowdon.

Over the preceding few months I built up his stamina and when the day came, he was like a dog with 22 tails!

As for his friend, we don't know if he did ascend Snowdon, we never saw any photos and some of the descriptions of the route up didn't add up. My gut feeling, it never happened for my sons friend, but it did for my son, along with Glyder Fawr later on and Tryfan, via the South side.

This time of year, there will be a dusting of snow on Snowdon, and as winter gets nearer, it will become more prominent. I've not long returned from a stay in N Wales, and had to take a trip down to Plas y Brenin and capture the Snowdon Massif in it's late autumn garb, and there was snow then. I'm still in the process of sorting almost 100 photos, but some will be live soon.

Though many guide books say the ascent is around 2-3 hours, I would allow 4 hours up and 4 down, remembering that daylight hours will be greatly reduced this time of year, and sunset by early December will be as early as 16:00hrs. Take into account that much of the Snowdon paths are shaded from the sun, therefore it will be darker even earlier!

You must have been up at Plas y Brenin when I took my photos of the first snow of the year the other week Mike, it only lasted for one day or maybe two, washed off after that.
I said I might attempt the path up with my family just cause I was feeling brave!!!, can't see it happening really, I could just about walk up for maybe half an hour so they could continue and pick me up on their way down!!! You are right about the short days, it is pretty much lighting up time at 4.00p.m. now.

gaynorsl said:

You must have been up at Plas y Brenin when I took my photos of the first snow of the year the other week Mike, it only lasted for one day or maybe two, washed off after that.
I said I might attempt the path up with my family just cause I was feeling brave!!!, can't see it happening really, I could just about walk up for maybe half an hour so they could continue and pick me up on their way down!!! You are right about the short days, it is pretty much lighting up time at 4.00p.m. now.

I was there on Sun 27th Oct, where I took a couple from the western edge of Plas y Brenin, then drove a little further down the road to the layby with the boulders close by, looking toward Garth Farm and grabbed a few more. Also seen a couple of stonechats there, before heading over to Ogwen Cottage,