I shall refer to Ambre's eldest child, who is almost 16, as SC1, and her youngest daughter as SC2, who is 10.
I'd taken the day off from work to sort everything out and pack, my bergen was packed, weighing in at 30kg plus change, the girls tent and sleeping bags were packed and my 20ltr jerry can cleaned and filled.
With the car packed and the girls home from school and changed we set off leaving about 1700hrs.
The plan was to stop on the way up at a pub and grab dinner, this wasn't to be. None of the pubs on route looked decent enough to stop at and eat. Personally, I was looking out for a Harvester. So with a few wrong turns we finally arrived at the campsite at 2100hrs.
The weather forecast for that evening was short lasting light showers. What a load of bull crap. Once again our fantastic weather forecasters need a high five...in the face...with a chair.
The wind was strong, it was raining, not showering and evening dusk was turning into night.
I had a plan set up the two tents with mine, the small one, being partially sheltered from the wind by the girls tent, the big one, and in the middle with me a cooking area. I went ahead and set mine up while Ambre argued with the girls about setting theirs up.
With the tents up hunger set in, having not eaten on the way up the girls were moaning about being hungry. My solution...ration packs. On went my stove and mess tins willed with water. The choices weren't brilliant, 2 Veg All Day Breaks, 1 Spicy Vegetable Rigatoni and 1 Veg Tomato, Potato and Sausage. (I'm not a veggie, but it's what I was given). Everyone moaned about the food, I was cheeky and added Tabasco sauce to mine. Oh and the veggie sausage are gross.
Food done, it was time for bed. Ambre and I went to our tent and the girls to theirs. With us in our tent and all alone there was only one thing to do before we fell asleep *wink wink*.
Morning broke and along with it a change in the weather, it was no longer raining, the wind had died down and you could see the sun behind the clouds. Ambre moved to the girls tent and I collapsed ours and packed it away, it was now time for breakfast.
Out came the stove and the pans, in went the bacon and bobs your uncle, bacon rolls, plus we had a brew as well. What more could you want.
Eventually everyone was up, dress and packed. There was a lot of moaning from SC1, "I'll stay in the car, I'm not going”
"The hell you are!" was my reply, but probably with a few more swear words. She was coming with us whether she liked it or not, and she didn't like it.
The path I decided on was the Watkins path, described as the hardest, but most scenic. We'd only been walking for 30mins and SC1 was already moaning and stopping. With frequent "come on, you're doing this" and "there's a cafe at the top" SC1 finally put her legs into drive and started walking.
Even with the weight in my back I frequently push ahead of everyone else so every now and they I stopped to let them catch up, but it seemed that every time they caught up with me they stopped. Now it was time for SC2 to start dragging her heals. She was slowing the rest of the party down, having to stop and wait for her all the time.
After repeatedly asking where we were and how far left I reluctantly told the girls that we were only half way. This news didn't go down to well with them. I cracked on, giving them no choice but to follow. As it started to get steeper I found us stopping more frequently to catch up with each other and force the girls to move on. It was during one of these stops that Ambre caught up with me and said that SC1 was on the verge of tears, saying she couldn't walk anymore. My response was that she can either wait where we had stopped for us to return from the top, or continue to the top with us. She continued with us.
Another ’I can't walk anymore' later I decided to make a compromise with the girls. If they get to the top then we'll get the train back down. This seemed to go down well with them so we cracked on.
We continued following the trail, once taking a wrong turn where the trail seems to disappear. I quickly shot on ahead and found 2 others along the path making their way down. We were on the wrong path, time to backtrack. After finding the correct path and continuing along it for a bit it disappeared once again, this time there were no other possible options, it seems that we had to climb of rocks and gravel. We continued on, passing people on the way down, looks like we were on the right path. The assent they got steeper, the rocks bigger and we went from walking up a mountain, to rock climbing up a mountain. SC2 went in front with Ambre behind her making sure she didn't slip, SC1 was behind Ambre with me as tail-end charlie making sure she didn't slip. Everyone seemed to be shooting ahead of me, forgetting I had this massive bergen on my back. On one occasion there didn't seem to be anyway to continue, well according to SC1. She then insisted we called mountain rescue. This statement was quickly followed by two "F**k off"s from Ambre and myself, telling her that mountain rescue were for emergencies and that this was not an emergency.
We found a path and carried on a bit further, at this point, I was the only one enjoying themselves. I was in my element. Ambre was pissed off because she didn't believe this was the path, SC2 was just her usual miserable self and SC1 had given up altogether.
I told SC1 that she needed to move as she was holding me back, she adamantly refused to move, breaking down into tears and telling us that she was going to stay where she was and she would die there. It took a lot of swearing at Ambre and me reassuring her that we would get the train down.
The rock climbing continued, with the mountain in fog we couldn't see the top, and all I heard from Ambre was "I can see more shadow", which was her complaining that we weren't at the top yet.
I checked the map and my gps,we were almost there so I told them to push on, then I heard "I found a path", great we're pretty much there. We went a long a short path had to climb a few rocks then we saw people. We were there we'd reached the summit. I was proud of myself, we had achieved it, we'd taken the hardest route and made it to the top of Snowdon.
I had my picture taken and we made our way to the cafe, damn it was closing. Fine, quickly I asked about the train down and was allowed to pass through, I spoke to a conductor, they had no problem with us getting on, but it was going to cost me £18 per adult and £15 per child. Sod it, I had to because there was no way I was going to put up with the girls moaning, so £66 later we were on the train, my bergen (and Gnr Faulkner) being so big ended up in the engine with the train driver, I got into the coach and I fell asleep soon after setting off.
I got a nudge when we reached the station, we were finally off the mountain, not the way I would have preferred but we were down and everyone was happy. We still had one more problem, I wasn't 100% sure where we were in relation to our campsite, I had an idea though so we checked a map. We were the opposite side of the mountain to our campsite, Ambre's suggestion of walking back quickly went out the window and the only alternative was to get a taxi back.
We called a taxi, I withdrew some money and we all made our way back to the campsite. According to the taxi driver who works for mountain rescue, a lot of people don't realise how steep that path gets and they have quite a few call outs. We got back to the campsite and I had to negotiate with the drive as the total came to £36 and all I had was £34, he wasn't bothered he got paid.
So we were down, back at the campsite, I was £100 lighter and I was the one who had to drive back. But the journey back was uneventful.
But Ambre and I learnt something from the trip. We are never taking the kids again.
I really enjoyed myself though, and I am proud for getting to the top.
