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 Spare clothing – there is no need to duplicate everything you wear or would normally carry, but some extras kept permanently in your rucksack will prove beneficial – T-shirt, sweater, scarf, spare socks (to double as gloves, if necessary), spare laces

 Other bits and pieces – strong string (can double as emergency laces), small towel (for drying post-paddling feet during summer months), notebook, pencil, pocket knife and a thermal blanket or survival bag for emergencies. With luck you will never use it, but half a roll of toilet tissue in a sealable plastic bag can ease many an embarrassing moment.

Cwm Eigiau from Craig yr Ysfa (Walk 15)

RECREATION AND THE MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT

[Reproduced with the consent of the Countryside Council for Wales. More information about the need to protect the mountains of Snowdonia, and how that can be achieved, is available from the Council.]

Carnedd Ugain (Crib y Ddysgl) in winter (Walk 1)

Mountains have withstood the rigours of millions of years of geological processes – including mountain building, erosion and glaciation, but, paradoxically, their environments are fragile and very special. Their fragility comes from the harsh climate and landforms which affect the way in which plants and animals can survive there. And they are special because mountains are one of the least human impacted environments. The mountains of Britain support a number of rare species of plants and animals. The effects of ice during the last glacial advance are responsible somewhat for the botanical wealth, producing steep, north facing rocks which provide a suitable habitat for relict arctic–alpine plants which need the cool conditions and freedom from competition from more aggressive grassland species. They also provide a refuge from the attentions of sheep, which manage to graze vegetation in most places in the British uplands, except steep rock faces and fenced enclosures. It is no accident that the best sites to botanise in the uplands are often on rock faces and very steep ground which are effectively mountain ‘islands’, with little surviving woodland or scrub and surrounded by agricultural and urbanised lowlands.