Useful Information
1. Accommodation in North Wales
Llanberis is the largest town in the Snowdon area and has a lot of accommodation options. The town has a web site that lists all the local accommodation - link here. Anita's B+B is not listed, but is probably one of the best options.
Pete's Eats has long been a institution in the town providing climbers with plentiful quantities of food and it now also offers accommodation.
The Gallt-y-Glyn pub and hotel is on the outskirts of town and is the climbers current pub of choice with the Pizza and a Pint nights being especially busy.
Capel Curig is central to both the Llanberis and Ogwen Valleys and also has several options for accommodation, including:
Betws y Coed is also pretty central to a lot of the climbing and is very tourist orientated, so there are loads of places to stay and lots of info on local attractions. The town web site is very good and has a great search facility for accommodation that can be fine tuned using the Advanced Search option.
The Oakfield House B+B (01690 710438) is comfortable and can be recommended.
There are several campsites in the Snowdonia area, but the most convenient camping locations are in either Nant Peris at the bottom of the Llanberis Pass or in the Gwern Gof Uchaf campsite in Ogwen Valley at the base of Tryfan and the Glyders. Gwern Gof Uchaf also has a bunkhouse.
There is also a lot of information at www.snowdoniaguide.com - it is a fairly comprehensive guide to Snowdonia, its landscape, mountains and lakes, towns and villages, historic buildings, visitor attractions and much more.
2. North Wales Climbing Shops + Walls
There are several shops in Betws y Coed (Cotswold Rock Bottom and Ultimate Outdoors) that offer a good range of outdoor kit, but the best specialist shops are in Llanberis.
Joe Brown's and V12 are both excellent with loads of good kit and informed staff.
The DMM factory is also based in Llanberis and will offer tours to small groups that want to see how climbing equipment is made - just call before hand and they will normally try to sort something out.
The best wall in North Wales is the Beacon climbing wall which is situated just outside of Llanberis. The Beacon has bouldering, top-roping and leading walls and offers instruction.
3. The Weather
The Met Office offer an up to date forecast of weather in the Snowdonia Mountains
They also offer a general forecast for Wales that can be targeted onto specific towns i.e. Holyhead for Gogarth and Porthmadog for Tremadog
MetCheck offers a really good forecast based on crags - just enter the crag name and it gives you a 3 day forecast.
4. Guiding Organisations
Highland Guides - Highland Guides is a mountaineering company run by Rob Jarvis that we can recommend highly. Highland Guides offers guiding, instruction and advice on all aspects of UK climbing and mountaineering, .
5. Climbing - UK Organisations
The British Mountaineering Council - representative body for UK climbers and walkers.
Association of Mountaineering Instructors - The AMI is the representative body for professionally qualified Mountaineering Instructors in the British Isles.
Mountain Leader Training Board - Mountain Leader Training England (MLTE), formerly the Mountain Leader Training Board, was set up in 1964 to develop training and assessment courses in mountaineering.
6. General Climbing Information:
Grog's Climbing Knots - the best site for learning how to tie knots
UKClimbing - the best online UK resource for climbing info - some of the advice from general members is a bit suspect, but overall it is a very useful site.
ABC of Rock Climbing - All in one Rock Climbing portal with climbing information, news, gear shop, holidays and travel destinations. There is a lot of good info here for those just starting out.
Mountaindays.net - a useful resource for general climbing information
Outdoor Sports Leisure - A useful site for anyone looking to take up an outdoor sport,as well being a great resource for the enthusiast.