0:00:07 > 0:00:09This is Great Britain.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13Over a third of our country is made up of mountains.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15And I'm off to travel through them.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23I've reached the land of my ancestors - the peaks of North Wales.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28Where the mountains are God's own climbing frame...
0:00:28 > 0:00:32where wild ponies roam the slopes...
0:00:34 > 0:00:38..and I find a novel approach to recycling.
0:00:38 > 0:00:45But above all, I want to discover just how precious and fragile these landscapes really are.
0:00:45 > 0:00:51What does the future hold for our wild places in the 21st century?
0:00:51 > 0:00:55These are the mountains of Snowdonia.
0:01:22 > 0:01:29Here, perched on a mountain called Elidir Fawr, I can see nearly every peak of Snowdonia.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32These, the greatest mountains of Wales, are crammed into
0:01:32 > 0:01:37a small corner of the north-west, just a few miles from the coast.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43This is an ancient setting of epic struggles from myth and legend.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47King Arthur fought battles here with Merlin the Magician at his side.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Dragons lived in the valleys and the lakes.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54And there's even a story about how these mountains were created.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59There were two giants. One was called Idris and he had a throne called Cadair Idris,
0:01:59 > 0:02:05about 40 miles away, a giant mountain over there, and another was called Rhita, the beard collector.
0:02:05 > 0:02:12He liked to collect rival giants' beards and make them into a hat, or later on into a lovely cloak,
0:02:12 > 0:02:16and apparently one day Idris got very, very cross
0:02:16 > 0:02:20and started kicking rocks in the direction of Rhita,
0:02:20 > 0:02:28and that was the way that the extraordinary landscape that is Snowdonia was created.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34Apart from all the beards stuff, it's surprising how close this account seems to be.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Though it did happen a little bit more slowly.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41These peaks are, after all, the result of an epic battle.
0:02:41 > 0:02:48They were made by collisions in the Earth's crust and explosions at the Earth's core 400 million years ago.
0:02:48 > 0:02:54But today we face another battle, not between giants, but between the mountains and man.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59Who exactly is going to be the winner here?
0:02:59 > 0:03:04Well, I may be Welsh, but I've never encountered the Welsh mountains before.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09Or any tent exactly like this, for that matter.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12I want to begin with the biggest mountain - Snowdon.
0:03:12 > 0:03:18It's just across the valley there, and it's home to the greatest legend of all.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24Its Welsh name, Yr Wyddfa, means "burial place".
0:03:24 > 0:03:28The summit is the resting place of Rhita, the beard collector.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31And he was killed by King Arthur himself.
0:03:31 > 0:03:37In legend, its soaring peak was built to bury him. And why not?
0:03:37 > 0:03:45It's a dramatic, solid pyramid, the highest point on a crown of ridges known as the Snowdon horseshoe.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50The mountain rules the region that bears its name - Snowdonia.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Its dominating presence is the major reason over eight million people
0:03:55 > 0:03:59come to Snowdonia National Park every year.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03But as I get to the town of Llanberis, at the foot of its northwest flank,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06I begin to wonder whether it's Snowdon's stunning beauty...
0:04:06 > 0:04:11or indeed any ancient legend that really draws the crowds.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Could it be instead that Snowdon is the only mountain in Britain
0:04:14 > 0:04:18you don't have to walk up to get to the top?
0:04:18 > 0:04:21I can't help noticing that none of you are obviously...
0:04:21 > 0:04:27Look at me - I'm wearing my special mountain boots, I've got my special wet weather gear,
0:04:27 > 0:04:31I've got all this spe... outer layer on,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and you're dressed as if you're going to a teashop here!
0:04:36 > 0:04:42The Snowdon Railway, based on a Swiss design, has been here for over a century.
0:04:44 > 0:04:50It was built in 1896 solely for the purpose of ferrying tourists to the top of the mountain.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57These days, 150,000 people take the train every year.
0:04:59 > 0:05:06Each journey on the steam locomotive uses a third of a ton of coal and 400 gallons of water.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14For some, the railway is a scar on the mountain.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18For others, it's a way of making the mountain experience accessible to everyone.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Normally the passengers are taken right to the summit,
0:05:24 > 0:05:29but even this train is subject to engineering works, and today it's stopped halfway.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33And there's no alternative bus service.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Even from halfway up, though,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38the view is spectacular.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44Looking west, I can see the dramatic foothills of Snowdon just nine miles from the Irish Sea.
0:05:44 > 0:05:50Further south, the mountains in the distance guard the Llyn Peninsula.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53The passengers take a moment or two to enjoy the view...
0:05:53 > 0:05:57then it's everybody back on the train.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01So that's it, you know,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03it's about... We've only...
0:06:03 > 0:06:07we've only been here for under five minutes.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09It's a bit of a heavy turnaround.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13You get here, five minutes later you're carted off down the mountain.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20There we are. Bye-bye.
0:06:21 > 0:06:27As for me, I intend to see the view from the very top.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30But I'll miss being pulled up the mountain by clever engineering.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36And you can see how the whole system works.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41This is the rack, and the pinion is attached to the bottom of the train
0:06:41 > 0:06:47and it hooks itself on like a rollercoaster, and grinds its way to the top.
0:06:47 > 0:06:55And there's only been one accident, which was disconcertingly on the very day that the railway opened.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58But they've never had another accident since.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11If it went all the way, the train would take an hour to reach the summit.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15It's going to take me longer than that to walk from the halfway point.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25HELICOPTER WHIRRS
0:07:28 > 0:07:31MACHINERY BANGS
0:07:35 > 0:07:40Well, this is not only the noisiest mountain top I've been to so far -
0:07:40 > 0:07:44but that's partly because they're demolishing the cafe here,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49but also cos of the jets flying over, the helicopters, the trains coming up -
0:07:49 > 0:07:56it's also, in its own way, the most crowded mountain top I've ever been to.
0:08:01 > 0:08:08350,000 people climb Snowdon each year, on top of all those rail commuters.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10It is Britain's most popular mountain.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15When the cafe is finally rebuilt, people will be able to come for their lunch,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18but today, it's just about the view.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Getting to the summit is the obvious thing, on a day like today anyway,
0:08:27 > 0:08:34because you can see for miles, and miles, and miles.
0:08:45 > 0:08:53It's such an accessible mountain that it's rather inevitable that some things are left behind.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00Banana skin. Likes the dank, warm places does banana skin.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Tea bag,
0:09:02 > 0:09:04chewing gum,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07and here a cigarette butt, cigarette butt.
0:09:07 > 0:09:13Definitely the hand of man visible in this wild place.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18The cafe, the railway, half a million pairs of feet -
0:09:18 > 0:09:22alas there isn't a maid service to clear up after us!
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Or there wasn't until recently.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30Robin Kevan is also known as Rob the Rubbish.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34When Rob gave up work as a social worker two years ago, he saw the light -
0:09:34 > 0:09:40or at least he saw the litter - and he took on a mission to clean up Britain's mountains.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44He's been doing it virtually every day since.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48We put that on so that people know who this strange man is that's creeping around the mountains.
0:09:48 > 0:09:55That's obviously to prevent me being run down by any articulated lorries that should be driving around here.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57- Or a runaway train even.- OK.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00What a glorious day to go and search for a bit of litter.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05So, erm, you know, so you're at the mountain and you're one of the few,
0:10:05 > 0:10:11it seems to me, who make their journey up here with a definite purpose in mind onto Snowdon,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14but what sort of things have you discovered, then?
0:10:14 > 0:10:16A lot of cans...
0:10:16 > 0:10:19- takeaway cartons, er... - Sweetie wrappers.
0:10:19 > 0:10:26..sweetie wrappers, and sandwich wrappers and, I mean, plastic bottles - abundant number of those.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30All those health food drinks, I suppose, that people have brought.
0:10:30 > 0:10:37- Absolutely, absolutely.- Got themselves healthy and then...- And as soon as they're empty, they go.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39- Yeah.- But most people don't.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Most people are as horrified about litter as the rest of us.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46- Having said that, look at that.- Yeah.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48A couple of plastic bottles.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Well, we better move up to these ones I think.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55- Just hidden away. Look!- You never know what you're gonna find.- No.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58- Look at this.- And full as well.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Do you think they've been left here by somebody for later?
0:11:01 > 0:11:03I wouldn't have thought so.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06They just got too heavy to carry up.
0:11:06 > 0:11:07They've been here a long time.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12They got too heavy to carry up, and somebody just thought, er, I'll just empty these.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16- Just get rid of them. - So, I mean, we talk about rubbish,
0:11:16 > 0:11:21but most of it is this stuff. If there's a £10 note on the ground we'd soon pick that up,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24but a plastic bottle never ever, ever goes away.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27Oh, my goodness, look, a hairgrip.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29We're doing very well down here.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34- You leave the sheep droppings, I assume, do you?- Yeah, we'll leave that to nature.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36They're biodegradable.
0:11:37 > 0:11:44Litter is thoughtless, and it ruins what Rob sees as the purity of the mountains.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50But other things are sometimes left here precisely because of that purity.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53This is now becoming
0:11:53 > 0:11:56a more common occurrence all the time -
0:11:56 > 0:12:00people scattering the ashes of a loved one on the mountain top.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Rangers say that sometimes they come up here
0:12:04 > 0:12:08and it feels as if there's been a dusting of frost on the summit.
0:12:08 > 0:12:14The problem is that, er, it alters the ecology because ashes are more fertile than rock,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17and things start to grow, not things like these flowers,
0:12:17 > 0:12:23which are plastic, and I don't want to be intrusive,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27but obviously intrusiveness is at the centre of the problem.
0:12:27 > 0:12:33The mountain means all things to all men, even deceased men.
0:12:38 > 0:12:45Though it may sometimes feel like it, Snowdon is not actually a public memorial in the sky.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47It can be a troublesome place.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58I don't really like coming down a mountain, it's not just the agony of it,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03somehow you're always sort of plopping, jumping down on things that crush in the back,
0:13:03 > 0:13:08and all the joints are rebelling against the whole process of jerking your way down.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10When you're going up, somehow you're making a route,
0:13:10 > 0:13:15so you're sort of, you're hopping, you're using all your ingenuity,
0:13:15 > 0:13:20and when you get to the top doing that you're positively exhausted, honestly,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23so on the way down you're tired, and the grass is slippery.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27The rocks, if they're wet at all, become just nightmares,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31and the whole process is awful and, of course
0:13:31 > 0:13:38the pack, which somehow leaned you into the mountain so you could become a sort of monkey going up,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42on the way down, it just has a tendency to push you over
0:13:42 > 0:13:49and make you feel as if you're like a ridiculous, ancient old man.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Mountains have a way of getting their own back.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59It's on the way down that most accidents happen.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Because of the number of people who use this mountain,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05there has to be a dedicated service ready to deal with accidents.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12There might be a railway up the side of it, but Snowdon can still be dangerous.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20The Snowdon Mountain Rescue Team get nearly 100 call-outs every year.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23It's the busiest in England and Wales.
0:14:23 > 0:14:30And when they're not rescuing people for real, they're practising and I am about to join them.
0:14:30 > 0:14:31- Hi. Hello.- Hello.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Hello. You're all from Llanberis.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Now I'm very bad at my Welsh pronunciation.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Llanberis, is that good enough?
0:14:40 > 0:14:43- Yes.- Good, cos I'm such a bogus Welshman.
0:14:44 > 0:14:50The Llanberis Rescue Team, all volunteers, are practising getting a casualty out of a tight spot.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55It's quite a common problem and it needs a lot of helping hands.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56And they're looking for a dummy.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Well, I'm free. I've volunteered to be the injured climber.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05And it's not just the spot which is tight.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09That's for safety. If we drop you off the stretcher it'll support you.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12OK, just in case you drop me off the stretcher!
0:15:12 > 0:15:16It's rather comforting to be in the hands of experts.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Even if they are throwing me over the edge of a cliff.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25I feel like a Beef Wellington, in fact!
0:15:25 > 0:15:27OK, keep it coming.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31OK, very smooth.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36- Nice and slowly.- Sorry. - OK. You all right, Griff? Nice view?
0:15:36 > 0:15:39I'm well...I...to be honest...
0:15:39 > 0:15:43- Are you speechless?- Well, no, I'm not speechless, I just think...
0:15:43 > 0:15:48This is the most comfortable way of coming down off the mountain.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51This might look like a lot of fun, but only last night
0:15:51 > 0:15:58the team spent five hours carrying a 16-stone man with a broken ankle down off the mountain opposite.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00We're nearly down.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02It was a remarkably smooth descent.
0:16:02 > 0:16:08These are fantastic, er, you know, very comfortable, cosy berths really,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11and I'm utterly restricted.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13I can't move around at all.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17In fact, I imagine there's probably a basement in King's Cross
0:16:17 > 0:16:20where you can pay for this sort of thing to be done to you.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23If I can help in any way, do let me know.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Mountain rescue isn't just a job for civilian volunteers.
0:16:29 > 0:16:35The Royal Air Force is also there to help, especially when a hospital is needed quickly.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41The yellow helicopters so familiar in Britain's mountains have saved countless lives.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45And RAF Rescue has a particular connection to Snowdonia.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47This was where it all began.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51The first mountain rescue team was formed in 1943
0:16:51 > 0:16:55with little more than a few pairs of boots and some borrowed rope.
0:16:55 > 0:17:02During the Second World War, there was a plane crash in Snowdonia every six weeks for a year and a half,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06as pilots struggled to get back to their base on Anglesey.
0:17:06 > 0:17:13Crew might survive a crash and die of their injuries or cold because there was no-one to rescue them.
0:17:13 > 0:17:19Well, there's no escaping for me now. As part of the exercise, the RAF Rescue helicopter
0:17:19 > 0:17:25is going to winch me aboard just like they do for real around 30 times a year.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29I was told to keep my eyes shut against the downdraught of the rotor blades,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32so I've no idea what being rescued looks like.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35But I can tell you that it felt amazingly smooth.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39Mind you, I didn't have any broken limbs.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43This was good weather and not a raging storm.
0:17:43 > 0:17:50Quite a hairy job because the accidents, I assume, happen when conditions are bad, don't they?
0:17:50 > 0:17:54People don't get lost when the weather's nice, shall we say.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00People tend to call people missing when it gets dark, so we quite often get called out to search for people
0:18:00 > 0:18:03in bad weather at night, which is quite tricky,
0:18:03 > 0:18:11but it's a fantastic feeling when you do find that person that otherwise would have stayed out all night.
0:18:13 > 0:18:20Snowdon may yet have to find new ways to cope with its half a million visitors a year.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25Legendary Yr Wyddfa has not finished being a battleground between man and nature.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32But nearby there are plenty of examples of thousands of years of harmonious relationship
0:18:32 > 0:18:36between human beings and the mountains.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43I've come to the most northerly part of Snowdonia, just a stone's throw from the Irish Sea,
0:18:43 > 0:18:49to the edge of the Carneddau plateau which stretches for 77 square miles.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53And I'm here to witness an unusual annual event.
0:18:53 > 0:19:01The sun is shining on the mountain now, there's blue skies, a gorgeous day for a round-up.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07- Good morning, everyone. - Good morning.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11I'm joining some local farmers on a kind of Welsh rodeo...
0:19:14 > 0:19:16..if I manage to hang on.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23These hills are home to a herd of wild Welsh Mountain Ponies.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26They range completely freely.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30But now they're so few in number that they are threatened by disease and inbreeding.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34So once a year the farmers take them off the mountains for a bit of a check up.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39Gareth Wyn Jones has been gathering up wild ponies all his life.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44He knows our noisy arrival will start the round-up. But so do the ponies.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Their ears are back, erm, tails are up and off they go.
0:19:50 > 0:19:56Scattered over thousands of acres are fewer than 100 pure bred Welsh Mountain Ponies.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59There are only about 400 in the whole of Snowdonia,
0:19:59 > 0:20:04and the farmers have taken on the job of keeping them in good health.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09- They're quite small ponies?- They are very small ponies, but they're tough.
0:20:09 > 0:20:16- We're on a gorgeous day today.- Yeah. - You could come up here next week and be in snow up to your ankles,
0:20:16 > 0:20:23- and you think there'd be no grazing, but these boys survive.- Right. But there's no money in this for you.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28- This isn't a productive farming business for you to keep these horses.- No.- So why do you do it?
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Well, it's just a way of life.
0:20:30 > 0:20:37My father has kept them, my grandfather kept them, my great-grandfather kept them,
0:20:37 > 0:20:42so we can go back about nearly 300 years with keeping these ponies on the mountain.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46- But the ponies themselves go back further than that?- Oh, the ponies go back to the Celtic times.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Welsh history itself is being preserved here.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53These ponies have been in these hills for 2,000 years.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55They're part of this place.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58The annual round-up is a way of making sure this continues.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02But it does mean catching them first.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Here comes some now.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15And now everywhere you look,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19there are little groups of ponies. This is fantastic.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22We're lucky to see any ponies at all.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Henry VIII ordered the slaughter of all nags of a small stature
0:21:26 > 0:21:31because he wanted every horse in the land to be able to carry a soldier in armour.
0:21:31 > 0:21:38But as you can see they're difficult to catch and this breed survived the cull...just.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40There are a couple escaping down over there.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44A mother and child doing a quick...
0:21:47 > 0:21:50The farmers are herding the ponies into the corner of two walls,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53so that they can take them down to the farm.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09- Is that the lot?- No, we've been a little bit unlucky today.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11We have about three quarters of what we should've had.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15- So how many have you got there? - There's about 50 there.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18- There was a thundering of hooves. - Yeah.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27When they get to a field next to the farm, they'll be checked for signs of illness.
0:22:27 > 0:22:33But they look pretty feisty to me, with their uncut manes hanging in the late sunlight.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38Here we are. They look contented enough, don't they?
0:22:38 > 0:22:39My little ponies.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48The ponies are just one example of a delicate natural balance.
0:22:48 > 0:22:54The mountains may be vast and solid, but they shelter a fragile ecology and we can upset it very easily.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58Eight miles south of the ponies' habitat is Cwm Idwal,
0:22:58 > 0:23:03a huge rocky arena, deep in the heart of the Snowdonian mountains.
0:23:03 > 0:23:09It too supports a delicate natural balance in miniature.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13I've come here with Barbara Jones who's a botanist.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18That's because these grim-looking cliffs are home to a lot of very rare mountain plants.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23We're looking for the tiny species that survive against big odds.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27What can we see here, Barbara?
0:23:27 > 0:23:29Well, a lot of rock!
0:23:29 > 0:23:31A few plants though, look.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35We've got moss obviously, and what are these ones here?
0:23:35 > 0:23:40That's a sedum, a stonecrop. They grow very closely to the rocks so that they can avoid being windswept,
0:23:40 > 0:23:46and they can take any heat that the rock's giving them, so being small in the mountains is an advantage.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Cos that's one of the things
0:23:49 > 0:23:52that I find enchanting about mountains, in a way,
0:23:52 > 0:23:59is that when you make your way up, and you sort of come to the very massive places,
0:23:59 > 0:24:06dominated by these huge slopes, you suddenly find that the rest of the world goes mini-mini-miniaturised.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10The plants get tiny and detailed.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13- It's worth getting down and crawling about.- Oh, it certainly is.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Cwm Idwal is cold, damp and north-facing,
0:24:17 > 0:24:23which makes it an ideal place to find the sort of plant that usually lives in the Arctic.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25And what's this one here?
0:24:25 > 0:24:27That one is purple saxifrage.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Now, that's a really special plant.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33This is one of the toughest plants that you will find in Snowdonia, or even in the world.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37It grows in the furthest north, in the northern end of Greenland.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42And if you look closely at this plant, can you see that on the tips
0:24:42 > 0:24:45of all the leaves there's a little kind of a silvery, glistening blob?
0:24:45 > 0:24:51Now if you use this lens and get close in and look at that,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54you'll see. Now, the idea of that is
0:24:54 > 0:24:58this plant grows on lime-rich rocks but it can't take all the lime in,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01so it secretes the excess lime
0:25:01 > 0:25:07onto little blobs on the edge of its leaves, and these glisten and really look quite beautiful.
0:25:07 > 0:25:13These rare, Arctic plants are barometers for climate change.
0:25:13 > 0:25:20If they begin to disappear, it'll be a sure sign that global warming is affecting the mountain ecology,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23but temperature rise isn't the only issue.
0:25:25 > 0:25:26Ah, here we are, look.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28This is an interesting one.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32This is called mountain sorrel, and this is a real Arctic Alpine.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34This is about the furthest south it grows in Britain.
0:25:34 > 0:25:41The local shepherds used to put this on their sandwiches. When you taste that, it's quite a nice...
0:25:41 > 0:25:46sweet taste, it's like watercress, but a bit sweeter, isn't it?
0:25:46 > 0:25:49- It is.- Mmm, it's quite nice.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51But you don't want me grazing on it?
0:25:51 > 0:25:55I don't want you or anyone else grazing on it because it isn't a common plant.
0:25:55 > 0:26:01- You won't find it down there, and you won't find it further south than here.- Right.- It's an important plant.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04In fact, it's not hungry people munching on the mountain flora
0:26:04 > 0:26:08that's the problem, it's hungry sheep.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Sheep grazing is traditional here.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14It's been traditional for hundreds of years, and sheep,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19obviously, like to eat these types of plants, so they are restricted to areas that sheep can't get to.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21They'd never grow down on the grassland.
0:26:21 > 0:26:28No, but in a way, Barbara, the whole idea that we have of these mountains is...
0:26:28 > 0:26:31we think of them as great natural places, but, in fact,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34we look...as we speak...gaze
0:26:34 > 0:26:37across these mountains,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42we see a landscape which has been created not by man but by sheep.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45By sheep, yeah. As an ecologist, I look at this and my heart sinks.
0:26:45 > 0:26:52If we could get back some of that diversity... I'm not saying let's have woodland and scrub everywhere,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54but if we could get some of it back,
0:26:54 > 0:27:00it'd make such a difference to the landscape, the diversity, the plants, the animals.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02I think it would be wonderful.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10At one time most of this mountain area was covered with forest and scrub.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Now, thanks to sheep, all is grass.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20This is a huge change and it's part of the traditional history of the countryside.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25But men and farming are just a tiny episode in the real story of the mountains.
0:27:25 > 0:27:31The man whose theory of evolution would change the way we thought about ourselves, Charles Darwin,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34came to Cwm Idwal in 1831.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39He and a colleague were on an expedition to investigate how old the Earth really was.
0:27:39 > 0:27:46They were searching amongst the rocks here for fossils, a bit like this one here,
0:27:46 > 0:27:53but Charles Darwin always called this his great mistake because so concentrated were they,
0:27:53 > 0:27:58they were looking so hard at the little rocks all around them,
0:27:58 > 0:28:05they failed to notice the valley itself, that the Cwm is a fantastic example of a glacial valley,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08that this great...
0:28:08 > 0:28:13bowl was carved out by the movement of ice.
0:28:15 > 0:28:22This suggested that the surface of our planet had been here for hundreds of millions of years.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28And this was at a time when many believed that the Earth itself was only 6,000 years old.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31Darwin thought he'd been a bit stupid.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36I suppose it's all right for Charles Darwin to call himself an idiot, but I don't think we should join in
0:28:36 > 0:28:42because it was only in that period that people discovered the real history of these mountains anyway.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45The rocks here are 400 million years old.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50In their time, they've been higher than the Himalayas, they've been covered with ice,
0:28:50 > 0:28:56they've been a desert, they've been over in Antarctica, near Fiji and then finally found their way here
0:28:56 > 0:29:02and, probably to the horror of most Welshmen, they're actually drifting slightly towards England.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06So when we talk about conserving nature, what nature do we mean?
0:29:06 > 0:29:11In fact, the whole of humanity being here is just a blip,
0:29:11 > 0:29:17a blink of the eyelid, a nanosecond in the history of these mountains.
0:29:21 > 0:29:27I'm sure it's because we are such a blip that we think of these mountains as timeless, and eternal.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30A thought, perhaps, to meditate on.
0:29:37 > 0:29:43On the banks of Lake Crafnant, six miles east of Cwm Idwal, a group of people have gathered
0:29:43 > 0:29:47precisely because the mountains, for them, are ancient symbols of power.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53They come from all over the world to study dru yoga.
0:29:53 > 0:30:01It's a form of yoga invented and practised mainly by a religious group called the Life Foundation.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06Jane Saraswati Clapham is their instructor
0:30:06 > 0:30:11and she believes teaching this kind of yoga here has a special significance.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17Is that because yoga, as it were, came from mountainous regions originally?
0:30:17 > 0:30:22- Did it come from mountainous regions?- It did actually.- It did. - From the Himalayas.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27Well, time to see if it works for me.
0:30:27 > 0:30:34This is like being at school where I need to stand behind somebody who does it really well...
0:30:34 > 0:30:39OK, so first of all just make sure that you're standing, feet firmly on the Earth,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43feeling the power coming up through the legs,
0:30:43 > 0:30:50the power of the mountains coming into your hearts, feeling that inner strength coming from Snowdonia.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Right hand down to right thigh extending up.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02That's beautiful. Lowering left hand down into the triangle,
0:31:03 > 0:31:08sweeping back with the right hand. You're creating a mountain shape,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12you look like the gorgeous range of Snowdonia mountains.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Raising up into the warrior.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20That's beautiful.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24That's lovely, and then gently turning the body towards the front...
0:31:24 > 0:31:27extending the hands down.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29Very good, brilliant.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34- Do you feel full of the power of the mountains?- Yes.- Cool.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37Well, there we are, there's nothing quite like yoga
0:31:37 > 0:31:43to put you in tune with your surroundings and leave you feeling positively elastic.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50Well, maybe I need a few more sessions.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54I left Jane's pupils contemplating their spiritual connection
0:31:54 > 0:32:00to the landscape and went on to meet someone who gets physical with it instead.
0:32:00 > 0:32:06Just how close to the rock do you need to be to really feel it?
0:32:06 > 0:32:10Dinorwig Quarry near Llanberis just north of Snowdon
0:32:10 > 0:32:16is the haunt of Johnny Dawes, regarded as one of the finest rock climbers in this country.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18His nickname is "the stone monkey".
0:32:18 > 0:32:25This disused slate quarry was where he first honed his rather inhuman skills.
0:32:25 > 0:32:31Do you think that in order to do this right, is it because you're...
0:32:31 > 0:32:35a nutter, or because you're...
0:32:35 > 0:32:42you want to push yourself until you feel danger and you might die? Was it showing off to everybody else?
0:32:42 > 0:32:46I think it was... I like showing off, yeah.
0:32:46 > 0:32:53But if you climb a lot on rock, you can have these moments where you feel very connected to where you are.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56These slate mines, are they good?
0:32:56 > 0:33:02- Do you spend your time looking for things and think, "Nobody's ever climbed that before."- Very much so.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07Even quite obscure bits of rock, after a while, you can look at it, and see which way the hold faces...
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and that kind of positions your arm in your imagination...
0:33:10 > 0:33:15and then you look for something that goes nicely with that
0:33:15 > 0:33:19cos for each handhold there's a kind of friendly foothold. So you look for those couples.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23'Johnny wanted to show me what he meant,
0:33:23 > 0:33:28'by demonstrating some simple, friendly holds on a 70ft slate cliff.'
0:33:28 > 0:33:31- You've climbed this rock before? - Yeah. You pioneer new climbs,
0:33:31 > 0:33:35and slate quarries are great because of all the unclimbed rocks.
0:33:35 > 0:33:42You can just go like this and think there's absolutely nothing to hold on to at all, although...
0:33:42 > 0:33:47- See if you can stand up on one position.- But tell me something here before I get started.
0:33:47 > 0:33:53Even if I were able, you know, like the human fly that you are, to get myself up a little bit,
0:33:53 > 0:33:58I would have a reasonable amount of confidence about lifting myself off the ground, but not for very long
0:33:58 > 0:34:01because where do I go with the other foot once I've got up there?
0:34:01 > 0:34:04I was just looking at the same thing.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09- I can't see anything. - Yeah, the next move's a lot trickier, but probably...
0:34:09 > 0:34:14- put your foot all the way across there.- No!- Try...- What do I do?
0:34:14 > 0:34:21- There's a hole there.- Wait a minute, I don't think, physically, I'll be able to...
0:34:21 > 0:34:25- Now stand up.- I can't, I can't do anything at all. Mm...
0:34:25 > 0:34:30'It was just crazy. I couldn't even get started!'
0:34:31 > 0:34:38It gives way at the top... Use that amount of force... You've got to imagine what position the shape...
0:34:38 > 0:34:41I'm gonna watch you do it, go on.
0:34:41 > 0:34:47Hand hold there, and that pulls in that direction. You pull it exactly that direction.
0:34:47 > 0:34:53That foothold pushes in that direction, you put those two together by making a shape with your body.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56That is climbing. Before I move, I think what shape am I gonna be?
0:34:56 > 0:35:00I imagine where would my leg want to go? It wants to go over there.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04See what I mean?
0:35:04 > 0:35:08It's miraculous.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13Looking at the smooth slate wall, I'd began to believe that it was impossible for anyone to climb it,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16but I sensed Johnny was going to prove me wrong.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24You're not always pulling, sometimes you're pressing down,
0:35:24 > 0:35:27if I lean on that and rotate I don't use any muscles.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32So if I'm gonna go left...
0:35:32 > 0:35:37I go right first, so I go over here and then up and over.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Cos I'm coming to a trickier bit like this...
0:35:52 > 0:35:56I do the move in my head, so I know what to do.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02There weren't any holds at all, you just walked up it then.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07There's a bit where there isn't any footholds, yeah. Not a good place to talk.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11- Sorry, don't let me interrupt you! - It's a good challenge.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13This bit's another one of these moves.
0:36:20 > 0:36:27You make it look so effortless, like crawling across a table, it just happens to be vertical.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30This next bit is the tricky bit.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35This bit I don't really like very much, it's a bit...it's a bit painful.
0:36:57 > 0:37:03He makes it look so easy, it's extraordinary to get close to the slate -
0:37:03 > 0:37:09which is a wonderful, comforting sort of smooth thing - and realise how glassy it is.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14You don't realise the sheer physical energy required
0:37:14 > 0:37:22to put all your weight on your fingertips like that,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26and that is quite a big hold.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Yeah, well, it's beyond me.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Stone monkey?
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Quite honestly, I defy a monkey to do what Johnny does.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44He's about as physically close to a rock as a human being can get.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48But perhaps this part of the mountain needs hugging,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52after the assault that we launched on it in the past.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57The old slate quarry where Johnny climbs is just one of dozens
0:37:57 > 0:38:02that were clawed out of the mountainsides of North Wales.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Slate is the forgotten Welsh industry,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09which dominated Snowdonia for hundreds of years.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12At its peak in the 1880s,
0:38:12 > 0:38:18it employed 17,000 men and produced 500,000 tons of finished slate a year.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23And to get that, they produced even more waste.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29I used to believe that all the JCBs in the world could never threaten a mountain.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33But when you come here, you realise that's not quite true.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37You get a determined gang of men looking for nice bits of slate
0:38:37 > 0:38:44and, after 50 years, they've managed to chomp their way through an entire mountainside, dig it all out,
0:38:44 > 0:38:51hurl bits around, throw it around, build mammoth great wheelhouses, and sleds.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58It's a strange business because they take pieces of slate and go,
0:38:58 > 0:39:02"No, I can't make a tile out of that. This bit?
0:39:02 > 0:39:07"No, no, that's no good. No, I can't do that, you see..."
0:39:07 > 0:39:11So gradually they've thrown 90% of what they dug out away
0:39:11 > 0:39:14and created these huge heaps of waste.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17And then it all finished,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and these places are just abandoned.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26What has been left behind has a compelling, awkward beauty.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31And some surprising things are going on in the old buildings the quarrymen deserted.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35In a disused tool shed in a slate mine in southern Snowdonia,
0:39:35 > 0:39:41two entrepreneurs have built a business from an unusual recycling concept.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Hello, nice to see you.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48- Les.- Hello, Les, hi.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53I've come here obviously to find out what it is that you do here.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58Take me through it. Let's start with the absolute first principal here.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01You're basically involved in a recycling process?
0:40:01 > 0:40:05- We like to think it's the ultimate in recycling.- Is it?
0:40:05 > 0:40:07We bring sheep poo in the front
0:40:07 > 0:40:11and at the end of our process there's two products.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13We sell fertiliser, and we make paper.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Lawrence Toms and Les Paylor
0:40:16 > 0:40:24have found a way of using undigested fibres from sheep droppings to make paper and card.
0:40:24 > 0:40:30The start of the process is a little bit challenging and, apparently, requires a disguise.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34This is just so the sheep don't get startled out in the fields.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38- Is that one for me? Is that one size fits all?- Yes, indeed.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Does the farmer wear a white...?
0:40:40 > 0:40:43- No, but the sheep are more used to him.- I see.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47It's highly possible he's having a laugh at our expense
0:40:47 > 0:40:53but he's so kind in letting us use his land that we play along and the suits can be recycled into paper too.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57OK. Now, do I look sufficiently like a sheep?
0:40:57 > 0:40:59- A little.- Maah!
0:41:01 > 0:41:05I think the farmer is talking poo here. This is ridiculous.
0:41:05 > 0:41:11I can hardly see out of my various hoods now. I'm a hoodie.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16After all, the flock might still be justifiably nervous of a giant sheep
0:41:16 > 0:41:19standing on its hind legs carrying a bucket about the place.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26- We're looking out for any old poo...?- No, it's got to be fresh.
0:41:26 > 0:41:27- Ah.- Perfect.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29Absolutely perfect.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Oh...here we are.
0:41:32 > 0:41:33This is the stuff.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35Oh...my God.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41There's an element of this I don't understand, Les.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45We're going to great lengths not to scare the sheep, but if we scare them a bit
0:41:45 > 0:41:50- they might actually give us what we need rather more quickly.- Yeah,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53but I don't think the farmer would be too pleased.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56Oh! This is fine stuff.
0:41:56 > 0:42:01Very fresh, still steaming. You seem to be getting the hang of this.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03I've got an edition of War And Peace already.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09There they go.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13We're not succeeding very much in NOT scaring them, are we?
0:42:13 > 0:42:17They're going home. They've had enough of fertilising this field.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25After an hour terrifying the livestock and handpicking the finest poo,
0:42:25 > 0:42:29we had enough to keep production going for at least two days.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32- Thank you.- Excellent.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35I'll boil that up and we'll get going.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39The droppings are put in a bag and sterilised, I'm pleased to say.
0:42:39 > 0:42:45Then into the wash. The waste water that comes out the other end is a powerful, concentrated fertiliser.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49Once the result has been dried, it's ready to be made into paper.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52We're often asked, what does it smell like?
0:42:52 > 0:42:56The answer is it smells almost exactly like freshly mown hay
0:42:56 > 0:42:59because that's almost exactly what it is,
0:42:59 > 0:43:01and that's what it smells like.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04All right...
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Yes, it does, it smells very grassy.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Yes, grassy like poo, in fact.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13It's made into a pulp using a secret recipe, and voila.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16Lawrence and Les show me how to make a sheet of paper.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19All right, so here I go. I put this down here...
0:43:21 > 0:43:24..put that down here, now I take my rack
0:43:24 > 0:43:27- and I put it into the water. - That's it.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31- Then I just slop this in, all around?- You can do.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35You're going to skooch it with your hands afterwards anyway.
0:43:36 > 0:43:41Using your fingers in a kind of spider effect, skooch it around,
0:43:41 > 0:43:43try and get it to spread as evenly as you can.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Yes. Nicely evenly distributed.
0:43:46 > 0:43:47That's it.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52- OK. Now we lift it... - Tip it to one side slowly.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54- Tip it to one side? - Lay it on to the top.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56- Lay it on to the top like that?- Yes.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58- Yes.- That's not bad.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00And we'll send that on to you when it's dried.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03Once it has been dried and pressed,
0:44:03 > 0:44:08my hand-collected organic sheep droppings become stationery.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11The hand-made paper is sold all over the world.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15It may be a novelty item in a designer gift shop,
0:44:15 > 0:44:19but the real novelty of this little organic sustainable industry
0:44:19 > 0:44:24which has recently won an award, is the way that Les and Lawrence are working within the landscape,
0:44:24 > 0:44:29and finding a new way to enable man to be more than just a visitor to these mountains.
0:44:29 > 0:44:37But how far is it possible for people to continue to work and live here and to leave few footprints?
0:44:37 > 0:44:43South of Snowdonia are the Preseli mountains, a small group of rolling hills on the coast.
0:44:43 > 0:44:49Somewhere here, a man called Tony Wrench has built himself a house made from the mountains themselves.
0:44:49 > 0:44:50Or nearly.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54Is this the future for human life in the wilderness?
0:44:54 > 0:44:56I think this is probably it.
0:45:08 > 0:45:13- Hello, Tony.- How are you doing?- I'm lucky I found the place, I think!
0:45:13 > 0:45:17- You're very well disguised, well hidden.- Yeah.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21It's got a lot of nature on it as well as around it, so, yeah.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26I have to say that's the most incredible roof I've ever seen.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29- It's got a grape vine in it as well! - Yeah.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33- A fruity jungle.- It's great. I've looked at a lot of buildings,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36but I've never met anybody who can eat their own roof.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39Which is fantastic.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44Tony and his wife Jane built their roundhouse to a Celtic design.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50This is absolutely wonderful, absolutely great!
0:45:51 > 0:45:58The living space is in the middle. The bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are on the outside.
0:45:58 > 0:46:04Tony found all the materials, from the wooden beams to the recycled bottles strengthening the walls.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Solar power provides the electricity.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11- And, and this...is this warm? - Yeah, of course, yeah.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14- Does the insulation all work here? - Yeah, certainly.
0:46:14 > 0:46:20- You've got 150 straw bales in the roof, so that's quite a lot of insulation, you know.- Yeah.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23The walls are that thick of wood
0:46:23 > 0:46:28and these quite thick wool rugs on the floor, so yes, it's fine.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31Pretty draught proof, yeah. Happy with it, yeah.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36- You made the table yourself, you made the rugs yourself.- Yeah.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38- You made the bowls yourself?- Yeah.
0:46:38 > 0:46:45- Most of the things that grow outside, presumably, you can eat or use in some way?- Eh...
0:46:45 > 0:46:50we do use a lot, I mean...we've got a reasonable sort of vegetable garden.
0:46:50 > 0:46:55We've got a very nice crop of fruit at the moment.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00- You've built what is essentially a sustainable house.- That's the idea.
0:47:00 > 0:47:06To see if it's possible. Who knows if it's possible to actually live sustainably in our culture or not?
0:47:06 > 0:47:11I don't even know that, so the whole thing is an experiment.
0:47:11 > 0:47:17At first, it was an illegal experiment, Tony didn't have any planning permission at all.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21The council wanted to pull it down, when they eventually discovered it.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25A spotter plane on the lookout for illegally parked caravans
0:47:25 > 0:47:28noticed it because of the sunlight reflecting off the solar panel.
0:47:28 > 0:47:36But Tony demonstrated what a tiny impact they made on the landscape and the council's policy changed.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41So it's feasible that you could have another dwelling over there and another one over there.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45And you could use bits of farmland, or bits of mountain scene...
0:47:45 > 0:47:52- bits of hidden mountain valleys to build communities here if you like. - I think so, I'd love to see it.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57For better or worse, man has left his mark on the Welsh mountains.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01We live and work among them, and we use them as our playground.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05Perhaps few of our wild places are truly wild any more.
0:48:05 > 0:48:12Even the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, has our footprints all over it.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Over 2,000 have now tramped up that remote, once inaccessible summit.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20And North Wales played a part in that story.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24I'm back in Snowdonia, at the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28When the summit of Everest was finally reached in 1953,
0:48:28 > 0:48:34this small guesthouse nestling in the shadow of Snowdon was one of the first places to be told the news.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51- Good evening.- Oh, hello.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54- Mr Rhys Jones?- Yes. - How nice to see you.- Thank you.
0:48:54 > 0:49:00As it happens, the world's highest mountain was named after a Welshman, Sir George Everest.
0:49:00 > 0:49:06He made maps of India in the mid-19th century but never set eyes on the mountain that bears his name.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10But that isn't why the hotel is stuffed full of Everest memorabilia.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15It's here because this was a training base for the expedition team
0:49:15 > 0:49:18that climbed Everest in 1953.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21They prepared for their famous attempt
0:49:21 > 0:49:27on a slightly more modest peak called Tryfan, which is further down the valley.
0:49:27 > 0:49:33This is the, er, the locked book. It says very firmly, not the visitors' book.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37It's a sort of record of all the major events here...
0:49:39 > 0:49:42..at Pen-y-Gwryd.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47And here's a record of the...
0:49:47 > 0:49:52the night that... Everest was conquered.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56They've recorded the event here...
0:49:59 > 0:50:03..and stuck pictures of Hillary and Tenzing.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05And look, here's the whole expedition.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10John Hunt the leader, Edmund Hillary climbed, Tenzing.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Tomorrow, I'm intending to find out what it was like to climb then,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19to be one of the first people to walk on such a significant part of the planet.
0:50:21 > 0:50:29Tryfan is one of the most striking mountains in Snowdonia, it's 3,002 feet high.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32A great crumbling heap of volcanic rock.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37It's one of ten peaks in a range to the north of Snowdon, which was carved out by glaciers.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41This was where the Everest expedition team practised,
0:50:41 > 0:50:47and I'm going to climb it with one of the team members, mountaineer George Band.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52Aged 24, George was the youngest member of the team which conquered Everest in 1953.
0:50:52 > 0:51:00Two years later, he was the first to climb the world's third highest mountain, Kangchenjunga, in Tibet.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04George is now 77 and has been climbing for most of those years.
0:51:04 > 0:51:09The very first mountain he climbed on his own was this one, Tryfan.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14When did you think, I can do this and I'd like to sort of become a leader
0:51:14 > 0:51:16in this game, as it were?
0:51:16 > 0:51:21It's like almost any sport. If you play tennis and you do rather well,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25you join a club, you play for the county, and then you think,
0:51:25 > 0:51:30- "Could I qualify for Wimbledon?" - Yeah.- It's the same sort of thing.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35It hadn't escaped my attention that Tryfan is a little bit smaller than Everest
0:51:35 > 0:51:38more than 26,000 feet smaller, in fact.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42But the Everest team didn't come here for altitude training.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46They came to practise climbing with oxygen masks,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51which were going to be crucial to their success, and which they'd never worn before.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56With the mask, you couldn't really see where you wanted to put your feet so easily,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59and this was something just to get used to.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04We never thought of it as actually training for Everest...
0:52:04 > 0:52:08Because you were all experienced climbers and you weren't gonna learn how to climb.
0:52:08 > 0:52:13No. Every holiday we ever had, we went to the mountains, so it was just natural.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18- This was an exercise really in getting together as a team.- Yeah.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23- It was... Well, nowadays they all talk about... What are the sort of phrases?- Bonding?
0:52:23 > 0:52:29Bonding, yeah. Cos half the chaps I didn't know, you see, I knew them by reputation.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32Preparation was everything.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37George's team knew that the Swiss and the French were planning expeditions to Everest as well.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41The best-prepared team stood the best chance.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43And the Queen's coronation was coming up.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47This led a certain urgency to a very British ambition.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52So were you prepared when you did it for the explosion of patriotic fervour?
0:52:52 > 0:52:59Eh...well, that was funny. When we were packing all the gear in the ambassador's garden in Kathmandu,
0:52:59 > 0:53:04he was saying, "Where's the flag that you're gonna wave on top?" We said, "Flag?" And he said, "A Union Jack."
0:53:04 > 0:53:11"We never thought of bringing one." And he said, "I'll let you have the one off my Rolls Royce."
0:53:11 > 0:53:18And he gave that to John Hunt, and it was indeed the one which Tenzing attached to his ice axe -
0:53:18 > 0:53:23the flags of the United Nations, flag of India, flag of Nepal and the Union Jack.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28- Only the best as well, a Rolls Royce flag I'm pleased to see.- Of course!
0:53:30 > 0:53:35We had a bit further to go before reaching our summit.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40There's something about Tryfan's rocks that demands you clamber all over them.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43This is known as the Cannon.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Fantastic.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Perhaps because it needed some balls.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57It was getting cold, even in my modern gear.
0:53:57 > 0:54:04It made me wonder what it must have been like to climb in rather colder conditions, half a century ago.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08You weren't in the old hobnail boots and tweed jackets?
0:54:08 > 0:54:11I mean, how advanced was your kit?
0:54:11 > 0:54:16Well, I...I don't have my, my Everest boots with me.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21I lent them to a chap to go climbing in the Himalaya and, very sadly, he never came back.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25But I've got, er...here just from interest...
0:54:25 > 0:54:29the anorak and trousers that I actually used on Everest.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31Outwardly, it looks pretty much the same,
0:54:31 > 0:54:36but it was actually... I've been using it for house painting...
0:54:36 > 0:54:41You've been using the Everest...?! This should be in a museum!
0:54:41 > 0:54:44It has been in a mu... In and out, you know...
0:54:44 > 0:54:48so got to get it back occasionally, but I think my piece de resistance...
0:54:48 > 0:54:52We all know about the string vests that people used to wear,
0:54:52 > 0:54:57but maybe you've never seen a pair of string long johns.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59- How's that now? - I just am honoured to see these.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04What happened to string vest engineering? I wore a string vest as a child.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06How terrific.
0:55:06 > 0:55:11I feel also, actually, very privileged to be able to lay...
0:55:11 > 0:55:17the string long johns that went up Everest on me. If it weren't so cold I'd strip down, and put them on.
0:55:19 > 0:55:25Nowadays, when so many people climb with the latest hi-tech gear, it's easy to forget
0:55:25 > 0:55:30that George and his team were doing something for the first time.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32There were no paths, no litter...
0:55:32 > 0:55:36none of the human impact, which is now part of nearly every mountain experience.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40But here on Tryfan, where there are no well-worn paths to the top,
0:55:40 > 0:55:45it manages to feel like a first time for me.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47- How are you doing, Griff?- OK.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50- Oh...fantastic.- I hope.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55- To the manor born.- A little bit of a quiver in my voice there, "I'm perfectly all right!"
0:55:55 > 0:55:58Help!
0:55:58 > 0:56:01This is God's climbing frame this.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03- Yeah.- Extraordinary.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08- That's good. - Slow down, George, I'm 52.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14Trying to keep up with a man 25 years my senior!
0:56:14 > 0:56:19Isn't there a more complicated route than this we could take?
0:56:23 > 0:56:28It took three hours to haul ourselves up the face of Tryfan. And worth it.
0:56:28 > 0:56:36We finally reached our goal - the two natural stone obelisks called Adam and Eve that mark the summit.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45- Now, people do clamber up them, don't they?- Do they really?
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Are you gonna do it? Well done.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53Not so much Adam and Eve as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, I think.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00Well done.
0:57:00 > 0:57:06No...well, that's praise indeed, if I may say so, George. Thank you.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16Tryfan was an immensely enjoyable mountain to climb.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20And it was all the more enjoyable for being so unspoiled.
0:57:20 > 0:57:27It's just a mass of solid rock not even a sheep can change, and you'd never get a railway up it.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31These are mountains which have taken millions of years to form.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34They'll take millions of years to erode.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37This epic struggle continues in nature,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42but we've joined that battle too in the very short time that we've been here.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46The things we leave may be as tiny as a cigarette butt,
0:57:46 > 0:57:51but taken year on year, bit by bit, they're erosion too.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54The mountains may look huge,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57but really they're very fragile.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59They demand our respect.