Civil Servants Walk to Support

Hamish - Having stayed overnight in Bangor, Darren and I zipped down to Pen Y Pass just after the crack of dawn. The drive was relatively uneventful, though we did manage to get lost even WITH the satnav - an omen of what was to come? We hoped not. "V suspicious looking mist" Upon arrival we quickly realised quite how much snow there was. I mean it was beautiful. Harsh black rock, cut with the white snow and the blue sky - there wasn't even much wind at first, which made the opening stretch of the walk relatively nice. There was a small issue though - THE ICE. Upon arrival we jumped straight for the "hard" route to the pass, which slowly climbed up the outside of the horseshoe on a steep mountainside path. The steps of those who had been walking there over the past days had frozen, and refrozen, and made a nice slippery hell for us to bob around on. Luckily my shoes seemed to have decided to be relatively grippy under these conditions. Darren - sa

On Friday 2nd March I undertook my 10 hour walk. As everyone in the UK will know, for the majority of that week it had been snowing and was bitterly cold, and whilst it wasn't as bad in Essex as it was in other parts of the UK, as my photos will attest, the conditions were certainly not ideal. Whilst I was determined to do the walk in 10 hours, I also reminded myself that my safety was the main priority, so I was at least going to walk for as long as I could. I set out from my house in Rayleigh, Essex, at just gone 7, and decided to walk along familiar roads, setting my Nan's old house as my target. The conditions on the pavements varied, to areas where there as no snow or ice, to areas where I nearly slipped and fell multiple times! I decided that it was safest to walk on snowier parts which often meant I walked in a zig zag motion, meaning I probably looked even madder than normal! I reached my nana's old house which is just on the outskirts of Southend near the airport