Well many people have known about the Olympic Torch going up Snowdon. Yet actually getting concrete information was woefully poor. Eventually we narrowed it down to early today, so myself and three friends set out to scale the peak to watch the Torch make its way from the train to the summit.
There was about 200 or so people up there, all but the media and officials had made early starts to get there for the event. As such the atmosphere was great, and shows something of a growing acceptance of the fact that the UK is about to host one if not the most important world sporting event in a couple of months.
The torches making the summit of Snowdon came just days after Kenton Kool took one of the 1924 Olympic Medals awarded to the multinational team of mountaineers and porters on the 1922 Everest Expedition. Mallory was already preparing for his next expedition, and may have never seen his Olympic Medal as he was to vanish on Everest until his body was discovered a few years back.
Speculation over whether he summited is still a debate among some climbers. Sadly though Everest took his and many other peoples lifes from those first attempts to the present day. As Kenton Cool took the medal to the summit, 4 people were reported to have died, and the usual stepping over the dead, dying and unwell occured as on one day around 200 climbers attempted to summit the mountain. Which sadly has very few ‘true’ mountaineers on it these days, save for the guides.
However the Olympic Torch reach Snowdon should be seen as a celebration, as not only did it get there, but might highlight the fact that the BMC and UIAA have made a bid for climbing to become an Olympic Sport. Where it is currently on a shortlist for sports that may or may not make it to a Olympic Games in 2020 sometime.
I have put a couple of images up, these are the copyright of Mark Reeves and this site. You need prior permission to use the images, failure to gain that permission constitutes thieft. Any theft of these images will result in a hefty invoice coming your way. You have been warned!
