Climbing Snowdon: Fundraising for YoungMinds
Samantha Spinney raised more than £250 for YoungMinds by climbing Mount Snowdon.
On the 15th September 2012 I walked up Snowdon for charity. At the beginning of the year a young friend took his own life due to a mental illness and I wanted to do something to help other young people with mental health problems. I have also been through it myself and to have no one to talk to or to confide in is very hard.
I had never done anything like walking a mountain before and had done no training. The year seemed to fly by and before I knew it the weekend crept up on me.
There were initially four of us doing it, all for different charities but it ended up being two of us in the end.
We got to North Wales and set up camp. The views were amazing. The view from the campsite was a mountain which looked fairly easy to climb. To my disappointment this turned out not to be Snowdon.
It was the day of the climb and we got up early and got ready. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was shining. I was very nervous and did consider pulling out at one point, the thought of a fried breakfast sounded good but I thought no, I can’t, I have to do this.
We got to the bottom of Snowdon and waited for our guide who was an hour late. This gave us time to get to know our group and to seriously think about what I was doing. You still could not see the top of Snowdon at this point. It was however swarming with people everywhere all there to do the same thing.
The climb up there took us about three hours and the walk down took us three and a half hours. It was a much easier route back down, which I was relieved about as the climb up there was quite scary at some points. The views however were amazing.
Once at the top it was thick fog and you could hardly see the hand in front of you, which was a shame as all that work and you could not see anything.
It was one of the most difficult and mentally challenging things I have done. It was an experience that I will not forget and one day I would like to go back and get the train to the top. I am proud that I achieved this and am relieved it is done. 
