Expeditions are organised into groups of five to 12 and guided by an experienced leader, with three nights out of 14 spent camping, the others in mountain refuges, hostels and a hotel.
After three hours we spied our goal, at 2,642m, the mountain-pass hostel at Glorer.
The hostel works in conjunction with Island Mountain Rides to organise guided rides for visitors both in the immediate area and further afield.
In the field beyond the Elenydd Wilderness Trust hostel at Dolgoch, a tousled grey mountain pony with a heavy black fringe sidles up to nudge at my rucksack.
Singing nuns aside, this is a hostel where you wake up to awe inspiring mountain views, chocolate box chalets and the caffeine-laced aroma of street-corner breakfast bars.
The Snowdon Ranger Path begins at the youth hostel beside Llyn Cwellyn, to the west of the mountain, served by the A4085 and Snowdon Ranger railway station.
He's been tramping its trails for more than 20 years and, alongside his day job as manager of the YHA hostel in Elterwater, he's also team leader for the Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, one of ten volunteer teams providing emergency assistance in the park.
You cross plains and mountains on paths and roads, and pass some of Spain's most beautiful religious buildings, staying at pilgrims' hostels (marked with a shell symbol) and collecting stamps in your credencial or passport at each stop.
Down the road from IMHE, researchers with the Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB) are mourning three senior staff members who died when the wall of a hostel in the mountains collapsed as they were dashing out of the door for safety.
