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