When I told people I was going to go photograph mountain goats in wales I was met almost exclusively by a sort of confused face and the same question... why? This surprised me. I think inspired by the Ibex of the alps I thought of the welsh mountain goat as our equivalent. Magnificent horns, harsh weather and a wonderous landscapes in which they lived all seemed like such a perfect photographic adventure. I simply could not understand why you would not want to do this, and neither could my brother, so he came along too. To top it off we decided to camp.
Welsh Mountain Goats - Snowdonia, Wales
I left London after work on the Friday and gunned it up to Snowdonia national park. Rocking up to Llanberis Carpark past midnight meant everything was closed and pitching in the dark. The weather forecast had been promising though, cloudy but dry skies, the wind however was horrific. Howling winds (and a 30-year-old tent with no zip) meant that I got very little sleep. Luckily there wasn’t a clear sunrise so it meant I could lie in a bit. However, getting up there was some drizzle and the ground was unsurprisingly damp still. We packed up and stumbled into the youth hostel for coffee and a fry up. Like I said, it was cloudy so there was no rush this morning getting to the goats, it would take a while for the sky to get brighten enough to achieve low ISO and good contrast.
Post breakfast I dropped my brother off in Llanberis and made my way towards the quarry. I had no idea what to expect. I’d previously only seen a couple of the small goats off the Snowdon pig trail and a single big horned billy goat off the main road in Llanberis. I had read and spoken to people that said there were bachelor herds of these goats wondering around, a bit like you’d find with fallow and red deer. Even down in Llanberis at the hiking shops they gave good advice about trying to find these goats. Put simply, go to the quarry view point and try and spot them. Another bit of advice I got, use your nose. You are likely to smell them before you see them, they smell of strong goat’s cheese. This made me chuckle, because I thought they were joking but they weren’t, they genuinely stink.
Mountain Goat - Snowdonia, Wales
I arrived at the quarry and made my way to the view point armed with my 600mm lens I scoured the surrounding hills looking for the goats. To be honest they are relatively easy to spot, white animals against a mainly dark grey background. The main issue is actually determining if what you are looking at is a mountain goat or a sheep. Once determined it is only the small effort of getting to them. I would not recommend this to the faint hearted, it is dangerous and not to be taken lightly. There is a lot of old equipment and abandoned buildings spread over this part of the valley and help isn’t easily available. So, you do genuinely enter at your own risk. However, if you are quite used to this sort of thing, it is a breeze and the rewards are great.
Portrait of a Mountain Goat - Snowdonia, Wales
The goats themselves are fairly friendly and were not particularly phased by my presence. I approached with care and slowly so that one, they knew I was there and two, not to disturb their behaviour. They seemed very happy for me to be around and continued what they were doing, which was grazing and a lot of head butting. It was during the rut so they were all really much more interested in each other than me but it also gave some great behaviour to capture.
Mountain Goat - Snowdonia, Wales
The conditions were great, dry as expected but the sun made an appearance a few times which was great. It wasn’t full blown sun but the sort that peaks through a thin layer of clouds so it was softened quite a bit. This was ideal. It meant I could play with some portraits which interesting light when the sun came out but also try and capture more harsh environment shots when the clouds appeared. I spent two days in the mountains with these goats, floating on their periphery wondering where they wondered and just observing them. There were two larger males with two massive horns within the group that appeared to be dominant. It was hard to differentiate those with smaller horns as both the males and females grew them. Occasionally you’d spot one with a massive udder and realise you were looking at a female, but even then you we them knock heads with the males around.
Young Mountain Goats Facing off - Snowdonia, Wales
It was odd you’d have one female at the front being followed by a load of (I assume blokes) sudden she would turn round and knock heads with the rest of them. then it would all start again. Although I saw a lot of the younger ones knocking heads, the big billies I didn’t see do this. Whether this was a dominance thing and they knew who was in charge or just it happens more infrequently. It was a shame I would have loved to have seen it. However the smaller ones kept be busy, it still wasn’t easy capturing this on camera though. They were quick and it was over before you knew it.
Welsh Mountain Goat next to Abandoned Building - Snowdonia, Wales
It was great fun and an experience I will repeat and one I had planned to repeat this Easter but like everyone, I am sat at home enjoying lockdown. It’s a good time to reflect on past experience and think about new ones to plan and going to Snowdonia again for the goats is a must.