Wales Weekend – October 2009

Fri 16 Oct 2009

Vince arrived at about 6.15pm after his normal nightmare Friday evening journey up from Kent. After a quick cuppa we departed for North Wales at 6.45pm. The traffic was still very heavy on the A34 and M40 so our ETA began to slip back from the satnav predicted 21:53. We arrived at The Goat a couple of minutes after 10 o’clock, so time for a couple of pints of Brain’s Rev. James bitter. There were no familiar faces behind the bar, and it turned out there has been a change of management since our last visit.

 

Sat 17 Oct 2009

Saturday dawned bright and frosty, and looked very promising for a change. The windows of the car had to be scraped clear of ice before we could begin the drive to the start of our walk. When we arrived there was not quite enough space left to park at the roadside at the walk’s starting point, so we drove a further 800m and parked in the area adjacent to the disused Arenig quarry. There were hundreds of fieldfare around feeding on the abundant berries in the surrounding rowan trees; my first winter thrushes of the season.

 

We began our walk at 9.35am, once we were booted (Vince in his new Scarpa Mantas). Taking the muddy path above the road was a mistake - it would have been quicker and simpler to stay on the road. A bit of a navigational blunder at the sheepfold at SH816389. We should have gone though the gate and gone left up past a disused quarry, but we were not paying attention and unthinkingly crossed a stile and continued straight on. We soon realised we had boobed, and once we had worked out what we had done wrong we quickly regained the track we should have been on.

 

A wall crossing our path indicated the point where we turned to ascend the ridge. Navigation was easy as the wall/fence followed the curving ridge right up to the summit. The customary stop for our banana and coffee break was taken on the first high point. It had clouded over slightly when we got to the summit, but conditions were much better than the gale we encountered the last time we were here. As we left the summit we chatted with an amateur radio enthusiast who told us about Summits on the Air.

 

 

A five-minute walk brought us to Arenig Fawr South Top. As we  descended from this making our way to the next summit our paths crossed with the radio ham again, and we walked together for a few minutes before we deviated left for the South Ridge Top, whilst he continued on to Moel Llyfnant. As we descended from the South Ridge Top we could see the path we needed leading across the col to Moel Llyfnant. At the fence crossing to gain this path we decided to have our lunch break. A couple of walkers passed us at this point, the only others we saw all day. As we ate our lunch we watched the radio ham making his way over the col and beginning his ascent.

 

The path across to Moel Llyfnant was easy to follow, with only a little marshy ground to negotiate at the col. A simple traverse to the left up the grassy slopes to the summit, where the radio ham had set up his aerial and was busy chatting away on the air. There were fine views back to Arenig Fawr.

 

More grassy slopes on the descent to the southern tip of the woodland, but there was a lot of prickly vegetation to negotiate, and a stream to cross before we began to ascend towards Foel Boeth.

The weather was surprisingly warm for mid-October and it was a long, tiring slog up to the summit. We both wishfully thought that an outcrop was the top, but on reaching it realised that we still had to go higher and further. The rather insignificant summit was on the north side of a fence, marked by a small pile of stones. A quick break here for more refreshment (especially fluid). A short walk of 300m brought us to the much grander (and slightly higher) summit of Gallt y Daren, the final summit of the day.

And so began the long walk back. No problems navigationally as we simply had to follow the fence over Bwlch y Bi, Moel y Slates and then descend beside Penllyn Forest down to the path on the trackbed of the old railway line. A dipper was spotted on the Afon Tryweryn as we neared the end of the walk.

Arrived back at the car at 5.30pm – a very tiring, but enjoyable walk of eight hours duration.

 

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Arenig Fawr	854	Nuttall
Arenig Fawr South Top	836	Nuttall
Arenig Fawr South Ridge Top	712	Nuttall
Moel Llyfnant	751	Nuttall
Foel Boeth	616	Nuttall
Gallt y Daren	619	Nuttall

                        

Sun 18 Oct 2009

We breakfasted and checked out of The Goat as quickly as possible so that we could get to the Pen-y-Pass car park before it filled up. Although the weather was good as we left, it got cloudier as we travelled deeper into Snowdonia. After turning at Capel Curig it began to rain quite heavily. We arrived at Pen-y-Pass at 9.15, but all the spaces were already taken. The car park attendant managed to find us a parking spot though.

 

The rain did not seem quite so bad as we got our boots on, so we decided to press on with the plan to walk up the Miners’ Track to the outfall from Glaslyn and then ascend on Y Gribin to Bwlch y Saethau. It took just and hour to get to this spot, where we took our banana/coffee break and took stock. It was spitting with rain and the cloud base was around 700m, hiding most of the Y Gribin ridge. As neither of us had done this ridge before, and Steve Aston’s Scrambles in Snowdonia recommended that it was best done in dry conditions, we made the decision to save it for a better day. The revised plan was to carry on up the Miners’ Track and then go to the summit to have a look at the new café.

 

On arriving at the top we first visited the summit cairn. It was very windy and wet and we could not see a thing. We did not hang around but went straight down to see the new building, which was heaving with people as a train had just arrived at the summit station (we had heard the train approaching as we got to the zig-zags). We abandoned any thought of getting a cup of tea and went and took shelter behind a wall and had the remains of our coffee and something to eat.

 

We continued by descending south-west to the finger stone that marks the top of the Watkin Path, and then descending on this towards Bwlch y Saethau. We went over the east and west summits of Y Lliwedd, but did not enjoy the scrambling as the weather was awful. Navigation was proving tricky as well. As proof of how demoralised we were, neither of us felt any inclination to go to the summit of Lliwedd Bach as we passed it. A final steep descent to Llyn Llydaw, and then back on the Miners’ Track to the car park.

 

A pretty miserable day really, and I am glad that we made the decision not to do the Y Gribin ridge, but to save it for another day.

 

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Snowdon	1,085	Nuttall
Y Lliwedd	898	Nuttall
Y Lliwedd East peak	893	Nuttall

 

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Wales Weekend - Feb/Mar 2009

Fri 27 Feb 2009

We drove up to The Goat in my car on the Friday night (arrived about 9:45pm). No real ale!

 

Sat 28 Feb 2009

We left The Goat for the drive to the start of our walk at about 8:30am. It was drizzling on the way, and not looking very promising. We arrived at the Snowdon Ranger car park (north of Rhyd-Ddu, beside Llyn Cwellyn) at about 9.15am. Due to the rain on the journey we put on waterproof jackets and over-trousers before we started. 

We began by walking approx. 1.2km south-east on the A4085 to the footpath starting at Planwydd. Ascending on the muddy path through the forest we emerged onto the open hillside at Bwlch y Moch (SH561540), and continued along the edge of the forest to the corner at SH553543 for a coffee and banana break.  

The ascent continued on the ridge to Foel Rudd and then followed the ridge south-west above the cliffs of Craig y Bera from where we turned north to make the final ascent to Mynydd Mawr’s summit. Took lunch at the summit sheltering from the wind. 

Three walkers arrived at the summit as we ate, the first walkers we had seen that day. After lunch we descended north-west to pick up a path (not marked on map) above Craig Cwm Du leading down to a path that was marked, which we followed for a short distance before branching off onto another unmarked path to the sheepfold at SH528559. We then followed the wall to another sheepfold at SH536558 at the edge of Tros-y-gol forest. The route continued through the forest on a muddy path  back down to the road at Betws Garmon, stopping amongst the trees for a final coffee break. Finally we followed the road beside Llyn Cwellyn back to the car park. Although it was windy and cloudy with mist on the summit it never actually rained during the day, so we could have dispensed with the over-trousers.

 

Rounded off the day in the Pen-y-Gwrd Hotel with scones, cream, jam and tea.

 

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Mynydd Mawr	698	Nuttall

 

Sun 01 Mar 2009

We managed to have breakfast and check out of The Goat by about 8.20am and get on our way to Pen-y-pass. Arrived there at about 9.05am when there was still parking spaces available. It was a nice sunny day, so no need for waterproofs. We began on the Pyg track,  which we intended to follow for about 1km before turning off on a feint path (according to various guide books) that led to the north ridge above Dinas Mot. We could not find any trace of this path and were within a couple of hundred metres of Bwlch y Moch before we decided to cut across on the grass. The slope became very steep in places and it was difficult to find a safe route over the small ridges of Ysgar. It would have been safer to lose height and go below this ridge, but we managed to find a route, though it was rather precarious. As we got closer to the north ridge a feint path did materialise which we attempted to follow onto the ridge. We stopped for a coffee and banana break once we were on the ridge. It felt like it would be very windy once on the ridge proper, so I put on my Buffalo wind-proof.

 We continued up the ridge aiming to get onto the crest. Some bits of scrambling and some nasty scree to negotiate before we came to the rocky ridge itself. Nice scrambling on the final section up to the summit of Crib Goch. Several ravens flying around us, but we met no-one else on this ridge until we got to the summit of Crib Goch, which this ridge came directly on to. Lunch stop on Crib Goch summit.

 

In mist as we continued along the crest of Crib Goch so no views. A few patches of snow as we continued on to Crib y Ddysgl, and by the time we were at the summit of Garnedd Ugain it was very windy and cold. As we descended towards the top of the Pyg track Vince asked a couple who were heading the way we had come were they aware that they   were heading for Crib Goch (they man was wearing jeans and the woman was wearing fashionable boots not suitable for scrambling). They replied "this not Llanberis path?". They then followed us and Vince pointed out the Llanberis path that they had missed.

 

Because of the time and the weather conditions we decided it was pointless going on to the summit of Snowdon and would go down the Pyg track. The first couple of hundred metres were very tricky as snow had been compacted down by many feet into a very slippery track. Once we had negotiated this we were out of the wind and stopped for a break to finish our coffee.

 

Vince suggested that we check the path that leads down from the Pyg Track to the Miners' Track, as if this was good, descending to the Miners' Track would be a much quicker walk back to Pen-y-pass. There was a new marker stone at the top of this track and much of the linking path had been re-laid, so it was a good descent to Glaslyn and the Miners' Track. A long walk back to the car park on this track.

 

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Crib Goch	963	Nuttall
Garnedd Ugain (Crib y Ddysgl)	1,065	Nuttall

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