Mount Snowdon

Mount Snowdon, also known as Yr Wyddfa at 1085 meters above sea level, is the highest mountain in Wales and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. Yr Wyddfa is Welsh for Great Tomb or Great Throne. The English name comes from the Saxon "Snow Dun", which means snowy hill.

Lily Zone

Snowdon's Lily is an elegant arctic, alpine plant with beautiful white flowers and grass-like leaves. Edward Lwyd discovered this flower in Wales, and the plant genus was named after him. The plant is regularly recorded as growing high in the mountains of Snowdonia, but has not been found anywhere else in the UK. This rare flower is under protection, it is strictly prohibited by law to pluck it.

Snowdonia National Park

Snowdonia National Park is home to many interesting wildlife that are often difficult to see elsewhere. Wild goats, otters, polecats, ravens, peregrine falcons, ospreys, merlins and red kites are known to call the region home and can be seen throughout the year. The park even has its own beetle, known in other countries as the rainbow beetle. Snowdonia is also home to over 1000 beetles.

Coin pillars

An old fence post on the Pyg Trail, part of the landscape of Mount Snowdon, collapsed a few years ago but was quickly repaired. Climbers and walkers place coins in several fence posts on the mountain, and these have become known as "penny posts". Near the lake, they can often be seen on the sides of the footpaths. The famous post is on the Llanberis trail near Clogwyn station and was once part of a fence installed in the late 1970s to protect the walkway from erosion. In several areas, money is often put into old stumps. Locals believe that this will help kill the roots of the tree.

Training before Everest

The first person to climb Snowdon was Thomas Johnson in 1639, and since then hundreds of famous people have climbed the summit. In the early 1950s, the team that successfully summited Everest for the first time trained at Snowdon. The routes leading from Pen-y-Pass were considered similar to those leading to the Everest base camp. The team trained on these slopes with the equipment required for the high mountains of Everest. The expedition often stayed at the Pen-y-Gwrid Hotel, and memories of their trip can still be seen in the bar.