In Autumn 2019, shortly after my 69th birthday, I decided to set myself a personal challenge for my 70th.  The walk up Snowdon was a fairly obvious  choice, and Steve is going to accompany me.  We have enjoyed hiking since our student days, and family holidays always involved  walking with the children. One memorable August we spent 2 weeks camping in N Wales, with the intention of the whole family 'doing' Snowdon.  It rained almost the entire time and thick cloud ensured we never even once saw the summit, let alone attempted to walk up it with four children!!  Since then we have never been back, so I figured now was the time.....

We booked a week in Beddgelert last July to coincide with my big birthday, and we all know what happened to that!  So the trip was moved to this year; in fact, we go this Friday 25th June and hope to tackle the beast early next week, shortly before I turn 71.

We've tried to keep fit throughout the various lockdown periods with local walks and daily exercise but, due to restrictions, hill-walking was hard to achieve until fairly recently.  We've managed a couple of Derbyshire forays and in the last two weeks we've done The Long Mynd and Stiperstones in Shropshire plus Kinder Scout.  The latter was achieved with the help of our intrepid fell-running/peak-bagging daughter Zoë who, thankfully, will be guiding us through our steps on the Snowdon Ranger Path.

I've had fun battling with walking poles, never having used them in the past.  On hearing that I intended to do the walk without any, friend Ken Mayes insisted on donating me his spare pair.  Thanks Ken!

I would be very grateful if you would consider sponsoring me in support of the fantastic Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team whose selfless and voluntary work help so many people in danger and distress.  Let's hope I'm not one of them!!

Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team is one of the busiest in the UK with an annual callout rate of over 220 incidents. Based in and around the Snowdon area the team is made up of about 50 volunteers from all walks of life who are all experienced mountaineers. As a registered charity, we rely entirely on your donations to carry out the work we do in helping other mountain users.