The Welsh mountain inn that helped conquer Everest

In the early hours of 2 June 1953, guests at the Pen-Y-Gwryd hotel in the heart of Eryri (Snowdonia) were woken from their sleep by the sound of footsteps running down the corridor outside their rooms. The commotion was followed by gleeful shouting and the sound of champagne corks popping. A late-night telephone call to the hotel’s owner had moments earlier confirmed that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had successfully summited Mount Everest. It had taken two days for the news to travel from the Himalayas to London. Serendipitously, news of the historic achievement coincided with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II later that day.

In the days and weeks that followed, the two mountaineers were feted across the front pages of newspapers around the world. Posing awkwardly for the cameras, their beaming smiles shone out of frost-burnt faces. In the decades that followed, Tenzing Norgay’s role in the expedition was increasingly marginalised – he was a Sherpa, indigenous to the area, and the load-carrying guide, while Hillary firmly planted his ice axe in the history books.

A new film, set for release this week on Apple TV, aims to set that record straight. Tenzing, starring Genden Phuntsok and Tom Hiddleston, tracks Tenzing Norgay’s life from a young boy growing up in the Khumbu Valley to his rise as one of the most accomplished climbers within the Sherpa community, and his eventual recruitment to the 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest (known locally as Chomolungma)led by Colonel John Hunt.

The film opened the Zurich film festival last month, where its director, Australian film-maker Jennifer Peedom, told audiences: “It’s often reduced to a familiar shorthand: Hillary conquered Everest, assisted by a Sherpa. But Tenzing had more experience on Everest than anyone else on that 1953 expedition. He wasn’t just helping another man achieve his dream. He had his own dream.”

In the spring of 1952, a full year before the British expedition, Tenzing, alongside Swiss climber Raymond Lambert, came agonisingly close to reaching the summit – less than 250 metres stood between them and glory. After a storm-lashed night on the south-east ridge, and with little oxygen, they were forced to retreat, albeit having set a new altitude record.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, Hunt, having been assigned by the Joint Himalayan Committee to assemble a team of climbers, set up base camp at the Pen-Y-Gwryd hotel at the foot of the Llanberis Pass. It was here they would practise their technical climbing skills and test the state-of-the-art equipment that had been designed specifically for this adventure, in particular the closed-circuit oxygen tanks that would be critical in keeping them alive in the “death zone” above 8,000m. The teams spent weeks on Yr Wyddfa’s (Snowdon) notorious Crib Goch ridge and on Yr Lliwedd mountain, testing the revolutionary new high-altitude boots that would replace the old leather and hobnail ones, which offered little to no protection from the freezing temperatures of Everest.

Artefacts from those pioneering days can be seen at the hotel today. A glass cabinet contains some of the summit team’s original equipment and mementoes: goggles, an ice axe, a ledger of Sherpas’ fingerprints as most could not read or write, a compass and a battered tin mug. Little has changed in the 73 years since Christopher Briggs woke his guests with those glasses of champagne. The Pen-Y-Gwryd is a time capsule; it remains in family hands, now run by Briggs’s grandsons, Nick and Rupert Pullee, who are determined to maintain the hotel’s legacy and the traditions that have made it a beloved destination for those with a penchant for adventure and late-night conversations in front of roaring fires.

“My grandfather was originally from Scarborough,” Nick says. “He was a chemist, but his shop was bombed during the war, so [in 1947] he persuaded a friend to lend him the money to buy a hotel in Wales. The building had been used to home children during the blitz and had fallen into terrible disrepair, but he somehow managed to turn it into a success.”

Briggs also started the Snowdon Club, where guests under the age of 16 who have successfully climbed the mountain take part in a small ceremony in which they are quizzed on their mountain knowledge. Those who answer correctly get to drink (lemonade) from Hillary’s pewter tankard and are awarded a sterling silver ice-axe brooch, with their name added to a book of members – a ritual that still happens today.

The Smoke Room serves as the residents’ bar, a tiny wood-panelled snug whose walls are adorned with photos of the Everest team, with Tenzing featuring prominently. In one, he’s perched in the bar drinking tea with George Band, the youngest climber on the 1953 expedition. Inanother, he’s on a rocky outcrop of Tryfan, another famous Snowdonia peak, with team leader Hunt.

“I was only a toddler when Tenzing last visited the hotel,” says Nick. “I remember he was incredibly kind and was constantly smiling. He used to give Rupert and myself piggybacks up the stairs. He was great friends with my grandfather, who visited him in Nepal often.”

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Built in 1810 on the bedrock that makes up the Glyderau range, the Pen-Y-Gwryd hotel is also the original starting point of the Pyg track, one of the most iconic routes to the summit of Yr Wyddfa, and today guests can walk directly from the hotel’s door to the path that snakes upwards towards Pen y Pass. The timeless interior of the hotel is devoid of TV screens or piped music, and the only concession to the 21st century appears to be the wifi.

This summer’s endless heatwaves saw sun-scorched hillwalkers cool their limbs in the natural outdoor pool in the grounds of the hotel. Fed by mountain streams, it offers unparalleled views of the hills and sweeping valley towards the mountain village of Capel Curig. The addition of an outdoor sauna and the popularity of cold-water swimming mean it’s now a year-round proposition.

The 20 rooms are all named evocatively after local peaks: Pen yr Ole Wen, Elidir Fawr, Crib Goch, Y Garn. Each is as cosy as one would expect from a rain-lashed mountain hotel: softly lit and with comfy mattresses wrapped in vintage Welsh wool blankets. In the labyrinthine corridors upstairs, you’ll discover bathrooms with Victorian roll-top tubs and Heath Robinson-esque showers. The bathroom doors are adorned with illustrations in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, and photos and artworks capturing the surrounding landscape and its mountaineering history adorn virtually every wall.

Dining at the Pen-Y-Gwryd is an event in itself: mealtimes are announced by the banging of a gong, the dining room is an unapologetic whirlwind of Axminster and silverware, and the menu features roast Welsh lamb and Welsh steak and ale pies, sticky toffee puddings or rhubarb crumble – everything you’ll need to replenish after a long mountain trek.

The ceiling of the Everest Room in the public bar has been signed by pretty much every big-name mountaineer of the past 100 years, and each corner of the building appears to have a story and artefact attached. It’s this authenticity that Nick believes gives the hotel its charm.

“I think our greatest attraction may be that things remain unchanged,” says Nick. “We have a lot of regular guests from all over the world, and for many people the opportunity to step back from the world in the wilds of Snowdonia is extremely enticing. It’s something we aim to protect and cherish.”

Rooms at the Pen-Y-Gwryd hotelrange from £114 to £172B&B; three-course dinner £49.Tenzingis on Apple TV from 16 October

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