With the lauded title of “Most Popular Mountain in the UK” and being the highest mountain outside the Scottish Highlands, Snowdon certainly attracts some interesting and often downright strange activities…
- A man rolling a brussels sprout with his nose: Stuart Kettell decided in August 2014 that to raise money for his charity – Macmillan Cancer Support – he would roll a sprout up Snowdon using only his nose. 4 days and 22 sprouts later he made it to the summit. The logistical difficulty of this madcap challenge where were not to be underestimated, with Stuart having to consider such things as permission to wild camp; access to food and drink and the right kit for the extreme mountain weather conditions. Stuart succeeded mainly due to his sheer determination but also in part because of the huge amount of careful pre-planning he did.
Stuart Kettell roles a sprout to the summit of Snowdon in August 2014 - A giraffe: The National Park Warden for Snowdon get’s all sorts of strange requests and this has got to come close to the strangest. A group wanted to the climb the mountain dressed in giraffe suits to raise money for charity. After doing some more research they realised that the extreme and unpredictable mountain weather might scuper their plans – giraffe suits aren’t that waterproof…
Not the giraffe that went up Snowdon - Penguins: Not real ones mind, but people in penguin suits. They faced similar issues to the giraffes…
Penguins – not what you’d normally expect to see on a mountain… - A sailing boat: The mind boggles as to how or where this idea came from, but the ITCA Team carried a Topper (a small sailing boat) all the way to the summit! Luckily it was a sunny day with little wind, otherwise the results could have been a bit different!
Members of ITCA (GBR) carry a Topper to the top of Mount Snowdon on Friday 8th August to raise money for the John Merricks Sailing Trust and the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation - A shower. Yep a shower. A group of plumbers wanted to raise money for charity so they took up a complete shower kit and constructed it on the summit, before dismantling it and bringing it back down of course.
An electric shower but not ‘the’ electric shower - 200 tonnes of stone: Strange you might think, but this is how much stone a year it takes to maintain Snowdons heavily used footpaths. Some 450,000 people a year climb Snowdon and this has a huge impact on the trails. Without the work of the National Park footpath team and volunteers the erosional impact on the mountain would be huge. Find out how you can volunteer to help with this never ending work.
Lifting 200 tonnes of stone on to Snowdon for essential path works - A garden shed: Not as strange as you might initially think! This was flown up by helicopter so that the Snowdon Footpath Team had somewhere to shelter during stormy weather.
“This week ‘oi ave been mostly building paths..” - A white horse. Three of the six main paths going up Snowdon are bridleways, meaning that you can legally ride a horse on these routes. The terrain though is pretty challenging, and not for the faint hearted even on foot!
The horse at Bwlch Glas near the summit of Snowdon - A donkey: Pretty much for the same reason as the horse, but perhaps with a bit less street cred
A donkey but not ‘the’ donkey
Thinking of climbing Snowdon for charity? You can get loads of useful free advice from the experts here on our Three Peaks Partnership website.
