Day 9 - Mount Snowdon

Greetings friends! The duo is quite tired today after a 3 hour hike to the top of Mount Snowdon. The peak is at 1,084 meters – about 3,600 feet. It’s the highest mountain in England and Wales so making it up was quite an accomplishment!



Tired Duo - One more so than the other.

Climbing and descending the mountain was such an adventure that there wasn’t quite as much to talk about along the way. However, at one point we discussed the glacial features that made up the landscape. These included moraines, cirques, and rounded rock tops with striations. Moraines are the result of moving glaciers pushing rock as they move, then melting leaving a mound of rock in place. Cirques are the result of ice and snow accumulating in a bowl-shaped depression. The rounded rock top with striations are evidence of glacial movement over the landscape. The striations mimic the past movement of the glaciers.




Some parts of the hike up had nice prepared trails...

Other parts, not so much.

















As we continued our hike, we saw more evidence of these features as well as some other interesting things. One of the most interesting things along the higher portion of the path was BJ’s extreme phobia of heights. Most of the path was along a slope which didn’t bother him. However, during the parts with steep cliffs, he hugged the opposite side of the trail like it was his long lost brother. Another very interesting feature was a wood pillar with coins stuck in it. We figured it was like a wishing well where you would make a wish and shove a coin into it.




Make a wish!

Brittany's impression of BJ on the edge of a cliff.


























The top of the mountain had a visitor center where we took a much needed lunch break and discussed how we would go about getting back to ground level. We decided on a path and took the long trek down. Overall the hike had amazing views and we all felt like we accomplished something today. Now off to bed to rest up for tomorrow.

The long trail home.

See you next time.
-The DD

Sponsorship towards the creation of some of the materials for the Study Abroad in the UK trip provided by the Office of Undergraduate of Research.