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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
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