We've had the old arguments of mobile phones and hills, but here's a new one for you.

Netbooks on the mountian? For those of you who've been sleeping in Millican's cave for the last twelve months, a Netbook is basically a small laptop (7-10inch screen) with decent battery life and optimised for browsing 'tinternet on the move. There's a few different brands available, a couple of the better ones being the Asus EEE 901 and the Samsung N10. I nearly got the Asus, but the hard drive was too small, so the Samsung, affectionately known as a Sammy online, was the best option. With a battery life of over 7 hours and a large 10in screen, it's a brilliant piece of kit.

Not only that, but at 1kg you could conceivably take one on an overnight wild camp. To test it out, i took it for a walk up Yr Wyddfa last night and as you can see from the pics, managed to get online. There was nobody on MSN though to ask them to "guess where I am? No, Guess. You'll never get it. Go on though, guess!) If it does start a craze off though, you know where you read it first! Going to have to find a lighter version next and couple it to the Freeloader solar charger ;-)

Internet connection was using the N95 as a bluetooth modem, and speed wasn't overly impressive. That said, my home broadband is expensive and speedy so i'm spoilt in that regard. Some netbooks come with built in wireless broadband (such as the Asus eee901) but i'm waiting now for a smaller, lighter version.

Decided to take a half day last Wednesday and take a little bimble up Snowdon again seeing as the weather was so fine. Looks like we’ve had our lot now as Autumn closes in.

Decided to go up the Rhyd Ddu path, while it’s more of a slog up to Bwlch Main than the South Ridge, it does provide a better view of the ridge.

Cwm Clogwyn and its numerous small lakes.

Looking from Bwlch Main to Hafod Eryri

Hafod Eryri getting closer.

Note that the measurement set in stone is in metres. The only feet will be the hundreds of thousands of pairs attached to people that walk up anually.

Hafod Eryri from the summit.

The building looks a lot more utilitarian from the railway. Hopefully it will weather down and be less monolithic.

Hafod Eryri appears close to being finished, though it should have been open months ago. In the great British tradition, it was delayed by snow (what? on Snowdon!) in the same manner as trains are delayed by leaves in autumn. With any luck, it should be open next year. I’m just hoping that the absolute mess around the summit is cleaned up in some way. The place looks like a building site with bricks and rubble all around the building.

I''m going to keep it brief as there''s going to be a route on the main website on this. You can''t beat an after work walk. Even better when you can make it a hill walk. Last year i managed to get loads of low level walks in, but they do get a little tedious. The best one i managed was a walk from Caernarfon via the Afon Gwyrfai and Waunfawr to Cefn Du and Llanberis - recently resurrected and the circuit of Llyn Padarn added.

If you can get the act together and manage a proper mountain then it''s a further bonus. Make it Yr Wyddfa and they don''t come any better than that. It''s a freeby. It''s one stolen back by the worker. A full day off''s worth of walking and i don''t have to ring in a sicky or use up a holiday (not that i can anyway). Bonus.

The intention was to take some photos of the sunset, or to merely look at it from the top. Typically, the summit, and only the summit was in cloud. I was acce[ting that it would be so, until upon reaching Bwlch Main the summit cleared. So close. The skeletal structure of the new Snowdon ''Caff'' (despite what media hype wants to call it, the most important features for the average user will be what drink/cake can i buy and has it got a toilet) was visible, see the photo, and some lucky soul was up there already.

Of course, as we crossed Bwlch Main, the cloud came in as thick and fast as ever and that''s the last we saw of it. At the summit, in the encompassing mist we thought we could hear voices. Sure enough, there was a group, probably DofE or similar, making for the summit. We greeted each one, and had a bit of a joke with the leader, but they appered under prepared for being up at this time of night (as in no packs). They were probably camping at the tents we''d seen as a nameless tarn down below. This is definately on the list for a Friday night camp pretty soon, especially after i saw the aspect it had this time of day.

Not to be swindled from some after work fun, we were treated to the spectacle of Brocken Spectres on the descent. Not just once, but for all the traverse of Bwlch Main our bodies cast shadows that only we could see on the cloud above Cwm Llan. The photo does it no credit. The light in general was very good for photos, and i''ll put the few i took in the gallery soon.

We arrived at Rhyd Ddu in darkness, but as the path was good for the last stretch we made use of our developing night vision. I''ll definately be doing this again.

Gallery pics http://www.walkeryri.org.uk/Gallery/wyddfa_eve.html
Route http://www.walkeryri.org.uk/Routes/south_ridge3.html