The Birthday Mountain

Starting a new tradition on Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon

I’m not too big on birthdays. They were fun when I was younger, being born in mid-August meant they were always landing in the middle of the school holidays so I felt special, never having to go into school on my birthday like almost everyone else. But as I’ve got older and realised that I don’t much enjoy parties or being the centre of attention, I’ve tried to look for something I can do on the day.

It was chance that led me to something that should have been obvious years ago: walking up a big mountain to mark the passing of another year. After I saw Dolgellau on the a list of Parkruns my late friend Arthur had done, it all slotted into place very quickly. I could run there, and then combine that with a birthday trip up Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon. I’d done walks on my birthday before but — probably connected to living in the flatlands of East Anglia — none of them had been that vertical. Even the day on the West Highland Way that marked my 40th birthday was one of the flatter sections of it.

It meant my birthday started with an early drive from Dolgellau to Llanberis. A relatively clear and dry day, rare enough even in summer in this part of Wales to have lots of people thinking that this was the day to get up to the highest point in the country and I wanted to get a parking spot and get…