Snowdon Mountain Railway: What it’s like to do Wales’ most famous train

You could fill a dictionary with categories of Welsh rain. But as I queue, waiting to summit Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), the rain is ‘cloaking’ (verb). Shortening of: ‘It’s coming down like a witch’s cloak’.

Experienced at high altitudes, this grey, mysterious squall of damp wet mist magically appears across mountaintops disguising everything it doesn’t want you to see. It’s like being inside a television stuck on static. Visibility reduces from ‘wow-is-that-Ireland-I-can-see?’ to ‘when-did-I-get-cataracts?’. See also: ‘It’s raining rats and frogs.’

Alighting from the Snowdon Mountain Railway at Clogwyn Station around an hour ago, not even Michael Fish could’ve predicted this. The sun was hanging low in the cold, cloudless sky like a low-watt light bulb. Metres from the platform to the east, the views tumbled off into eternity. The piercing blue waters of Lakes Glaslyn and Llydaw glistened against the craggy haunches holding up the mountain. Beauty and the beast.

We have half an hour to explore, take photos, gawp in awe, or do whatever at this isolated outpost. Some make their way back down via the Llanberis Path but most wait for the return journey. The penultimate stop on the line is a mile from the summit but the pandemic has prevented staff from carrying out their maintenance on the 126-year-old line, so trains currently terminate here.

From May 2023, both the Summit station and Hafod Eryri – the peak’s charcoal-grey visitor centre – reopen. Until then, passengers have to complete the final push to the Crown of Cymru on foot. The walk takes around an hour.

I’m the only one from the train to head to the summit. It’s steep from here; like clambering up a skateboarding halfpipe. The walk seems Sisyphean: my body lurches forward, knees near my shoulders, as the metronomic crunch of the gravel underfoot counts my steps like a pedometer. On either side of the path, there are long-reaching vistas across cwms (steep-sided valley bowls) and spiky Stegosaurus-spine ridges with soft, crepuscular rays providing a spotlight.

Towards the summit – as my calves start to burn, possibly cauterise – the witch’s cloak appears and…