At the top of the Daear Ddu ridge on Moel Siabod

Arriving at the Bryn Glo car park on the A5 before Capel Curig at just after 8pm, there was still plenty of light as we set off out of the car park to the right briefly before turning left over a bridge and up a lane. The second right is taken, I think it’s even signed for Moel Siabod, and a steady climb starts up a tarmacked single lane road. After a while a diversion is directed to avoid the farm which is at the end of the lane, this briefly winds up before rejoining the road beyond the farm. Over a stile the route passes through several fields (full of sheep/lambs at this time of year). It was around now the light steadily started to fade and light rain began to fall.

Steady ascent through fields in light rain and fading light

After a little while we came to an obvious ridge line down off Moel Siabod, from which we would later descend, that we avoided and continued on the trail to the first of the lakes on the route. As we reached the end of this first lake, the rain became stronger, we moved up into the clouds and with this the light went completely, head torches were switched on, waterproofs were put on and we started ascending again.

With several sections of boggy ground and now thick cloud (made worse by the torches) the route became difficult in places to follow, and with only about half a mile to the ridge we found ourselves unable to follow the path further and switched to a compass to guide us down towards the lake (that we almost walked into… whoops!), where we knew another path should be that would lead us more directly to the base of the ridge. By this point the topic of trying to find decent place to pitch the tents was high on the agenda, with the ground incredibly boggy by the lake and strong winds making setting up on higher more exposed grounds a bad idea, we decided to go a in between and look for some shelter just higher off the ridge.

After around 15 minutes of walking together in a line around the base of the ridge we found a suitable spot, with some shelter from the wind offered by a rocky outcrop. After “a couple” drinks we tried to get some sleep. It was now I really regretted throwing the Thermarest out to keep my pack weight low, the ground was freezing and it took quite some time to get comfortable, I’ll not be making that mistake for a while.

Tents pitched at the base of the Daear Ddu ridge

Waking up fairly late after a surprisingly good night sleep we packed up and looked up the ridge to the summit. The first section was really simple stuff although there were a few options we picked that were noticeably harder than the main route up, and more so with heavy packs on that made balance difficult. But it’s mainly good fun and quite a lot simpler/less sustained than other grade 1 scrambles nearby, confirming it as an introduction to scrambling which I’d read on the Internet/in guide books prior. After about 1/3 of the ridge is complete, things open up and the scrambling fades into a trail that snakes its way up through scattered rock, with some spots you could climb a little if you really tried.

The summit is a small rocky outcrop on the Western corner of a plateau, by now there were other groups with us, so we quickly walked up to the trig point, turned on our heels and looked for the way down. Down from the summit you follow the obvious broad ridge down to the East over rocky undulating ground. We moved fairly quickly at first and then I stopped to talk to a group of other walkers, one of whom struck up conversation about my pack/trousers, who turned out to be from Snow + Rock on a long weekend testing gear, who kindly gave me a Mammut baseball cap… result! Back with the other two we continued over the ridge and downward over easy ground.

There’s quite a few rocky steps, as is usual for a route like this, and on one about half way down my knee emitted a loud crack, I winced and hoped it was nothing. The rest of the descent was uncomfortable and my knee continued to hurt on the rocky steps, guess I’m getting a little older! Anyhow, there’s nothing tricky coming down and soon the ridge becomes more grassy until it descends down towards a broken up rock wall which you pass aiming diagonally right, to meet the path we’d taken in and walk back out.

The route taken is well worth taking, but our walk in at night in thick cloud without prior knowledge of where to pitch was far from ideal, we learnt plenty that night! I’d definitely suggest going light and completing the route quickly as the guide books suggest instead of the more leisurely way we came at this. The scramble is, as most guides suggest, really simple and would make sense as an introduction to scrambling. Given the fantastic grade 1s close by (Snowdon Horseshoe, Tryfan North Ridge, Bristly Ridge, Crib Lem Spur) I’d be hard pressed to advise on Daear Ddu ridge first unless you’re keen on taking things slowly and getting a feel for scrambling. However, the ridge itself is fun, there’s less crowds on here the the other well known routes nearby and you still get that fantastic setting, that’s usual for North Wales. On the practical side, I can add another wild camp to the list and learnt plenty from approaching this too casually in changeable conditions. From a light-hearted point of view we’re still laughing about seeing each other sink in the boggy ground in the dark/rain and then pulling each out.

There’s a full set of images from the Moel Siabod wild camp/walk available on my Flickr.

Next up will depend on the weather but a longer route in the Lake District or climbing in the Peak District look fairly promising. I’ve also nearly become “comfortable” in my new pair of climbing shoes so I’ll do a bit of a review in the coming weeks as to how they’re getting on.

Seeing the weather looked good for Snowdonia in mid September it didn’t take long to decide a day out was in order. All Summer I’d wanted to take a look at the Crib Lem Spur on Carnedd Dafydd and with good weather, a route in the Carneddau would also be a perfect to escape the crowds. So I was up at 4:30am on Saturday the 12th, to drive over to Snowdonia, where I parked in a space in Gerlan (it’s a small part of Bethesda you reach by going West on the A5, driving down a tiny road past mining cottages and then at a sharp right going back up the hill). Out on the road, you just follow it and then over a couple of styles into open ground…

Into the Cwm the path goes from clambering over rocks in boggy ground to a nice easy faint trail. There was one opening to the right I passed which I almost considered but it’s fairly obvious from mid way in the walk that the huge outcrop off Carnedd Dafydd is the Crib Lem Spur. Best piece of information from the Cicerone book was to look for an area with large boulders, with a view up to Carnedd Dafydd like this…

The walk up where I pointed to in the video is actually quite steep and with the sun not hitting the rock yet it was a little slippery on the looser sections. Not much fun. But anyway after a steepish start/middle it flattens out and you quickly ascend around the corner of the crag and up. Then it’s as though you hit a wall where you could climb higher but the trail seemed to take me to the left naturally and there’s an obvious grassy platform going up back out toward the valley, which is what you want to follow. Reaching the end of the spur by taking this you then need to ascend a section of steep grass and some small rocky scrambles to make it to the start of the climbing proper…

As explained by the video above, I stuck to the crest throughout and had fun doing so. There is however a decent trail that runs through the scramble that you can almost always drop down to if you don’t fancy climbing it all. The scrambling is mostly simply stuff, although as usual I perhaps didn’t do things the easy way a couple of times and so found a few moves more demanding, but nothing too bad. Whilst not quite the quality of what you’ll find in the Glyders, the setting of this scramble is great and you’ll feel very much on your own, unlike the other classics which become very crowded. Descent would be fine through the scramble although the walking either side is a little steep and over some loose rock, so if you’re not keen on scree be aware of that.

Up on top of Carnedd Dafydd I started to see I wasn’t quite so alone on the mountain with people littered across the ridge. Picking up my pace I was soon over at Pen yr Ole Wen and then back over Carnedd Dafydd before a short stop to drink a little more, eat a cereal bar and look at the spur from the side.

I carried on the fairly long ridge walk toward Carnedd Llewellyn where I met another walker intending on a similar list of peaks. On top of Carnedd Llewellyn, with clouds coming in and drinks in particular running low I decided it would be best to just ascend Yr Elen then descend back toward Bethesda, so we walked out together, descending via Yr Elen’s North Ridge that I’ve been up a couple of times this year, which again is a tiny bit steep but nothing tricky at all.

It was a fantastic day and great to finally check out what turns out to be a good, fun route in the Carneddau. I’m not rushing to go back but it makes for a nice change from the more crowded peaks/routes in the region and so is well worth doing. I was a little disappointed to not see the 3000s I’m yet to ascend, but the day felt fairly long and the weather did close in when we descended, so I guess I wouldn’t have seen much of them had I carried on. My watch recorded (most of) the day at over 8hrs, more than 13 miles of walking and with over 5,000ft of altitude gain, so a pretty good day out! With a lot of running coming up (I’m preparing for the New York Marathon) I may be a little quiet for walking in the coming month or so, which means a couple of posts relating to bits from my past, but don’t be too surprised to see photos/videos of me being battered by sideways rain on Snowdon… you can’t beat it.

Once again, let me know what you think to the videos and slightly shorter version of the post (it’s meant I could get this up a lot quicker). Cheers, Ian.

With the solstice weekend, came the promise of good weather for Snowdonia. So plans were made for a very similar trip to the one I’d undertaken on my own. Then the weather turned at the last minute to low/thick cloud cover so we delayed our start, and began our ascent of Tryfan at 10:30am on 20th June.

This time the climb was made in changing visibility and occasional rain, that made it more like my first time on the mountain. As we were both happy on the terrain, we eschewed the path at almost every opportunity we had to scramble. My alarm hadn’t gone off, so I’d set off late and had to have breakfast in the layby. The brioche I hastily consumed down at the foot of the mountain made me feel quite queasy going up, but the fun scrambling soon helped me feel fine.

It was the first time I’d completed the North ridge properly, as on previous days I’d always ended up on the East face coming up one of the gullys. This time we stuck to main ridge, following the crowds and had great fun despite some very wet and polished holds.

All too soon we’d made it to the summit, where we grabbed a quick drink/snack and laughed at the ironic cheers from those sat up on top, when a tiny amount of sun broke through the clouds.

Looking back to Tryfan from the start of Sinister Gully.

After a descent off the Southern ridge of Tryfan, we were soon ascending again beside a stone wall and then off to the side to the start of the scramble up Glyder Fach via Bristly Ridge.

The Route – “Bristly Ridge” ascent of Glyder Fach

You can either approach the start of the scramble which begins in Sinister Gully (cool name, no?) by following the trail up to the side of the wall and then going across 10 metres to the right (as we did) or up an obvious scree slope directly to find the gap, neither are tricky so it comes down to your preference.

The gully is between 1/2 metres wide in most places and has a fair amount of loose rock on the floor, so care is needed as you traverse inside the gully, that you don’t cover those behind you in rocks.

The climbing isn’t too tricky but it requires you to be confident. As we entered the gully, we spotted a group using a rope (likely a course I guess) which we thought was odd but given conditions it was sensible for people not used to the terrain. Most sections benefit greatly from being on one side of the wall you’re climbing, so have a quick think before rushing headlong at the next problem… which admittedly I sometimes do!

This time it being wet certainly made the gully more of a challenge and it showed, with several people slipping quite badly around me. The route was really busy with quite a queue forming, but quite why people insist on being so close to the person infront is beyond me, there were several points when I was worried a few people were going to end up falling into each other and down the gully. Maybe I’m different but I talk to people around me on routes, especially when it’s busy, as it seems courteous to me to warn those around you of problems or for example if you cross loose rock above them.

Helping point out holds to the next person coming up the gully.

Upon reaching the top, I was a bit shocked to see splatters of blood on the rocks and then the owner of the blood, a chap who’d slipped on the route and had cut above his eye quite nastily, a further reminder how serious it can be.

The gully is the most technical part of the route though, so once you’ve exited it there’s just a couple more decent pitches and exposure left to challenge you, the rest is really just a lot of fun. It’s a case of sticking as close to the top of the ridge as possible and enjoying yourself. Often a small path is available that sidesteps a problem, but there’s nothing as tricky as before in the gully so stick at it. And on the occasions when you look over a spike to a big drop, needles to say that’s not the way, so check to the side a bit for a decent and easy climb down.

Ascending Bristly Ridge to the summit of Glyder Fach

The route sadly has to end but it does so gracefully, coming up on top of Glyder Fach and fading as a line of rocks that point toward to the rocky summit and the Cantilever (see photo on Wikipedia article on Glyder Fach to see what this). We carried on to sit near the top for another drink, before scrambling over Castell Y Gwynt and then down the Cribin Ridge (listed as a Grade 1 scramble, we took a line off the main ridge which was okay for descent but not much fun) to enjoy views back from where we’d been over over Tryfan and Glyder Fach to our right, and the Carneddau infront.

Tryfan’s West face from the Cribin Ridge.

At the moment, Bristly Ridge when combined with Tryfan’s North Ridge is my favourite route in the UK. Doing it in wet conditions amongst a crowd showed me another side to the route, one that’s more challenging and also worrying, with too many people caught out of their comfort zone. But enough of the serious talk, the gully is great fun and the ridge airy enough at times to make you double check your footing. And the setting whether it was clear as before, or this time with clouds breaking around, is simply stunning. This is not a route to be rushed, get up early and enjoy it!

More information

Always carry my cicerone guide to “Scrambling in Snowdonia” by Steve Ashton which I’d recommend you’d take for any route in the area. I also posted links to details of scrambling on Tryfan/Glyder Fach on my previous day on the route.

Note: The first, third and fourth photos used in this article were taken by my scrambling partner for the day (Adele). So big thank you to her for letting me use the action shots!

Kit

With a steady trail and some grassy sections in store for the day, I decided to give my Sportiva Nepal Evo GTX boots I’d bought for the Alps, their first outing on the hills. Apart from that it was the usual, with a few extra bits of clothing in case cloud cover/wind picked up and made things cold up high. The route on a nice day whilst a little muddy in sections doesn’t really need any kit; my friend was comfortable in her day to day trainers and jeans.

Route

The first challenge is to find the car park! I’d used a Pathfinder guidebook (18 Brecon Beacons and Glamorgan) for the route and eventually found the single lane track out South of Brecon (easier to find if enter Brecon via the roundabout that’s South-West of the town) by a pub called the Drovers Arms. After that by following signs for a training camp and sticking to what appears to be the main “road”, we reached a National Trust car park.

After walking up the road through the car park, the main path is clearly visible straight ahead, instead we went to the left down into a wooded area to  cross the river (via a bridge). Up the bank and then through some undergrowth, we soon found the beginning of a trail along the side of the hillside now infront. This carries on a little way until things open up to your right and you’re at a wall and gate. If you can avoid going up to the gate, then stay up high and turn right into Cwm Sere, there is a path down by the wall but it was boggy, whereas the one starting about 10-15m to the side is much better. Into the cwm are fantastic views of Cribyn, which is quite some way from where you begin the walk in.

The boggy path to the left, the better path is faint to the top right.

And from then on it’s a case of just enjoying the walk in, with fantastic views all around until the path begins to drop down to the side of the river. Then it’s a case of working out how you want to make your way up to meet the Northern ridge of Cribyn.

The ascent up to the ridge is quite steep, and by far the most difficult part of route physically. My stiff boots (rated B3) meant side to side traversing over some sections before I relented and re-laced them looser to allow more flex around the top. And then onto the ridge, which is pretty dramatic due to the gradient when approached, even if it’s not at all exposed to the sides for the person walking it.

From the top of Cribyn, the views back down into the cwm and over toward Pen y Fan are fantastic. So good that the blustery wind on top didn’t bother us as we sat enjoying lunch, watching small clouds race overhead. The rest of the walk from there on is made up of a steady ascent of Pen y Fan, which we did with constant changes in temperature as the clouds/wind took away the heat of the sun off us. The summit itself whilst a little dull through being flat, has fantastic views in all directions (if you get the weather) and being accessible attracts large numbers that crowd the top. From the summit the main trail is obvious when looking North, which is easy going apart from a small stretch of rocky ground just below the top.

Walking in the Brecon Beacons was a nice change of scenery from my now regular Snowdonia outings, and reminded me just how many fantastic places there are in the UK for me to get out and explore. The route was scenic and whilst I wouldn’t call it difficult, my legs told me I’d done a decent walk when I woke up the next day. So whilst it may be a little while until I return, I’m really looking forward to my next walk in the Brecon Beacons.

Finally, if you’re wonderiing why I called the route “Mini”, it’s because the guidebook suggests carrying on to Corn Du before heading back, we decided to make our way to the car park from the top of Pen y Fan.

Knowing that a nice day in Snowdonia = crowds, I decided to make things more interesting by getting to the mountain before or as close to sunrise on the mountain (sunrise being at just after 4am at this time of year…). So a plan was hastily formed to wake up just after 1am and go for the North Ridge of Tryfan (grade 1 scramble) and then up Bristly Ridge to Glyder Fach (grade 1/2 scramble), before legions of walkers ascended the peaks.

Kit

Unlike previous weekends when I’d weighted a pack down, I decided to go much lighter this time. So a couple of litres of water, some food, sunglasses and waterproof if the good weather turned rainy/windy. Having worn my new Sportiva Nepal Evos the weekend before up Pen y Fan on soft ground, I decided to wear them again to see how they coped on rock. Whilst not suited to scrambling, they ended up performing well; fit continues to get better and impress me more.

Route

Stringing together the North Ridge of Tryfan and Bristly Ridge up Glyder Fach is one of the more famous continued scrambles in Snowdonia, so documenting it is pointless. The Cicerone guide to scrambling in North Wales does a great job of covering the route and then there’s lots of websites covering each (listed at the end).

Arriving at 4:40am I quickly got changed and took a couple of photos to prove I’d made it to start so early. When I arrived there was only one other car in the layby, my plan had worked and I’d have the mountain almost to myself.

The ascent itself isn’t too demanding and route finding a breeze for the most part, you soon gain height and there’s plenty of options to make it more tricky (i.e. fun) if you want to.

As I started to make may way up onto what is a very broad North Ridge, the sun started to creep up over the Glyders, striking the shattered rock around me (and a group of goats who were up early too) to make the setting really breathtaking.

After finding a band of quartz and then moving up and slightly to the right I was at “The Cannon”. To my surprise I found the owner of the other car in the layby, wild camping just below the outcrop, which made me jump a bit as I’d got quite used to having the whole mountain to myself.

Reaching the summit just before 7am I hauled myself up the first summit pillar, had a bit of breakfast, took some photos and then with it being quite cold exposed to the wind, down-climbed (making a mess of it and hurting my ribs doing so, too early, doh!) and sat in a more sheltered area briefly.

Coming down on the South Ridge toward Glyder Fach I was joined unexpectedly by someone I’d chatted with on Twitter for the scramble up Bristly Ridge. Enjoying it so much I didn’t take photos, so I guess I’ll need to go back and do it again…

The two scrambles strung together make for an absolutely stunning time in the Glyders and with the routes so quiet in the early morning the feeling of adventure you often lose to the crowds was retained. I’d probably suggest that Bristly Ridge is my favourite route I’ve yet to scramble in North Wales. I can’t wait to go back and do it again (and document it properly given I like it so much)!

Links to route information

• Fellwalker in East Anglia article on Tryfan North Ridge
• Fellwalker in East Anglia article on Bristly Ridge
• UK Scrambles article on Tryfan North Ridge
• UK Scrambles article on Bristly Ridge

Kit

With showers and occasional gusts expected but nothing too cold I went with my trusted base layer/tshirt, Mountain Equipment Kongur Gore-Tex jacket on top, walking trousers and Scarpa Manta boots (B2 boots more because I wanted to wear them than needing to) combination. Then a light fleece and over trousers in my 43litre pack, if it got particularly cold/windy/wet on the route. My friend also kindly packed the contents of the car footwell in my pack to “help with my training”.

Getting there/The route

If you’re driving then by far the best option (if you can get there early enough) is the car park at Pen y Pas, although with limited places and us setting off from Leicester there was no chance of getting a space. The next best option is to drive down the road back toward Llanberis, look for spaces on the road or head to Nant Peris and make use of the Sherpa Bus park and ride service (cost £4 for a car then £3.50 return to Pen y Pas).

There’s countless sites/books out there that provide a far better and more detailed discussion of the route than I can, so find links to those sites below…

• Snowdon Horseshoe route on Trekking Britain
• Snowdon Horseshoe route on Walking Britain

and I’ll just cover the exciting/interesting parts of the walk on the day.

Quick information

The route is listed at around 7 to 7.5miles, gains over 1150m over the route and should take around 6-7hrs. We got round in around 5:30hrs at a decent pace in good weather. It’s not considered a walk as such but a Grade 1 scramble, which means there could be a fair bit of exposure to heights and you’ll most likely need to use your hands to clamber up rock to complete the route. In bad weather it’s not worth attempting unless you know exactly what you’re doing as terrain is regularly exposed, steep and rocky.

You’ll pick up the summits of Crib Goch (923m), Garnedd Ugain (1065m), Snowdon (1085m) and Y Lliwedd (898m). So 3 of the Welsh 3000s and the highest point in Wales, not bad!

The walk

The initial walk takes you out of the top right of the car park onto the pyg track and ascends at a really nice gradient to get you going. By the time the track divides, with options to go either left to Snowdon or right for Crib Goch, I felt warmed up at the decent pace we’d set off at.

Naturally there was little discussion to be had, we were going via the knife edge ridge of Crib Goch to have some fun scrambling on one of the really famous routes in Snowdonia.

With clear weather and plenty of people going the same way, it was easy enough to follow the path up to the ridge of Crib Goch. Our attempt before we’d gone too far to the right and ended up on more exposed sections of rock. This time we made short work of the scramble up to the start of the ridge.

Once up onto the ridge, I was happy to at last see the summit of Snowdon, after the previous 3 times it was shrouded in clouds/rain.

The ridge itself whilst a little daunting at first, really isn’t too bad, if heights don’t bother you that is! So we took some photos, watched people move slowly like crabs across the ridge and then made our way across the top.

As notes will no doubt mention, if you’re feeling confident of your balance or there’s not much wind then walking on the ridge is no problem, if not then drop down to left (that’d be the Southern side) where you’ll find decent footing and be able to hold onto the crest for extra security. Not that if you were on the ridge you’d consider it, but the right hand side of the ridge is not a good place to go, it’s near vertical and has one hell of a drop! The true summit of Crib Goch is toward the middle of the ridge in an exposed position but with fantastic views, if you miss the cloud/fog.

A small climb down onto a grassy area is soon followed by a scramble up onto another ridge toward the summit of Garnedd Ugain. And then it’s a gradual slope down to meet up with the main trail and alongside it the train track that goes up toward the summit of Snowdon.

After what’s come before the trail is not only really easy going, you’re also in the company of the “prawn sandwich” crew up to the overcrowded summit. Still the view, if you get one, is worth whatever you’ve put up with en-route, which luckily for us on the day was pleasant weather.

After a bit of lunch looking out over the Horseshoe it’s down a steep scree slope to meet up with a path that heads up Y Lliwedd via a fun scramble that perhaps looks worse than it actually is. Coming down back after the summit my knees were feeling less than great, the terrain whilst interesting definitely takes it out of your joints if you’re carrying any weight.

The Snowdon Horseshoe is an amazing route, definitely one to try even if you just do Crib Goch, get to Snowdon then come back down the main trail. The views and sense of adventure you’ll get from the walk are fantastic and probably not matched on other similar options in England/Wales. But, and it’ll be mentioned time and time again, be aware it is exposed up on the ridges and if you’re not keen on heights or have never walked on a ridge before it’s probably best to build up to it or avoid it completely.