The Snowdon Horseshoe

Sun 30 Oct 2016

Another 6.00am start, but as the clocks went back last night we did get a welcome extra hour in bed. After a similar breakfast to yesterday we packed all our gear into the cars and drove to the lay-by on the A4086 near the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel. Paul and Rebecca pulled into the lay-by moments after we arrived. The plan was to take just one car to the Pen-y-pass car park, so we had to move some of Vince and Jack's gear out of his Octavia into my Focus so that we could fit all the rucksacks in his car. We got to the Pen-y-pass car park at 7:45 but amazingly there were only about 3 (minibus) spaces left. Very soon after we arrived the entrance was coned off by the attendant. Phew!

We set off along the Pyg Track, heading for Bwlch y Moch. Although it was slightly misty, the air was still and the mountain tops were visible. It had the all makings of a good day in the hills. As we approached the bwlch we realised that there was a temperature inversion and that it was going to be a special day. Great scrambling up Crib Goch with spectacular views of the the surrounding mountains poking their summits up through the cloud. Not a breath of wind as we negotiated the Pinnacles – perfect conditions to enjoy the exposure on the ridge to the precipitous drop on our right into Cwm Uchaf, and the magnificent scenery of Y Lliwedd and Snowdon to our left.It was nearly mid-day when we finished all the scrambling on this half of the Horseshoe and arrived at the trig pillar at the summit of Crib y Ddysgl. We were already thinking that our aim to complete the entire Horseshoe including the Last Nail (Gallt y Wenault – the one that no-one ever does) was probably a bit too ambitious.  We decided that we would make the final decision whether to attempt it or not when we got to the col after Lliwedd Bach. Another half-hour or so of now easy walking descending to Bwlch Glas and then up to the top of Snowdon. We did not go right to the summit as it was heaving with people and we had all done it before anyway. We sat for a while refuelling whilst we watched the crowds, including many mountain bikers struggling to make the top (madness!). Someone was flying a drone over the summit (is that legal?).The second half of the Horseshoe begins on the upper reaches of the Watkin path – a nasty few hundred metres of loose footings until Bwlch y Saethau is attained. Easy going then until Bwlch Ciliau and then the scrambling begins again over the three summits on Y Lliwedd (West Peak, East Peak and Lliwedd Bach). We abandoned the idea of including the Last Nail in the Horseshoe because we were running out of daylight (well that’s the excuse we used to convince ourselves, but secretly we were all probably too knackered to make the extra effort involved). It was too easy an option to just descend from here to Llyn Lydaw, though there was a section that involved some tricky down climbing that I do not remember from previous occasions I have done the Horseshoe.From the shores of the lake it is all easy walking on the Miner’s track back to the car park at Pen-y-pass. We all squeezed into Vince’s car for the short drive back to the lay-by where we had left our other cars, and very soon we had all gone on our separate ways.

	Summit	Height (m)		Status
	Crib Goch	923		Hewitt, Nuttall
	Crib y Ddysgl	1,065		Hewitt, Nuttall
	Snowdon	1,085		Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall
	Y Lliwedd	898		Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall
	Y Lliwedd East Peak	893		Nuttall
	Lliwedd Bach	818		Nuttall

Click here to see more photos.

The Nantlle Ridge

Fri 28 Oct 2016

We stayed at a new venue for this weekend of hill walking, Elen's Castle Hotel in the village of Dolwyddelan near Betws-y-Coed. We booked their bunk house accommodation; a small annexe next to the main hotel. We arrived just before 5pm, but there was a change to our usual travelling arrangements. Instead of travelling in one car, Vince/Jack and I each arrived in our own cars as the plan was to do the Nantlle Ridge for which we needed to station a car at the western end of the ridge so that we could get back to the start.

After sorting out all our gear we walked across to the main hotel for our evening meal. Paul ( a friend of Vince) and Rebecca met us in the bar afterwards to finalise the plans for tomorrow over a pint or two.

Sat 29 Oct 2016

We set our alarms for 6.00am – we needed to get away early to make sure we could get the car into the small lay-by near the village of Nebo. Breakfast consisted of porridge pots, bananas and cereal bars and a large mug of tea (can’t start the day without tea!). We’d loaded up the cars and were away by 7.00am. I just programmed in our destination on my sat-nav and followed its instructions, with Vince and Jack following. It did its usual trick of of taking us on a narrow and twisty road that it considered quicker – not fun on a dark and foggy morning. But it did its job and got us to our chosen remote spot at Cors y Llyn near Nebo. Luckily no-one else had the same idea so there was no problem parking in the small lay-by. Once I had put my boots on and Jack had got rid of his breakfast we travelled in Vince’s car to the car park at Rhyd-Ddu at the eastern end of the ridge. Paul and Rebecca arrived soon after us. Everything was going to plan so far, we did not even have to pay for parking as the pay-and-display machine was out of order.

The weather did not look very promising as we set off just before 9.00am. The cloud base was below the summits, as it was to remain all day, preventing us from having any views of this iconic ridge. Ninety minutes of effort brought us to the first summit, Y Garn. Gaining 440m in 2.5km, this was the toughest part of the day. The route to the next summit, Mynydd Drws-y-coed, involved some scrambling, which was fun but slightly spoilt by the wet and the poor visibility as we could not really see what we were climbing. We stayed on the top just long enough for the usual summit photos and then made a tricky descent on steep, slippery rock. I think it was here that both Jack and I stumbled, resulting in both of us needing some running repairs once we had got down to more level ground. A few more minutes and we were on our third summit of the day, Trum y Ddysgl.

A grassy descent south-west to the col followed by a grassy ascent and we were at the summit of Mynydd Tal-y-mignedd in 35 minutes of easy walking. The summit is marked by an enormous stone pillar which we contemplated climbing, but sensibly didn’t. Still none of the splendid views promised by the guide books; all we saw was the inside of a cloud.

A fence running down to Bwlch Dros-bern made for easy navigation towards our next objective, Craig Cwm Silyn. As we ascended from the col the daunting bulk of Craig Pennant loomed up out of the mist. This was promised as an entertaining scramble by our Gillham guide book, but as the mist made it difficult to see the route we decided to opt for the easier option and take the path that skirted around to the right, avoiding the scramble. Disappointing, but a sensible decision as we had already discovered how slippery these wet rocks were. The ground became a boulder field as we approached the top, our highest point of the day. We had earned a break by this time, so we settled down in the summit shelter to eat our lunch.

The route onward was very easy – head west on the summit plateau, then SW to a fence/wall that leads all the way to the summit of Garnedd-goch (another rocky top). From here to the final summit was the longest section of the day. Still following a wall south-west until we found the gap that allowed us to cross and head south to Bwlch Cwmdulyn. From the bwlch the obvious line to Mynydd Graig Goch would have crossed a couple of streams running down into the cwm, so to avoid these we opted to follow the wall SSW for 600m to the junction with another wall and then head directly up to the summit from there, thus avoiding the streams. We all fell silent as we paced out the 600m. Paul was closest, but I was pleased to only be about 15 metres off the mark. We took a bearing for the summit (which was out of sight in the mist) and marched off on easy grass towards it. The seventh and final peak of the day (yet another rocky one) was attained in about 20 minutes.And so to get down off the ridge and back to the car. We headed north-west and once we had negotiated the rocks protecting the summit the going became easy again on grass. We located a feint path which led us all the way down to the shores of Llyn Cwm Dulyn. As we descended we were pleased that we could see my car was still where we left it earlier, ready to take us back to our starting point. Looking back up to the ridge from the lake it was frustrating to see that Garnedd-goch was clear of cloud – how often does that happen on our walks? It was a bit of a tight fit to get all five of us and our rucksacks into my car, but we all managed to squeeze in for the drive back to Rhyd-Ddu in the failing light.

Summit	Height (m)	Status
Y Garn	633	Nuttall
Mynydd Drws-y-coed	695	Hewitt, Nuttall
Trum y Ddysgl	709	Hewitt, Nuttall
Mynydd Tal-y-mignedd	653	Hewitt, Nuttall
Craig Cwm Silyn	734	Hewitt, Nuttall
Garnedd-goch	700	Nuttall
Mynydd Graig Goch	610	Hewitt, Nuttall

See  all today's photos here

Pumlumon and Drygarn Fawr – July 2016

Fri 15 Jul 2016

Early evening and we are sat in the bar of The Bluebell Inn, Llangurig planning a weekend’s hillwalking. There was light rain as we arrived in the late afternoon, and the forecast for tomorrow was more of the same. After a tasty meal we got out the maps and discussed Saturday’s walk. We had been coming to this part of Wales for a couple of years and the five 2,000ft peaks of Pumlumon had always been on our agenda, but we had been saving it for a nice, long summer’s day. Having now more or less completed all the local hills, we had little choice but to go for it tomorrow, despite the less than promising forecast. 

Sat 16 Jul 2016

As we breakfasted on Saturday morning the view from the dining room window was of grey cloud and drizzle. It did not let up as we made the half-hour drive to the start by the Nant-y-moch reservoir. We had no choice but to don full waterproofs before we started. So, in heavy drizzle we climbed up towards the first peak, Y Garn, initially following the Nant-y-moch stream on wet grass, and then after about a kilometre, turning south to ascend the north ridge. At this point we were already using compasses to check direction in the poor visibility. The stones of an ancient cairn marked the summit. These had been re-modelled into a shelter, but it did not offer us much protection from the wind and the rain, so we did not linger any longer than it took to have a quick banana/coffee break.

On a clear day we would have been able to see down to the reservoir and dam and on to our next objective of Pumlumon Fawr, but not today. Again we had to check compass bearings before setting off to make sure the fence we intended to follow was heading in the right direction. We headed east for roughly 800m, losing 140m of height by the time we reached the col, where another fence lead up to the next summit. The map indicated that the footpath was on the right of the fence, but on the ground the path was clearly on the left.

I had calculated 45 minutes to get from Y Garn to Pumlumon Fawr, but it took us over an hour in the poor conditions. The summit was strewn with boulders, some of which had been fashioned into an (ineffective) shelter. In my photographs the trig pillar seems to be leaning at an angle, but that could be because I was struggling to stand up straight in the wind!

 

Onward to Pumlumon Fach, and a navigational faux pas. The direction indicated by our compasses did not look right, so we headed down the north-west ridge in what seemed the sensible direction. We found ourselves above steep ground barring further progress. We were confused so checked our exact location on Vince’s GPS. Knowing our exact position, we realised we had descended too far to the east, so retracing a few steps, we were soon back on track and at the summit. To further confuse things there are two summits, but the first encountered although the highest, is not the true summit (as it only has 42ft of descent between it and Pumlumon Fawr). The second, lower top, is the Nuttall summit (as there is 64ft drop). The lesson from this, as pointed out by Vince, trust your compass.

We retraced the steps that we should have taken back towards Pumlumon Fawr and continued eastwards following another fence down to the col. By now I could feel water squelching in my boots with every step, and it was beginning to feel damp inside by waterproof jacket. From the col a gentle slope led up to the very dull, flat and grassy summit of Pen Pumlumon Llygad-bychan. I think it was near here that we stopped for our lunch, but I cannot remember for sure (it may have been at the next summit).

Another 2km of fence following to bring us to our final top of the day, Pumlumon Arwystli, marked by two large cairns. All three of us were now feeling pretty wet and miserable and wanted to get off the hill as quickly as possible. We abandoned the plan to continue north and descend to the Afon Hengwn and opted instead to retrace our route back towards the previous summit and descend to pick up the landrover track from Llyn Llygad Rheidol reservoir. So, two kilometres of gentle descent brought us to a fence junction we had passed on the way up. Here we turned north for a short distance until we met a slight bend in the fence marked by a stone. From here we paced 500m north-west along the fence, bringing us past a stream draining into the Llyn Llygad Rheidol. We turned west here to descend through long grass to the reservoir.

Meeting the reservoir we turned right to follow the shore line to the north end and the landrover track. But, the track was the other side of the outfall from the reservoir, which was two metres wide, in excess of half a metre deep, and flowing at about a hundred miles an hour! It was impossible to cross. We walked a little down stream to check if there were any possible crossing places. There were some narrower sections, but of course the flow was much faster at these points. It would have been madness to attempt to cross. We considered walking in the opposite direction around the reservoir, but there were two streams flowing into it and these could have been equally impossible to cross. So no option other than to continue downhill beside the outfall stream, through vegetation that was knee high, in the rain and wet through. What fun!

After the best part of a kilometre wading through the long grass we stumbled upon a feint track which made the going a little easier. We still had to cross the stream, and the path eventually led us to the ford. We all gratefully waded straight through it, even though the fast flowing water was calf deep. Our feet were so wet we were past caring. At last we were now on a decent track, but still a wearying two and half kilometre plod back to the car, much of it splashing through all the water running off the hillside.

Back at the pub our room was soon strewn with all our wet gear as we attempted to get it dry again for tomorrow. I did not have much hope for my boots! Never was a hot shower more welcome, and the first pint as we waited for our meals was like nectar.

	Summit	Height (m)	Status
	Y Garn	684	Hewitt, Nuttall
	Pumlumon Fawr	752	Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall
	Pumlumon Fach	664	Hewitt, Nuttall
	Pen Pumlumon Llygad-bychan	727	Hewitt, Nuttall
	Pen Pumlumon Arwystli	741	Hewitt, Nuttall

Sun 17 Jul 2016

The weather looked more promising for today, we could see the tops of the nearby hills at breakfast. We had decided to do Drygarn Fawr today, so having breakfasted and checked out of the pub we headed the few miles south through Elan Village and to the parking area at the southern end of the Caban-coch reservoir. Putting on my boots was not a pleasant experience – they were cold and still sopping wet inside. Thankfully, they soon warmed up and felt ok.

We headed south following the Nant Paradwys, ascending gently towards Bwlch y Ddau Fach. There were a few spots of very light rain, but this soon cleared away and the sky began to show patches of blue. We were looking for the path that leads west to Drygarn Fawr, but it was not obvious on the ground. To make sure we avoided any boggy ground we aimed higher up, and stopped for elevenses at the cairn at Carnau (537m).

We continued over Bryn Rhudd, avoiding boggy bits as best we could. We eventually stumbled upon a rough vehicle track that we followed to our objective. The summit ridge was marked by two huge cairns about 500m apart, the second marking the top. Here we stopped for a while to have some food and admire the views.

To descend we walked back along our ascent track, and continued to follow it as it by-passed Carreg yr Ast and then descended the north-east ridge of Waun. This led us back to the track we started on, joining it just above the Rhiwnant. From here an easy couple of kilometres back to the car.

	Summit	Height (m)	Status
	Drygarn Fawr	641	Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall