Wales Weekend – June 2010

Sat 5 Jun 2010

At The Goat in Maerdy again for another weekend hillwalking in North Wales. At last the weather seemed set fair and we decided over a couple of pints in the bar on Friday night that we would do the long walk to bag the five peaks in the Eastern Carneddau today.

We arrived at the small car park at the end of the surfaced road south-west of Tal-y-Bont at 9.30am, but were quite surprised to find it almost full. We had anticipated not seeing another soul all day, it looked like we were wrong.

Soon after leaving the car park we saw/heard what we thought was  a whinchat, but as neither of us had bins we could not see it well enough for a positive id. The first summit was that of Craig Eigiau which was reached quite easily after following the track that skirts  around Clogwynyreryr, then bearing left and crossing a ladder stile, following the fence on rough grassland up to the summit.

Aiming directly for Pen yr Helgi Du, we descended down to the old quarry at the head of Cwm Eigieau, where we stopped for a brief break. After crossing the Afon Eigiau, we followed the fairly obvious path up towards Bwlch y Tri Marchog. The path disappeared in heather and boulders as we approached the ridge, and we finally scrambled up to the ridge slightly west of the bwlch. It was now getting very hot, and I realised I would have to be careful with by water supply if I was going to make it last.

A straightforward walk of less than a kilometre brought us to our  second summit of the day, Pen Llithrig y Wrach, where we stopped for a leisurely lunch admiring the surrounding views.  

The ridge on the opposite side of Llyn Cowlyd was our next objective, so this entailed descending the south ridge of Pen Llithrig y Wrach to the footbridge that crosses the feeder into the reservoir. The re-ascent was tough going through heather, though we did manage to avoid some of it on the lower slopes. Very hot, and running out of water. A well defined path through the heather made the other two summits on the ridge, Creigiau Gleision and its North Top, very straightforward.

With all the summits completed there was still a walk of over 6km back to the car. The initial descent was through thick heather, but once down to the Llyn Cowlyd dam the going became fairly easy on good tracks, though on the section before Eilio Cottage it was a little tricky locating the path. Managed to save a small amount of water to finish when we got back to the car.

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Craig Eigiau	735	Nuttall
Pen Llithwrig y Wrach	799	Nuttall
Craiglwyn	623	Nuttall
Creigiau Gleision	678	Nuttall
Creigiau Gleision North Top	634	Nuttall

Sun 6 Jun 2010

After yesterday’s fine weather, the forecast for today was very disappointing – rain and thunderstorms. We had narrowed the choice down to either Glasgwn and Pen y Bryn-fforchog in the Arans, or Foel Cwm Sian Llywyd in the Berwyns. Given the forecast, we opted for the latter as it was a very short route.

Starting from the B4391 Milltir Gerrig Pass it was heather bashing as soon as we left the road. We made for the stream and followed it as far as possible towards the summit, as the damp areas close to the water were fairly clear of heather. When the stream petered out it was then more heather bashing to the top.

Great views in all directions from the trig pillar, which we enjoyed over a leisurely coffee break. After 20 minutes we made the short walk to the large shelter at the northern end of the peaty summit plateau ridge and then descended directly towards the car. It was much easier descending through the heather. As we neared the road the first spots of rain began to fall. This is the shortest of the Nuttall routes, taking us just two hours to complete.
 

 

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Foel Cwm Sian Llwyd	648	Nuttall

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