How much would you be prepared to pay for an uplift service on Snowdon?

A snowHead

A few years back when the cafe on the summit of Snowdon was being refurbished a few friends of mine were lucky enough to be able to use the train service free of charge as they were contractors working on the cafe. At the end of the day they would often ski down rather than use the train and on their days off they would often use the train for half a dozen or so uplifts. They did discuss the possibility of The Snowdon Mountain Railway Co. Providing a winter service for skiing punters and the operators did show a modicum of interest. I'm sure there are too many legal and H&S reasons why this will never come to fruition but if it did, what would you consider a fair price for a day's uplift service?

A snowHead

dup post

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

it's not actually that far to walk (or skin)! The alternative of transporting lazy punters up to enjoy the view and having to fence them in due to them not being safe without ice axe, crampons and common sense doesn't bare thinking about. Also your friends would have been very lucky to hit on a winter when it's possible to ski off Snowdon more than a few days a year. Not to mention having to dig the track out when it is possible

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I'd pay something towards having the train tracks ripped up and the cafe removed. So would a lot of people.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Was it skiable this year ?

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@dogwatch, +1

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Not sure how feasible this would be, the website says until May the train only goes 3/4 of the way up and takes 2 hours!!! (With a 30 minute stop).
Having never been are you suggesting taking the train on 2 hour loops?

After all it is free

How about a Follie Douce & some Heliskiing too lol rolling eyes

The first time I went up Snowdon it was typically wet and visibility was about 10m. I had done a bit of climbing and hill walking before so we went up the Crib Coch route. On arriving at the top of Crib Y Ddysgl and stumbling across the wreckage of an aircraft reported as crashing into Snowdon the week before announced that were on the summit of Snowdon. My climbing partner said we weren’t because there was a café on the summit. My naïve younger self burst out laughing saying “don’t be a fool – it is the top of a mountain why would there be a café there.” Needless to say I was wrong. We found it half an hour later in the fog. It was closed. In fact I don’t think I have ever seen it open.

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Tricky question as I don't live near enough to make a trip there worthwhile. I don't know the area but I don't get the impression that there would be much to ski, any infrastructure, remotely reliable snow or anything else, so £10 a day would be about right. Any less than that becomes pointless and any more than that would be very poor value.

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Sounds great in principle, not sure about the practicalities. I'm the sort of person who enjoys skiing in random/unexpected places and spent a day this winter hiking up various hills in Sheffield with my skis - so if a thing like this existed I'd probably be target market - would pay about £30 I think, mainly for the novelty.

That said:

- how many days are genuinely skiable and how consistent is it year on year?
- there is surprisingly dangerous terrain in that area - every couple of years somebody manages to fall off a cliff - not sure how high/exposed the skiing would need to be
- nobody would be willing to spend ages travelling up the mountain to get to the skiing - it would need to be accessible from a car park, not sure the snow line would be low enough?
- access?

My parents told me there used to be temporary drag lifts in the Peak District, where there is semi-frequently decent snow cover (on a nice grass base so not requiring too much snow) on friendly/non-exposed terrain, and those were not able to bring enough money in to make it economical - I think a project like this would really struggle.

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@dogwatch, +1

I'm not sure how many decent routes there are on the Llanberis side, but I'd like to know. When I've been up there I skied on the southern face, on the Watkin path. If you really want to ski in Snowdonia I'd say Y Garn is a much better bet.

You know it makes sense.

I think I'm with foxtrotzulu, at about £10 to cover costs. I would be interested in doing it if I were in the area at the same time as snow. And as a one off experience I'd pay a bit more. I have to confess that, try as I may, I have never managed to find any enthusiasm for climbing up hills. The down is very much more interesting, so although I understand dogwatch's sentiment, I'd quite like there to be more infrastructure to provide access for a wider group than the hardy b*****ds who like life to be tough and challenging!! Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Given that the off-peak single to Clogwyn is already £17, I can't really see this working.
http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk/times-and-prices

With a high proportion of singles, the price of a special 'ski-train' is likely to be even higher. And then there's the issue of liability in case of accidents on the way down.

A snowHead

@altis, £17 would be alright! Does that mean we can already do this. Just get on the train with our skis? That way they don't really have any responsibility for what we do when we get to the top. Although, on second thoughts, that would be £17.00 a journey. Shock

As for health and safety and liability that was part of BobG's assumption: this is only likely to be a discussion. The likelihood of some mad idiot or calm overestimator of his abilities (like me) damaging themselves would be high . . . very high, and the media response would be to blame the authorities for letting them do it.

I shall continue, instead, to bleat on about some decent long dryslopes, Sheffield style.

A snowHead

From memory in Summer there is a train at least every 30 minutes - I think every 15 minutes. There are 3 stations on the way where trains pass. If the train went up 3/4 of the way in Winter as someone stated one could skin the rest.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

There have been various efforts to get snow skiing going in Wales over the years, all of them pretty unsuccessful. I remember the artificial snow on slagheaps idea that came to nothing.
I can't see skiing ever being sanctioned as paid activity on Snowdon. It's just a bit too precious.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I'm local, I would pay about £20, it sounds a nice idea.
But - living locally I can wait until conditions are good, which they seldom are.
I am somewhere on Snowdon typically about 20 or 30 times per year, hiking mainly, good skiing conditions are very, very rare, and they can change from good to awful and vice versa in a few hours when the wind direction changes.
There are not many possibilities on Snowdon herself.
In deep snow you could ski all the way down to Llanberis on the Llanberis path, a bit narrow in parts, high danger of rocks just below the surface.
My ambition is to ski down from the summit to the Cwellyn Arms at Rhyd Ddu, this would also need very good conditions, but would be possible.
Apart from this, the terrain is mostly very dangerous, with cornices above cliffs. As another poster said, Y Garn is a much better bet, or the back wall of Ffynnon Lloer in the Carneddau.

Help!!

How much would you be prepared to pay for an uplift service on Snowdon?

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