Another Fun Trip with GO London: Two Days of Hiking in Snowdonia

Those who regularly visit this blog will know that Ellie and I go hiking with GO London at least once a month. We’ve been doing so for many years now, and never regretted it.

DISCLAIMER

This post is not so much about hiking in Snowdonia, but about another variation of ‘Fun Things To Do Outdoors,’ about GO London, and about group hiking trips in general. I got a bit carried away, so feel encouraged to go by the headings and skip those sections that don’t look interesting to you. Hopefully, even if you’re based somewhere else in the world, and the vast majority of you are, then this post might give you ideas about what you want to do when you’re not grinding away on the job.

 

A GREAT PLACE TO MAKE FRIENDS…

Half of our friends are people we met through GO London. This includes my main climbing partner, as well as the Frenchman who joined me and another mate on an expedition down into the deepest section of the UK’s biggest cave. Needless to say that the guides of the company that Ellie & I explored Alum Pot with, all turned out to be old friends with the GO London team. Who else? The feller I do long-distance open-water swims with, as well as the dude I paddleboarded the Thames, the Severn, and the Cuckmere with. Moreover, let’s not forget the buddy of mine who is hell-bent on joining up with me for an ocean rowing adventure.

 

…AND FIND AFTERNOON TEA COMPANIONS

When Ellie & I needed advice on how to prepare for Everest Base Camp Trek, we found it here. At the moment, I’m planning K2 Base Camp Trek either for later this year or for next year. Guess where I met my partner in crime? (Yup, GO London.) He and I also hiked the Fisherman’s Trail together. Perhaps most importantly, the majority of Ellie’s and my high-calibre karaoke crew have been recruited on those group hiking trips. Whenever I go on a trip that’s a tad too tough for my good wife, she’ll have a couple of GO London girlfriends, who will join her for afternoon teas or spa weekends. The list goes on. And on.

 

DAY TRIPS TO THE SOUTH DOWNS OR COTSWOLDS…

GO London are a London-based hiking group. They are mainly organised through MeetUp, but also have a huge presence on Facebook. Their founder, Gary, runs the group besides his main job and he keeps things fun, affordable, and informal. While the majority of trips are day trips from London to areas such as the North Downs, South Downs, Chilterns, Cotswolds, or along the coast, there are also many bigger trips on offer.

 

…AS WELL AS TRIPS TO COLOMBIA OR NEPAL

Ellie & I have so far only joined on multi-day trips within the UK, such as Scotland, the Lake District, and the Peak District. However, Gary and his guides take groups to locations as far afield as Bosnia, Macedonia, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, or Colombia. More often than not, the destinations offered are off the beaten track, in many cases they are extremely remote.

DISCOVERING NEW PLACES

The preparations for each trip often take months or even years. Regularly the idea for a trip starts with a random conversation on a hike or elsewhere. Say, someone talks about their home country on the other side of the globe. Do they know any tour operators or mountain guides there? Would they happen to have the contact details? As long as the Foreign Office doesn’t strictly advise against travel to the country in question, it will be considered, if it has something special to offer.

 

KYRGYZSTAN

We are registered for the next trip to Kyrgyzstan after several friends recommended the multi-day high-altitude trekking adventure very highly to us. Before the first trip took place a few years ago, a local tour operator spent several days on Gary’s behalf, scouting a specific region of the country for good multi-day hiking opportunities and any possible business partners who might be able to assist. No commercial tour operators had ever ventured there before.

NOT JUST HIKING

GO London are not religious about the activities involved, and we did some canoeing with them. They have also done some kayaking, horse-back riding , and further activities.

THE MOUNTAIN GUIDES

Last weekend, we joined Gary, his second-in-command, Neil, and local mountain guide Dafydd for two days of hiking in the UK’s third oldest National Park, Snowdonia. The rest of the GO London team were guiding trips in other UK locations. We had climbed Mount Snowdon before, and visited Eryri, as the locals call the area, on various occasions. Lastly just 8 months ago.

 

FOND MEMORIES OF THE PREVIOUS TRIP TO WALES

Fond memories of that trip. I had taken part in the Ultra X Wales 50 trail run. I had registered through a third-party website to save some money. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to pass my information on to the race organiser. So, on the morning of the race, the organiser had to enter my details into the system. Due to lack of time, they only entered my first and last name and my age, but no sex. This meant that despite being the slowest runner in the field, I won ‘my category’: 40 to 49, Sex Unspecified. Oh yeah.

ALL PLACES SOLD OUT

To our huge disappointment, the Snowdonia trip (£280, incl. travel, accommodation, guides, all food except one pub dinner) had officially already been booked out, when we finally tried to secure our places after lengthy deliberations. However, we were told that there were still plenty of bunk beds available at the hostel. All we needed to do was organise our own transport. In turn we would get a discount for not joining the rest of the group in the two large vans.

 

TAKING THE TRAIN INSTEAD OF THE VAN

We partnered up with an old buddy of ours, who had found herself in the same situation. The train tickets ended up relatively affordable at under £100 for each return ticket. On Friday, ten days ago, we took a direct train from London Euston to Bangor, which took a mere 3.5 hours. At the train station our pre-booked taxi was already waiting for us. The 25-minute ride to the cabin in Rhyd Ddu cost £18 per person.

LATE ARRIVAL, STRAIGHT TO BED

It had been a long day, so we said hi to those who were still up when we arrived at around 11pm, but then went straight to bed. The next morning everyone got up at around 7am. By 9am everyone had finished their morning routine, gobbled down the delicious breakfast, prepared and packed their lunch sandwiches and snacks, and was ready to leave, in full gear.

 

MOEL LEFN AND MOEL YR OGOF

On these trips, there is always a lot of flexibility about the precise routes, depending on the weather. During the ten-minute morning briefing, our group learned that the day’s hike would be a 19km circular route from the bunkhouse through Beddgelert Forest over Moel Lefn (638m) and past Moel yr Ogof (655m) in the Moel Hebog Range (up to 783m).

MOEL YR OGOF

As a caver I had been aware that the Welsh word ‘ogof’ means ‘cave’. However, it was interesting to see a cave close to the top of a mountain, they tend to be further down. Not in terms of general elevation, but in terms of where on a mountain you find the entrance. The world’s deepest cave, Veryovkina Cave in Georgia, is more than 2,200m deep, but its entrance sits at roughly that same elevation on the side of a mountain range that is well over 3,300m high.

 

WHEN THE PRINCE OF WALES USED TO BE A WELSHMAN

King Charles III used to be known as the Prince of Wales before he handed the title over to his son Prince William. There was a time when the Princes of Wales used to be Welshmen. The last one of this kind was a well-educated, hotshot lawyer, who, when bored of lawyering, led a 15-year revolt against the English occupation. His name was Owain Glyndŵr a.k.a. Owen Glendower.

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?!

While there is no known link to speleology, this good man chose to spend the best of his last four years in the cave on top of Moel Yr Ogof, before he died of exhaustion at the age of 61 in the Year of God 1415. An obvious explanation for his affinity to the cave could be that it has his name written on it. Literally: “Owain Glyndŵr’s Cave.”

 

MIST, DRIZZLE, STRONG WINDS

There was a fair bit of mist, drizzle, and at times very strong winds. The temperatures at the higher elevations were around 12C. At times the path was extremely slippery. Every other minute someone else within the group would land on their bottom with a loud ‘swoosh/damn’. The scrambling sections would have been very short and easy in normal weather conditions but required full attention in the situation at hand.

 

CLIMBING JOKE

I don’t know any jokes about hikers slipping, but I was lucky enough to get a laugh for one of my favourite climbing jokes, which could almost work as a hiking joke:

 

“What’s the difference between a golfer and a climber?

A golfer goes whack……aaargh. A climber goes aaargh…….whack.”

 

MOOD: BRIGHT AND SUNNY

As always with these trips, bad weather is being given no chance to dim the mood. As soon as we had set off, banter ensued. Different from most other trips we had joined, Ellie and I only knew a handful of people, apart from the leaders. My main climbing partner was one of them, and I spent a good part of the day listening to his stories about his recent ice climbing trip to the Italian Alps. (Link to my recent ice climbing trip here.)

 

ANDREW: THE MAN, THE LEGEND

Andrew was another one of the familiar faces. He joins many of the trips. While he is not a mountain leader or guide, he is the man in the background that keeps the GO London machine running by driving one of the vans, managing things around the cabin, and assisting Gary with the cooking.

  

Andrew gave me permission to use his favourite portrait photo here.

“Man in the background? Yeah. Hahahaha…”

 

A TRAINEE MOUNTAIN LEADER

On this trip, the guides were supported by a chirpy young lady called Anna (name changed by the author), who is planning to register for the mountain leader exam in the near future. It was interesting, learning from her what the exam involves and which parts of it were seen as the most tricky ones. To her, the significant physical demands were nothing compared with the other challenges. She explained how the trainee mountain leaders are given maps of different scales for each exercise. The small scale ones contain very few markers and can be a real challenge to use.

 

MOUNTAIN LEADER EXAMS

And it’s not just about successfully making it from A to B. The newbies have to make an assessment before the start of the hike as to how long the hike will take. They need to take into account the difficulty of the terrain, the gradients of ascent and descent, the group’s capabilities, and the tolerance for margin of error is surprisingly low during the test.

VIBRAM FIVEFINGERS

I also learned a lot about barefoot toe shoes (Vibram FiveFingers), which Anna was wearing. While I’ve been a fan of barefoot running for a long time, I have so far never done any hiking in barefoot shoes or checked out toe shoes for any purpose, but I think I will do so soon.

 

SLOW AND STEADY PACE

Overall, the first day felt pretty easy, even though the group took much longer than expected to return back to the bunkhouse. This was largely because we were taking it easy, taking plenty of breaks. As a matter of fact, it almost felt like I could use some more exercise.

GOING FOR A LITTLE PRE-DINNER TRAIL RUN

So I went for a short trail run before dinner. In hindsight, perhaps not a brilliant idea. On the very first ascent, no more than 3km from the cabin, I got real hot and sweaty, then quickly rather exhausted and cold. I did more than my fair share of slipping and falling on the way back.

 

PLENTY OF FOOD AND SLIGHTLY EMBELLISHED STORIES

Dinners on these trips are always great fun. You can eat twice as much as on a normal day because of all the calories burnt. And Gary has got some serious skills in the kitchen and makes sure that there is plenty to eat for everyone.

Everyone garnishes their stories of past adventures. That gentle afternoon hike on a summer’s day in the Mendips last year suddenly turns into an epic expedition where no one knew if they were going to come out alive or not. You also get a chance to get to know all the folk you hadn’t had a chance to speak with during the day. GO London always encourage all participants to mingle, even though there’s no pressure to do so, of course.

WHAT ABOUT THE DRINKING?

There are some MeetUp hiking groups with very thirsty members. I remember one trip with one such group to the Lake District a few years ago. Ellie and I had just enjoyed a few glasses of wine, but the rest of the group was going hard on the Stroh 80.

 

The next morning, over breakfast, a twenty-year old fellow hiker with a chalk white face and a stench of death went from table to table and declared that she was very sorry for the previous night. When asked what she was apologising for, she said, she couldn’t remember a thing, just that she had gotten very drunk.

GO LONDON QUITE CIVILISED

GO London groups are usually quite civilised. So much so, that I’m sometimes among the more ‘excessive’ drinkers, just because I have a few beers. This evening, I only had two drinks, though, as I was feeling a bit under the weather.

GOOD MIX OF PEOPLE OF ALL AGES

I’m guessing that the average age in our group would have been in the lower 40s, despite a number of members being in their twenties. There is usually quite a large variation from hiking trip to hiking trip.

 

TAKING A SHOT AT MOUNT SNOWDON

The next morning, we went through the same routine. By 9am we had completed our morning briefing and were all good to go. The great news was that the weather forecast was sterling, and we would get our shot at Wales’ tallest mountain (1,085m), known to locals as Yr Wyddfa. From our bunkhouse up the Rhyd Ddu Path to the summit, then down the Snowdon Ranger Path. Around 22km in total.

EXTRAORDINARILY HIGH TEMPERATURES

Less than 24 hours ago, we had all been wearing our hard-shells, waterproof trousers, and beanies. Now everyone was in shorts and T-shirts, and still struggling with the extraordinarily high temperatures of the day. I’m guessing at least 24C, with hardly any clouds in the sky.

 

FAST PACE

The pace the leaders set was much faster than during the previous day. Despite the fact that we were going uphill, at times at a pretty steep angle, our average moving speed during the first 90 minutes was around 4kph.

GREAT VIEWS AND MORE CONVERSATIONS

The views during the ascent up to the summit were magnificent. You could see all the lakes, cwms (tarns) and little streams. In the far distance, boats were making their way across the Irish Sea. As soon as you reach the midway point, the stark and steep cliffs on Snowdon’s side are a feast for the eyes. When training for the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest, the yet un-knighted commoner Edmund Hillary used these very rock walls. Besides the views, Ellie & I also enjoyed more conversations with fellow hikers.

 

SEVEN SUMMITS

We learned that one of the members of our group was planning on climbing the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on each continent) over the next decade or so, starting with Kilimanjaro later this year. A fair few of his friends had climbed all or at least three or four of the Seven and had shared fascinating stories with my new acquaintance.

 

STELLA POINT, KILIMANJARO

I always enjoy talking about Kili, despite only having made it to Stella Point, about 125 vertical and 800 horizontal metres from the top. It had been a bit of a disappointment, to stand on the crater rim, the summit clearly visible, so close, and then to have to abandon the attempt due to high altitude sickness. That said, Tanzania was still one of the best adventures Ellie & I ever went on.

FELLOW RUNNERS

Both Mr Seven Summits, who is older than me, and two further fellow hikers, in their early twenties respectively late thirties, were passionate about running. So there was plenty to talk about.

 

QUEUING AT THE SUMMIT

Once we had reached the summit, about one third of our group started to queue for the summit cross. Out of all the beautiful hills on those verdant isles of Britain, this one is by far the busiest. There were more than two hundred people queuing, with waiting times around half an hour or more.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE, WELSH VERSION

The rest of us had some food and water, took some pictures, and then sat down on the steps at the outside of the café for some rest or even a nap. For some strange reason the café was closed on this bank holiday weekend, with no option to fill any empty water bottles. Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence. Fair enough. I guess the episodes of the Welsh version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ are pretty short: ‘No one.’

 

THREE PEAKS CHALLENGE

At some stage I intend to do the National Three Peaks Challenge. Ellie & I have climbed Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike, but never combined the two with Snowdon all within a 24-hour period.

MOUNT SNOWDON

Considering that the first known ascent of the hill only took place in 1639, while the thing has been around for 450 million years, I guess it’s okay if I take my time with the Three Peaks Challenge.

 

SNOWDON LILY

The first ascender had been a botanist. To this day the so-called Snowdon Lily, an arctic alpine plant, is growing here and only here. When it comes to the UK. It also grows pretty much everywhere else such as in the Alps, in Siberia, Nepal, Japan, Alaska, and New Mexico. For obscure reasons it is not called Snowdon Lily in those other places. Your guess is as good as mine.

KING ARTHUR, GIANTS, WATER MONSTERS, AND FAIRIES

Besides history, geology, and botany, Snowdon also has a lot to give on the mythology side of things. There is no doubt that King Arthur killed the Giant Rhita on the mountain and buried him under the summit cairn. Strictly speaking, the scientific evidence is slightly less abundant for the fact that the water monster Afanc and a bunch of fairies were frequent customers here.

 

PUB DINNER

At around 4pm we arrived back in the village at the local pub, five minutes’ walk from our hostel, and had a pint or two each. The dinner reservation was for 8pm and the food was delicious. It emerged that the two younger runners were going to attempt to run up to the summit of Snowdon the following morning, then back down to the bunkhouse, all before breakfast.

 

RUNNING UP TO THE SUMMIT OF SNOWDON AND BACK

When I got up at 7am, the two fellers had already completed their feat and were rightly being celebrated by those of us who had gotten up yet. Well done there. Up to the top and back in something like 2h15m, incl. a 15-minute break at the summit.

GETTING BACK TO THE BIG SMOKE

While the rest of the group drove to near-by Betws-y-Coed to spend three hours there until lunch, before taking the vans back to London, our buddy, Ellie & I took the taxi to Bangor. The train ride home took about an hour longer than the first leg of our trip, but no complaints. We had had a great time.

 

Other GO London hikes I’ve written about are Glynde to Seaford, Panshanger Park and Hertford, Hadleigh Castle and Saffron Trail, as well as the Goring circular walk.

Looking for more fun outdoor activities? Feel welcome to eyeball my posts about rock-climbing, kayaking, canyoning, quad-biking, skeleton, motocrossing, jetskiing, rollerskiing, and my rides on a segway, a jetlev, a jetboat, and a zodiac. I’ve also covered sports glasses, my attempts at stand-up comedy, peasant food that turned into luxury bites, our trips to Papua New Guinea and Bhutan, as well as the Kew Gardens Orchid Festival, the Alice Exhibition, Curiouser and Curiouser, my dinner at two-starred Lafleur, our £20 helicopter flight, and our visit to the Sherlock Holmes escape room experience.