The Last of the Moelwyns and a Lone Aran - Sep 2012

Fri 28 September 2012

Friday evening, soon after 10pm, and Vince and I are sat in the bar of The Goat, Maerdy discussing walk plans for our third and final foray into the Welsh mountains for the year. A weather forecast that actually says it will be a fine day for hill walking is almost unheard of for us. We have two routes  that we would like to do, Cnicht and the Moelwyns (Nuttall 5.3) and The Eastern Arans (route 8.2). As the Cnicht route contains the last seven 2,000ers we need to complete the Moelwyns, this is the one chosen.

 

Sat 29 September 2012

As promised by the forecast, we woke to clear blue skies. After breakfast at 7.45 we were soon on our way to Croesor, the village where the walk began, lazily leaving the navigation to the satnav.

 

Once booted, we set off just after 9.45am. Signposts at the car park and further along the path lead us easily to Cnicht’s south ridge, and with the summit pyramid visible ahead of us, there was no difficulty in following the route. Vince identified a distant bird as we ascended as a red kite – the first I have seen in the Welsh mountains.

 

As we ascended we could see a group of walkers ahead of us. Catching up with them at the summit, these were the first people that we had met during any of our walks this year. The ascent had taken us 95 minutes, five minutes less than calculated. After the obligatory summit photos we moved on just 400m to  Cnicht’s North Top for our coffee break. As we approached Vince saw a bird of prey zoom low over the summit cairn. The description sounded very much like a merlin, but he was not 100% sure, so this will have to go down as a probable. 

 

Our next objective was the cairn at the col at Lyn yr Adar (the lake of the Birds). It was nice to have views of Moel Druman and Ysgafell Wen as we descended, two of the peaks bagged in our August trip. The cairn was not immediately obvious, but we soon found it close to a low, rocky outcrop that was obscuring it from view.

 

The next section to Rhosydd quarry took us longer than expected. We followed the obvious path, passing what we thought was Llyn Cwm-corsiog. We were puzzled by this lake as it had an island, which was not shown on the map. Passing this lake, we were surprised to quickly come upon another. We realised our error immediately – we were passing the two lakes named Llynnau Diffwys and the island was due to the high water level surrounding the small isthmus that juts into the northernmost lake. We had deviated slightly west, and lower, of where we wanted to be. We were quickly back on track once we knew what we had done.  The ascent through the derelict quarry was easy on the old inclines, surrounded by the huge spoil heaps. At the top of the quarry a grassy path lead from an old building towards our next objective Moel-yr-hydd. An easy walk to this summit, where we sat in a sheltered spot overlooking Tanygrisiau reservoir and power station eating our lunch.

 

The day’s remaining four summits were all clearly visible as we descended from Moel-yr-hydd, so no need for following bearings as is the norm for our trips. We were beginning to think that we were behind schedule, so carefully checked our progress against the route card predictions from now on. Passing the impressive chasms of the East and West Twlls (which just means “hole”) we headed for Moelwyn Mawr’s North Ridge Top. This looks like a little bump on a ridge, but its summit is well over 610m and has the requisite fall of 15m on all sides, so it qualifies as a Nuttall and as such has to be visited and bagged. This section of the route took five minutes less than calculated, so encouraged by our progress we agreed to get to the next peak, Moelwyn Mawr and assess things again once there.

 

 

An easy ascent on a grassy ridge, curving to the right as we neared the top, was again achieved in five minutes less than calculated. We worked out that it would take us until 17:00 to complete the rest of the route from Moelwyn Mawr, and as sunset was not until 18:57, we decided to press on. A steep and rocky descent slowed us down (more truthfully, slowed me down) as we headed for the Craigysgafn arête and the sixth summit of the day.

 

 

The route across the screes to the east of Moelwyn Bach was clearly visible from the summit of Craigysgafn and also the path from Bwlch Stwlan that we could use if we decided to omit this last summit. The question of missing out Moelwyn Bach never arose, and we headed straight onto the ascent from the bwlch. I began to run out of steam on this last ascent, but the tiredness was soon forgotten about when we reached the summit – completing the last of the Moelwyns. A final food/drink break before leaving the top.

 

 

Easy, grassy slopes for the descent westwards from Moelwyn Bach, but it did get rather boggy as we approached the final section through the woods. Our route card underestimated by ten minutes the return to the car park, but we did get there at 16:55, so our estimate of a 17:00 finish when we were on Moelwyn Mawr was pretty good.

 

	Summit	Height (M)	Status
	Cnicht	689	Hewitt, Nuttall
	Cnicht North Top	686	Nuttall
	Moel-yr-hydd	648	Hewitt, Nuttall
	Moelwyn Mawr North Ridge Top	646	Nuttall
	Moelwyn Mawr	770	Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall
	Craigysgafn	689	Nuttall
	Moelwyn Bach	710	Hewitt, Nuttall

 

After dinner we began to think about tomorrow’s walk. The weather forecast for Sunday did not make good reading. 70-90% probability of heavy rain and wind increasing to 55mph. In view of this we decided that we would do as short a route as possible. We considered Y Garn in the Rhinogs, but settled on Moel y Cerrig Duon, the final summit in Nuttall’s route 8.2 The Eastern Arans.

 

Sun 30 September 2012

The car park at Bwlch y Groes stands at 545m – the highest pass in North Wales according to the information board. The forecast was accurate and it was pouring down with rain as we pulled on our boots. This was going to be a very short route, a mere 1.5km and 80m of ascent to the summit. The wind was at our backs for the climb, which was very straightforward as a fence lead all the way. Views were very restricted by hill fog, but it occasionally lifted to give brief glimpses of our objective. The going under foot was initially very wet, but not so bad as we progressed. The summit, marked by a wooded post held upright in a small cairn of slate, was soon attained. We crossed the fence to walk 40m to a grassy area that looked as if it was slightly higher than the marked summit.

 

 

We only stayed long enough to take our traditional photos of each other at the summit (and at an alternative summit that initially looked higher) and then re-traced our steps back to the car (with the wind and rain now in our faces). The whole exercise took no more than 40 minutes, making this the shortest route we have ever done to bag a Nuttall.

 

 

 

	Summit	Height (M)	Status
	Moel y Cerrig Duon	625	Hewitt, Nuttall

Arenigs and the Moelwyns - August 2012

Fri 10 August 2012

A later than usual arrival at The Goat as we had only got as far as the Peartree roundabout when we were held up for an hour due to a “police incident” closing the A34. We were unlucky as if we had been a minute earlier we would have got past, or a minute later and we could have left the A34 at the Peartree exit. Anyway, having arrived at The Goat at 22:55, we still had time to discuss the weekend’s possible routes over a couple of pints (Tetley’s Dark Mild again).  As (unusually) the weather forecast looked fairly good, we decided that we would do Dduallt and Rhobel Fawr on Saturday (the last two summits we needed to finish the Arenigs), and on Sunday the slightly shorter route of the Moelwyn hills north-west of Blaenau Ffestiniog, which we had been planning to do for ages but were waiting for descent weather to do it.

Sat 11 August 2012

A drive of about an hour to the start in Cwm yr Allt-lwyd, the last eight miles or so on a single track road as we made our way to the remote head of the cwm. It was pleasantly warm as we prepared for the off, but an unexpected delay before setting off as I could not find the car keys! We searched everywhere – including turning out my rucksack and the boot of the car. Embarrassingly they turned out to be in my pocket!!!! (Of course I had checked there – but I thought all I could feel in there was loose change). LESSON – LEAVE KEYS IN THE IGNITION UNTIL READY TO LEAVE!

Anyway, we set off eventually and we had only gone about 500m when we spotted a couple of grey wagtails in the waters of the Afon Mawddach. We agreed that Vince would submit all the weekend’s sightings to BirdTrack (I would only submit species that were new for my year list). I’m not sure if the track leading across the field from the bridge at Dol-cyn-afon to Allt-lwyd farm is actually a public right of way. It is the way Nuttalls suggest, but the gate was locked and we had to climb over it. The public footpath in front of  Allt-lwyd farm was very overgrown, so we walked along the track that passes just above the farm and becomes the ROW in about 300m. This track was easy to follow to the ford at SH809291.

From here it was simply a matter of following a fence up the north ridge to the summit of Dduallt, which took 55minutes, and where we stopped for a 20 minute banana/coffee break. The descent down to the forest was straightforward, but following the track along the forest edge was not as easy as we had thought it would be as the trees overhung the path, and the ground when we moved out slightly to avoid them was boggy. Nuttalls’ suggested route through the forest was easy enough to follow, though it was muddy and wet in places (and blocked by a fallen tree at one point). 

Emerging from the trees at Ty-newydd-y-mynydd we needed to stop to take on some water as it had got quite hot, but we had been lucky that the midges were not out in force. A couple of hundred metres walking south on the forestry track, brought us to the wall rising on the right that leads up to the summit of Rhobell Fawr. We headed uphill, making fairly slow progress as it was very steep in places. Once over the wall crossing our path at a height of ~680m the slope eased and the going became easier. Another wall guarded the summit; a ladder style enabled us to climb over and walk the last few metres to the stone trig pillar marking the summit – our last one of the Arenigs. 

It took us about 20 minutes longer than calculated to walk from Dduallt to Rhobell Fawr, probably due to the initial steepness of the final ascent. It was now after 2 o’clock and high time for some lunch, which we took sheltering from the wind in a rocky area back over the summit wall.

Our descent route now differed from Nuttalls’. Rather than go down to the forest edge and follow this back to the Afon Mawddach, we had opted to head over Rhobell Ganol and Rhobell-y-big and then descend back to Cwm yr Allt-lwyd. The low ground between these peaks was marshy; maybe wearing the summer boots was not such a good idea after all. The summit of Rhobell Ganol was nothing much, but Rhobell-y-big’s was very craggy and involved a bit of scrambling to get to the top. The initial walk off was very steep as well.

The remaining route back to the start was over grassy slopes. We arrived back at the car getting on towards 5 o’clock, so the walk had taken the best part of seven hours – and we had not seen another living soul all day.

Click here for Google map of route 

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Dduallt	662	Hewitt, Nuttall
Rhobell Fawr	734	Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall
Rhobell Ganol	521	Dewey
Rhobell-y-big	504	Dewey

The Olympics was on the TV in the bar in the evening; I interrupted my meal to watch Mo Farah win the 5,000m (and become the first British athlete to do the 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic double).

Sun 12 Aug 2012

The sky was overcast and there was a light drizzle as we prepared to leave The Goat. The drizzle turned to heavy rain as we drove the 25 miles to the Crimea Pass, and not for the first time on our excursions in Wales, the rain poured down on us as we prepared to set off. Surprisingly the rain stopped almost immediately we began walking, and apart from a few spots as we ascended the ridge of Allt-fawr, it was dry for the rest of the day. Finding the path to ascend the ridge presented some difficulty as there wasn’t one – so we just headed up the steep grassy slope. Once over the ladder stile (not visible on the skyline as suggested by Nuttall) it was easy enough to follow the ridge up to the summit, which was shrouded in mist. 

The limited visibility made it difficult for us to be sure that we were at the summit. I got a fix of our position with my mobile phone which gave SH681474, whereas I had noted in the route plan that it was SH682474. Anyway as we were debating whether we were at the highest point or not the mist cleared and we could see that indeed we were.

 

Descending WNW over gentle grassy slopes brought us to a small un-named lake to the north of Llyn Conglog, from where an obvious path and a fence led us to the top of Moel Druman. Rumour has it that this is a beautiful viewpoint for the Moelwyns and Cnicht – sadly we are unable to confirm this. Descending towards Llyn Coch, we decided that it we were getting too hot in our waterproof jackets and overtrousers, so we stopped to shed these and have our banana/coffee break. 

The path continued past Llyn Terfyn and then ascended towards the first summit of Ysgafell Wen. A short scramble was necessary to attain the rocky summit, which could have been avoided, as we found when walking back down. The path and fence were easy to follow and little more than a quarter of an hour later we were on the North Top of Ysgafell Wen, marked by a well built cairn. A short descent to the col at Llynnau’r Cwn, followed by a short ascent brought us to the Far North Top (the final summit of the day) in a matter of minutes. 

We returned to the col between the two northerly summits for a 15 minute lunch break before commencing our descent. Initially this was on steep, grassy slopes heading north-east towards Afon Lledr. The going began to get harder as we descended as the ground was soft and the grass long, with no path to follow. Once we got close to Afon Lledr a path became clear as we passed some sheepfolds, but it was still hard going due to the height of the vegetation. Following the river, we eventually reached the point where it was joined by another flowing from Moel Lledr. We crossed here and then headed past a ruined farmhouse up to a muddy track that lead us the final 3 km around Moel Dyrnogydd and back to the car parked in the layby near the summit of the Crimea Pass. For a second day we had the hills totally to ourselves. 

The weather had not been as good as we had hoped it would be when we were considering this route on Friday night, but it had turned out better than was promised as we set off.

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Allt-fawr	698	Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall
Moel Druman	676	Hewitt, Nuttall
Ysgafell Wen	672	Hewitt, Nuttall
Ysgafell Wen North Top	669	Hewitt, Nuttall
Ysgafell Wen Far North Top	650	Nuttall

We saw quite a lot of individual birds in the course of the weekend, but not a great number of species. Probably meadow pipit was the most numerous. This is the list:

Carrion Crow	Chaffinch	Coal Tit
Goldcrest	Grey Heron	Grey Wagtail
Linnet	Meadow Pipit	Raven
Stonechat	Wheatear

Eastern Snowdonia - March 2012

Fri 9 March 2012

Friday evening finds Vince and I sitting in the bar of The Goat Inn, Maerdy discussing possible routes over a couple of pints of Tetley’s Dark Mild *. We have at last managed to get away for a weekend of hillwalking; something we have not done since June 2010 – far too long without any mountains. Several routes were considered and eventually the two short-listed were the Moelwyn hills north-west of Blaenau Ffestiniog from the Crimea Pass, and the Berwyns east of the Hirnant Pass. The final decision would be made in the morning, depending on the weather.

* Sadly The Goat no longer keeps real ale.

Sat 10 March 2012

We awoke to a grey, overcast morning and, as the forecast was better for the east of Snowdonia, we agreed that we would do the Berwyn walk rather than go west to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Although this was a route that we had planned to do at some time, neither of us had thought to bring our prepared route plan, so it would be a case of working things out as we went along.

Being so close to The Goat, it was only a drive of about 25 minutes to the start point. We could not park in the planned parking place in what appears to be a small dis-used quarry as it was very wet and muddy and there was a real danger that we would not be able to get the car out. A good alternative spot was found where the road crosses the Hirnant river at Bwlch yr Hwch, which also saved us 600m of road walking. By 9.35 we had set off following the forestry track north-east through the Penllyn Forest. Just beyond the house in the clearing we turned right onto the gently ascending track that leads south-east through Cwm Gwyn, following closely the Nant Ystrad-y-Groes.

Plenty of bird song for us to identify as we walked, and a nice sighting was that of a single crossbill high up in a conifer (we would not have id’ed this if Vince had not brought his binoculars). We were surprised to see lots of frog-spawn and newly hatched tadpoles in the ditches at the side of the track.

At about 550m we began to enter the mist which was to prevent us from having any good views from the tops today. Emerging from the forest and continuing for another 500m on the track we then went “off-road” for the first time, finding a feint path through the heather to our first summit of the day, Y Groes Fagl. As per Nuttall, this summit is marked by a 6ft wooden post. Retracing our steps back to the track we continued for another 300m to the point where the track swung sharp right and stopped here for a banana/coffee break. Also tried some of Vince’s fudge (it was very good Jack).

Another excursion into the Berwyn Heather followed as we headed south to find the summit of Cyrniau Nod, marked by an untidy pile of stones with a rather spindly 6ft post. Again any hopes of views from the summit were thwarted by the mist. From the summit we followed a feint path through the heather back to the forest track, and were surprised to discover that it emerged back onto the track about 20m from where we had stopped for elevenses and was marked by a small cairn. We had not spotted this when setting out for Cyrniau Nod despite having looked for such a marker – I think we can blame the poor visibility for our failure to see this.

Continuing west on the track to Foel Cedig, which we decided to summit as it was only about 60m from the track. This 666m top has no significance as it rises by at most 10m above its surrounds and therefore fails to make the grade as a Nuttall.

Back on the track we walked on until we were at its closest point to Bwlch Cam. A feint path through the heather lead us south to a fence and then via Bwlch Cam on to the next summit of Cefn Gwyntog. We lost the path at times but the heather in late winter/early spring was not too bad to make headway through. The summit was marked by a small pile of stones hardly worthy of the title cairn. We reversed our route back to the forest track, finding it easier to keep to the feint path on the return. Time for our sandwiches and cake.

Back on the track, which was becoming like an old friend, we continued west before striking off for the summit of Stac Rhos. This was in sheep pasture, so no heather to negotiate, but we had to climb over the fence as there was no sign of a stile. There are several candidates for the summit of this one, marked by assorted sizes of cairns. We tried them all, and hopefully hit on the right one, though as is always the case in situations like this, whichever one we stood on one of the others looked marginally higher.

      

And on to our last of the Berwyn Nuttalls, Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw. Easily attained as it is barely 100m from the forestry track. Sadly the fog did not see fit to part and let the sun break through to celebrate our completion of the the Berwyns, just mist shrouded views to mark the occasion.

Before beginning the descent back to the car we did one last summit, that of Pen y Cerrig Duon. This fails to be a Nuttall by a mere 3m as it only rises 12m above its surrounds, and as a consequence there is nothing to indicate the summit, just grass.

An easy descent on the grassy north ridge of Pen y Cerrig Duon back to the car, arriving at 16:20. Sat by the river to to finish coffee and eat an apple and one of Vince’s very tasty apricot and date bars.

We probably cheated a bit by using the forestry track throughout our walk, as Nuttall’s route eschews the track and goes cross-country from Y Groes Fagl - Cyrniau Nod - Cefn Gwyntog - Stac Rhos. We also reversed Nuttall’s route.

	Summit	Height (m)	Status
	Y Groes Fagl	659	Nuttall
	Cyrniau Nod	667	Nuttall
	Foel Cedig	666
	Cefn Gwyntog	615	Nuttall
	Stac Rhos	630	Nuttall
	Pen y Boncyn Trefeilw	646	Nuttall
	Pen y Cerrig Duon	611

		The Bird List
	Red Grouse	Buzzard	Skylark
	Meadow Pipit	Pied Wagtail	Wren
	Dunnock	Robin	Blackbird
	Song Thrush	Mistle Thrush	Goldcrest
	Great Tit	Coal Tit	Carrion Crow
	Raven	Chaffinch	Siskin
	Crossbill

Sun 11 March 2012

We had decided the previous evening that today’s route would be Glasgwym and Pen y Brynnfforchog, the two southernmost of the Arans. Having settled our bill after dinner on Saturday night, and the landlord agreeing to provide an early breakfast at 7:30 (though the landlady was not so keen), we were on our way from The Goat at 8:20 without delay. An hour’s drive and we were putting on our boots in the new car park at the head of Cwm Cywarch (“New” as it was not there when we last visited in 2004). A nuthatch was a new tick for the year for both of us as we got ready.

It was warm and sunny as we set off past the farm and  it felt positively hot as we zigzagged up the steep climb between Craig Cywarch and Craigiau Camddwr. Frogs were very active in the small, un-named tarn at the col. Stopped for elevenses at the fence that leads to the summit of Glasgwym.

Thirty minutes following the fence and we were at the summit, and in mist so no views. We could not even see Llyn y Fign, the large tarn no more than 150m from the summit. Left the summit following the fence south-west and the lake immediately loomed out of the mist. Had to watch our step so as not to tread on any amorous frogs that were crawling around on the shore. The fence now lead us WNW for 250m before turning SW to head towards the forest. As views were very restricted by the mist we were careful to check bearings and paces, though essentially we were just ensuring that we were following the right fence. The song of a mistle thrush told us we were getting close to the forest and we wondered if anyone had ever thought of using bird song as an aid to mountain navigation.

Once we neared the 656m spot height the mist began to clear and we could see our next objective. After a further 350m we were at the point where we left the forest edge and headed up to the summit of Pen y Brynnfforchog, but before doing so we spent a few moments trying to work out our descent route through the forest (which had been mostly clear-felled) whilst we had a clear view of it. Onward to the last summit following an obvious path without any difficulty. It was actually clear on the top, but looking back, the summit of Glasgwm (the best part of 100m higher) was still in mist. Stopped for our lunch break on the grassy summit.

Having descended, the first 500m of track through the forest was easy to follow. It then became a bit more tricky to work out where the path went. We could see the forest road we wanted to get to, but the route to it was not readily apparent. In the end we just followed the track that had obviously been used by vehicles when the trees were felled. This consisted of a crushed layer of branches and was rather tricky to walk on in places, and very wet and boggy in others, but it lead us to the forest road without too much difficulty. The warmth was encouraging a hatch of midges, but thankfully on reaching the forest road we left these behind.

An easy walk of about a kilometre and we were at the col north-west of Y Gribin. We had thought about climbing this, but as time was pressing and the summit is of no special significance, we decided against. The descent into Cwm Cywarch looked on the 1:50k map that it would be very steep, but it is actually a very nicely graded zigzagging track that we speedily descended back to the car (arriving at 14:30). Change, a drink, and quick bite to eat and we set off on the long drive back home.

	Summit	Height (m)	Status
	Glasgwm	780	Nuttall
	Pen y Brynfforchog	685	Nuttall

		The Bird List
	Buzzard	Feral Pigeon	Skylark
	Meadow Pipit	Pied Wagtail	Wren
	Robin	Mistle Thrush	Blue Tit
	Great Tit	Nuthatch	Carrion Crow
	Raven	Chaffinch