Yr Wyddfa via Llanberis Path

The route

The Llanberis Path is the longest of the routes up Snowdon but also the gentlest gradient, climbing steadily alongside the Snowdon Mountain Railway from the village to the summit at 1,085m. Starting from the roundabout by the Royal Victoria Hotel, it heads up Victoria Terrace before settling into a long, well-graded pull that never gets seriously steep until the final push to the top.

Underfoot

This is the path most people mean when they talk about doing Snowdon, and the surface reflects that: broad, well maintained, and graded for the volume of foot traffic it takes across the summer. That makes it the fastest way up and down for runners, without the scrambling or exposure of the routes from Pen-y-Pass. The trade-off is company - this is the busiest of Snowdon's paths on any clear day.

The summit

The top of Yr Wyddfa is a proper mountain summit despite the crowds and the cafe: on a clear day the view takes in most of Snowdonia, the Isle of Anglesey, and on the best days the Wicklow Mountains across the Irish Sea. The Hafod Eryri visitor centre sits just below the true top and is a useful shelter if the weather turns while you're up there.

Getting it right

Weather changes fast at altitude here regardless of how tame the path feels lower down, and the summit plateau gets genuinely cold and windy even on warm days in the valley. Carry proper kit even for what looks like a straightforward out-and-back, and check the train times if you fancy a one-way trip down.

Why runners rate it

Compared to the scrambling routes off Pen-y-Pass, the Llanberis Path gets written off as the easy option, but that's exactly its value for runners. You can actually run most of it, up and down, which makes it a legitimate objective for a fast summit push rather than a slow ascent that happens to have a bit of running in it. Treat the distance as your limiter rather than the terrain and you'll get a genuinely satisfying day out of Wales' highest point.