Carneddau Summits in the Wind
I had a day’s annual leave on Wednesday so that Rhys and I could head into the hills of North Wales for a walk. It had been windy enough for windsurfing the day before and the wind showed no signs of easing today either, but that wasn’t about to stop us!
Anna had taken a day off as well so as to kindly act as our shuttle service. This meant we could do a point-to-point walk without the need to take two cars and we wouldn’t have to drive backwards and forwards to drop off one car and then retrieve it later in the day. So, the three of us set off from Ynyslas at around 7am for a leisurely drive north to a very remote parking spot at the foot of Drum. The car park really was in the middle of nowhere, but Anna was happy with where she was going for the day and where we’d meet her later. Rhys and I were raring to go.
It was a grey day, very windy and pretty chilly in this exposed car park, even at this relatively low elevation. Rhys and I therefore donned an extra layer, said goodbye to Anna and headed off into the hills. Anna’s plan was to head to Betws y Coed where she would wander around the shop and probably have a coffee and cake and then head to Ogwen Cottage for a walk around Llyn Idwal. We’d hopefully meet her there in about 6 hours time.
Into the Hills
We started off with an easy walk along a double track below some huge electricity pylons. We had some nice views out to Penmon Point at the end of Anglesey and Puffin Island.
The wind was buffeting us about a bit but it didn’t seem too bad here. We then turned left and started climbing the flanks Drosgl alongside a drystone wall. After a short but steep climb things eased off a little in grade as the wind continued to pick up. We did pass someone heading back down. He said he had turned back as he couldn’t make any headway against the wind at the top!! That sounded a little ominous as we had about 12 miles to go all the way into that headwind and now didn’t have a car to return to should we also have to turn back. We continued on anyway – how bad could it be??
We reached the first mini-summit of the day, Drosgl at 621m. Here we traversed across the hillside missing out another little summit (Carnedd y Ddelw) as we headed to the rock shelter on top of Drum (771m), our 2nd summit of the day. Here we met two other people who had also decided it was too windy and were heading back. They wished us luck! We were getting blown around quite a bit and sometimes it was difficult not to get blown sideways as you took a step but we would be on fairly easy ground and rarely close to any precipitous drops so the wind just added to the challenge at the moment.
Next, we had a bit of slog up a longer, steeper section to the top of Foel Fras (944m). This was summit number 3 of the day and our first of the Welsh 3000ft summits today. We were now in the clouds so visibility was pretty poor.
Navigation was easy enough and once we descended a little from the summit we were able to see again. The wind certainly hadn’t eased as we crossed a boggy section on large boulders that had been laid to form a path.
Welsh 3000’s
We would now be traversing across the Carneddau range, bagging several more of the 15 peaks above 3000ft in Wales. There were small dips between each of them and short climbs to the summits but in essence, we would be staying at around 3000ft with a number of ups to the summits peaking at 3494ft.
Not long after the first of these at Foel Fras it started raining so we sheltered behind a rock to put on our waterproof jackets. I was travelling light today so only had a thin shell with me but it helped keep me dry and kept the wind at bay somewhat. It was howling up here. We couldn’t hear each other over the wind even when stood next to each other shouting. We were just about able to communicate when needed. Occasionally in the dips there might be a short respite where we could have a bit of a chat.
The next summit bagged was Ganredd Uchaf (925m), soon followed by Foel Grach (976m). We did have a few views down to the reservoir of Llyn Dulyn between the clouds. The earlier rain had cleared a little and any short showers that came through were quick to pass in the howling wind. We stopped for lunch in the shelter of a large rocky outcrop on the flanks of Carnedd Llewelyn. The sun actually came out as we sat behind the rocks eating so we had expansive views down to Llyn Melynllyn and Llyn Dulyn where a couple of farmers were driving around on quads and then out across the whole of North East Wales.
The Rocky Carneddau
The ground had been mainly grassy slopes with the odd rocky summit most of the way, but after lunch, we climbed higher towards the Carneddau proper and soon found ourselves rockhopping over boulder fields. It was still relatively easy going. From the high point of the day at the summit of Carneddau Llewelyn (1064m) we had some nice views down the valley towards Bethesda and we could pick out the Crib Lem ridge that we had scrambled a few years ago. The weather seemed to be clearing a little at last. I don’t think the wind had eased but we had at least gotten used to it and as it was more head-on than a sidewind now it was actually a little easier.
We stuck to the ridge line and made sure to take in the rocky summit at Ysgolion Duon (960m) and then clambered over the rock fields to the shelter at the summit of Carnedd Dafydd (1044m). We met another guy here who had come up from Llyn Ogwen, he of course commented on the wind!
Next, it was an easy traverse across to the barely noticeable summit of Carnedd Fach (960m) and then up to an equally indistinct summit at Pen yr Ole Wen (978m). That was the 10th summit of the day and the 8th above 3000ft. Not bad going! Here’s the full list from SummitBag.com.
Descent
From this final summit it was a relatively straight-forward descent down the eastern side of Pen yr Ole Wen. We did find a few rocky bits for some -down-scrambling as well and then had fun crossing the various streams at the bottom. There were some nice views out across Llyn Ogwen to the imposing pyramid of Tryfan too
We soon found ourselves at lake level where we strolled along the edge of the lake along the road and met Anna at the Ogwen Cottage car park. A good day out in the hills with no mishaps.
Anna’s day had gone to plan as well with a mooch around the shops in Betws y Coed along with what sounded like a very nice hot salted caramel brownie and a coffee. This was followed by a nice walk around Llyn Idwal and then some chilling in the car reading her book.
I can’t wait for the next adventure in the hills now. Summer is supposed to return for the weekend, so I’m half tempted to head back up to tick off a couple more of the Welsh 3000’s.
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[…] has just sent me some photos from our walk on Wednesday So, here’s a few more photos from the […]
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[…] finished my blog post about a walk in the Carneddau Hills with Rhys last Wednesday by […]
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[…] had a couple of nice days driving to and walking in both the Carneddau and the Glyders in North Wales, I thought it was time to return to sea level and drive to South […]
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Crazy mad fool as always !