Wales Above The Clouds

What an evening this turned out to be. I finished work at 16:00 and was on the road to Snowdonia by 16:30. I reached the base of Cnicht at 19:30 and immediately set off for the top — the cloud was hugging the ridge line, and I was hopeful the forecast for broken cloud would come true up there. I made the summit at 21:30, not bad going given I could hardly see a thing on the way up.

At 22:18, the clouds broke — and they left me with this. The entire Snowdon range to the north, the peaks sitting like islands in a sea of cloud, the sky fading from deep blue-purple above to gold at the horizon where the last light was still holding on. They didn’t break for long — two minutes at most — and I was so busy jumping up and down with excitement I nearly forgot to press the shutter.

Walking back down was another challenge entirely. Night, thick cloud, the footpath vanishing from under my feet every few steps. Sketchy is one way of putting it. Silly would be another. But oh boy was it worth it.

From left to right, the peaks are: Yr Aran, Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, Crib Y Ddysgl, and Crib Goch.