More Nuttalls on the Yr Wyddfa Horseshoe
Having climbed Crib Goch and summited Yr Wyddfa last Sunday, I couldn’t resist doing it again on Friday. The weather was still glorious, and Morgan wanted to do it, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to head back to Eryri for another mountain adventure.
There was a big ultra-trail marathon over the weekend, though. It started on Friday and would cross our intended route, with warnings that it would be impossible to find anywhere to park. So, Morgan and I set off early — and luckily found a space without any issues. Kitted up, we headed off along an easy trail to the Pen-y-Pass car park and then set off at a decent pace along the Pyg Track to the base of Crib Goch. After a few photos, we stashed our walking poles on our backpacks and started the climb.
Morgan soon got into the hang of things and seemed to be enjoying it. There were a few other people about, but not many, as we climbed ever higher towards the main ridge of Crib Goch. The views were, once again, amazing in all directions.
At the top of the ridge, we both kept low and to the left-hand side where it’s a little safer, scrambling our way along. We stopped now and then for photos or to take in the views — but not for long and not often, as it’s not really the place to hang about, especially for those of us without much of a head for heights.
We scrambled down to the grassy col of Bwlch Coch after the ridge and, after a break, headed up with more scrambling to Crib y Ddysgl. We stopped here for lunch and to take photos of the views — and then Spider-Man appeared! He’d just climbed Crib Goch as well, presumably with ease compared to us! He’s been raising money for charities over the past couple of years by climbing Yr Wyddfa numerous times — over 200 ascents last year and 74 already this year.
After a few photos with Spidey, we headed down to Bwlch Glas and then up to the summit of Yr Wyddfa for more photos at the trig point and a quick visit to the café. So far, this was an action replay of my route from last Friday. We’d already bagged 3 Nuttalls — Crib Goch (923 m), Crib y Ddysgl (1065 m), and Yr Wyddfa (1085 m) — plus a couple of other summits on SummitBag: Bwlch Goch (858 m) and Bwlch Glas (998 m).
From here, we headed somewhere new. Rather than returning via the Pyg Track, we descended the Watkin Path for a while before scrambling up to Y Lliwedd. I’ve never been along this side of the horseshoe before, so the three peaks of Y Lliwedd were new to me — and all are Nuttalls: Y Lliwedd (898 m), Y Lliwedd East Top (893 m), and Lliwedd Bach (818 m). It was getting a little windy up here now, but the views were still stunning. There was some enjoyable scrambling too, with no obvious route most of the time but plenty of good rock to explore. The views back to Yr Wyddfa and across to Crib Goch were especially impressive.
Most people head down to Llyn Llydaw and follow the Miners’ Track to complete the circuit, but with another Nuttall on the horizon we set off towards Gallt y Wenallt for our final summit of the day. This took us across pleasant, undulating grassy tops that are normally quite boggy. Today, it was dry underfoot and we passed plenty of potential campspots — not that we needed one.
From the top of Gallt y Wenallt (619 m), we could see our car in the distance and a long way below us. We descended steeply along a ridge to the plateau, then down to the large pipeline that crosses the hillside here. Finally, we dropped steeply over tricky ground to Cwm Dyli Power Station, fed by that very pipeline.
This descent brought us below our car, but it was still the easiest route back. After crossing the bridge over Afon Glaslyn, we followed an easy track back uphill to the car.
All in all, it had been a great day out. The weather was perfect, we’d bagged 7 Nuttalls — four of them new — and Morgan had climbed Crib Goch. We’d covered almost 10 miles and were suitably tired. We stopped off in Machynlleth on the way home to treat ourselves to a takeaway dinner. Another perfect day in the mountains.
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Must have been nice to have Morgan along for company
Yep, he enjoys it really!! 🙂