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Uk.Rec.Walking, Meeting No: 12, Snowdonia -
26th/28th July 2002
Camping at Rhyd-Ddu, with walks up the Nantlle ridge and
Aberglaslyn gorge.
Paul
Saunders I love Campsites |
Setting
up camp I suppose I have to do some walking |
Bill
Grey, Roger Chapman & Paul Saunders It's early 70's - and is well cool [no joke] |
||
Ian
arrives Plenty of supplies |
In
the Cwellyn Arms (Steveo & Ian Ellis) Why does this pub have an irritating noise |
David
Laight I think I'll get drunk - my legs are f***** |
||
Working
out the route Just looking at this map has tired me out |
Simon
Edwardes &
Tim Jackson Do we know where we're going |
Map
of Snowdonia Somewhere by there |
||
The
start of the walk (Y Garn) Here we go |
The
first stop Get out of the way |
Roger
Chapman & Tim Jackson Still can't see the top |
||
Chris
Boughay & Chris Lewis These sticks are good - [I want some] |
Roger It makes it less misty by doing this |
Anthony
Dyer What |
||
Simon
Edwardes - Jhimmy in background Hey, I'll tell you something |
A
sheeps placenta That afterbirth looks nice |
Newborn
Lamb Who am I and what am I doing here |
||
On
the top of the mountain! And where's my frigging afterbirth gone |
Roger
again Hello little lamb, I've seen it |
Stuart
Baldwin & Simon Edwardes Tal-y-mignedd Do we have to climb this to bag the peak |
||
View
from Mynydd Tal-y-mignedd A view |
Craig
Cwm Silyn  A scramble |
Vince
Bell & Chris Boughay  Is Ian a nutcase trying to climb that |
||
Working
out the end of the walk The much debated Mynydd Graig Goch |
Burgers
& sausages  The midge deterrent |
Bill
Grey Nice tasting midge deterrent |
||
Nigel
Saunders (me) from Bill's Photos of the meet I need more tea |
At
the bbq being attacked by midges Is that b**** Paul still going on about the ridge |
1:30
am Sunday morning No camping trip is complete without ....... |
||
For the video of the trip
windows media version - 352x288,
right click on the link below (and save target as)
WM version
Some more Photos are at Bill's site
Here are the trip reports
For the full reports
(inc camping) click on these links below
Read
these the main nantlle ridge walk sections below Nigel Saunders (me) We began the main walk up a tarmac road then took a left to go up Y Garn, we started to string out quite quickly, with Vince taking the lead. All of a sudden this  big baldy
bloke who looked about 16 stone came passed
us at arapid pace and although we didn't try to keep up, we did go faster. The bloke was flying and we were making jokes that when he got out of sight he would probably collapse :-) We soon had a rest to let the others catch up and then realised that we had been going too fast because there were no drivers with us - we needed do decrease our pace. |
It was windy and once we got into the mist
it also became damp, I
found the walking cool but it got very cold quickly when you
stopped. At the
top we had a rest and something to eat, the view was non existent
though and
was a gutter because we knew that it is supposed to be
spectacular in the
right conditions.
The rest of the walk consisted of a lot of mist and a lot of
wind, but the
rock formations and scrambling along the ridge was 1st class and
it's an
excellent walk, view/mist or not. At one point I saw a sheep with
a tiny
little lamb and I thought to myself 'how the h*** did that lamb
get up
here', a very short time later I saw the placenta/afterbirth and
we had a
good few jokes about whether to eat it or not. When we carried on
and said
goodbye to the lamb I did feel a bit worried about it.
In the deep mist at one point the path seemed to split and half
the group
went one way leaving me and Jhimmy a bit confused, it looked like
a 'some of
us getting lost situation', so we decided to wait for Chris.
After a while
waiting and shouting out a bit, I decided that the Chris's group
must have
headed up the other path so we also went up (the same way as the
original
group who split from us). When we got to the top and found the
1st split
group, we also found that Chris was not there. On the way down I
decided to start shouting to see if the Chris's group could hear
me, I had
success, they did heard me shouting and doubled back up (they had
gone off
track). When they got up they then had to walk the opposite way
to get to
the peak, which we didn't mind :-)
When we set off again Anthony (I think) informed us that he'd
'heard there would be
great views by here', just after he had said that the mist seemed
to
disappear and we got our best views of the day and after being in
the mist
for so long it was kind of breathtaking. We then went up to
Mynydd
Tal-y-mignedd and had our main food break, we also had some
sunshine here
and more good views.
I found the decent from Mynydd Tal-y-mignedd steep and hard
going,
especially without any sticks. The start of the accent to Craig
Cwm Silyn
was a very good scramble that reminded me something like Tryfan
(but much
shorter). Chris managed to get up the grade 2 part, but only Ian
(out of the
rest of us) decided to also give it a try. After the scramble
part it was
rocky all the way up and went on for ages, me and Jhimmy stopped
for a rest
and Roger passed us. I then took a different route left and I
pushed the pace
to the top giving my legs and lungs a good workout. I reached the
top and
went past the cairn to relieve myself. When I went back to the
cairn Roger
was just arriving and got confused because it looked like I'd
reached the
top from a totally different/opposite direction :-)
We stopped at the top of Craig Cwm Silyn for a while, then it was
nearly all
downhill back. On the way back Simon - one of our drivers, wanted
to do
Graig Goch, he almost persuaded me because if one of us had gone
with him
there would have been 10 left so they could have fitted into two
cars. The
mist on Graig Goch was really bad though so Simon decided to
leave it. I
once again wished I had a pair of sticks because the downhill
back seemed to
drag on and on and my legs felt tired.
Here
for Nigel's full Trip Report
--------------------------
Roger Chapman's
Tim did indeed arrive at the campsite within a few
seconds of the
appointed time and the drivers were soon away to park the cars at
the
designated car park. The remaining walkers were somewhat tardy in
leaving the campsite but we needn't have worried. The transport
squad
took far longer than I (at least) expected and we had a long wait
sitting on the wall near the pub. The wait did at least give me
the
opportunity to ask the Landlord about the campsite water - mains
water,
perfectly safe to drink.
Twelve of us eventually set off and we stayed together along the
short
road section and the flatish field that followed but on the steep
climb
up Y Garn the party became rather more strung out. Much against
my
better judgement I changed up a gear in order to keep up with the
advance guard but after the first long wait I changed my tactics
and
stayed near the back until the first summit was reached. By then
we were
well into the cloud and the mizzle was sufficient to make me put
on my
jacket and take of my glasses.
I found the ridge that followed surprisingly airy with very often
an
apparently vertical drop on the right hand side made more
impressive
perhaps by the mist that blocked out any sight of the ground
below. The
route was as much walk as scramble and nowhere particularly
difficult
although the rock was wet and slippery which did occasionally
give cause
for concern. In any event the difficulties were all avoidable
although
some of us sought out the harder options. Several time a group of
us
found ourselves considerably in advance of the others but while
the
composition of this group did not always remain the same it never
included any of the drivers so we had to wait from time to time
for the
others to catch up.
Mostly it was just a matter of bumbling along in the mist
following the
most obvious line but on the approach to Mynydd Drws-y-Coed the
leading
pair ignored my shouted cheerio and continued to traverse round
the peak
while Tim and I followed the ridge. Some (most?) of the rest of
the
party made the same mistake and some even arrived at the summit
from the
opposite direction.
On the descent from that summit some bright spark informed us
that their
guide book said that the following col was a great view point. As
we
were in thick mist at the time this was greeted with some
derision but
low and behold as we reached the col we dropped out of the cloud
and
conditions became pleasant for a period. I think I am right in
saying
that that col was the only place on the whole walk where we
weren't
bothered by the wind.
We were promised a tower on the next summit (Mynydd
Tal-y-mignedd) built
to commemorate Queen Victorias jubilee (or some such non event)
and I
was expecting something on the lines of Stoodly Pike but all we
got was
a grotty pillar about 6 foot square and 15 foot high. We had
lunch in
the rocks below the pillar at least partly out of the wind. I
spent most
of this time looking at the continuation over Craig Cwm Silyn
(which was
out of the mist at this time) the bottom section of which
appeared to be
a craggy outcrop of some width. To the right of this I thought I
saw 2
orange tents. According to Simon (who had a pair of binoculars)
they
were in fact 2 groups of people, some of whom had orange anoraks.
Rumour
had it that there was a grade 2 scramble up the craggy outcrop.
Lunch being over we continued and on the surprisingly steep
descent to
Bwlch Dros-bern we met the orange tents coming the other way -
mostly a
party of children.
Our whole party assembled beneath the craggy outcrop and as no
one
appeared to want to try the grade 2 scramble which went up left
hand
side I tried out an easier line up the centre which most followed
but
several sneaked round the path on the right hand side and Chris
belatedly took the difficult scramble.
It was then just a steady plod to the windswept summit which by
now was
again buried in clag. Part way up I passed Nigel and one of the
others
when they stopped for a rest but somehow Nigel managed to bypass
me
without being seen and reach the summit from the opposite
direction just
before I arrived.
A boring tramp across a flatish ridge eventually brought us to
what
turned out to be the final summit of the day. From there whoever
was in
charge of the navigation led us down by a wall and as soon as we
broke
out of the cloud Simon expressed a wish to do Pauls favourite
peak but
no one else was keen to do it and we eventually persuaded
him not
to bother. Perhaps if he had made his wishes known somewhat
earlier he
might have had more support. The routes should have diverged on
the
summit of Garnedd Goch, not some way away and below the linking
col.
Navigation to the same high standard continued to the end with
the wrong
path being followed off the hill followed by a diversion back to
the
proper line only to find that the ROW went straight through a
rather
unpleasant bog. We took the easy option of skirting round it, and
so
back to the cars. My GPS batteries expired before the end of the
walk so
I don't know precisely how long we took but I do know we were
still on
the ridge and some way from the end at the time I told Paul I was
sure
we would be back by (4.30 pm). Here for Roger Chapman's full Tr
--------------------------
Jhimmy's
The campsite for Expedition 12 was not easy to find. I was
greeted there by
Roger, Bill, Paul and Nigel. Eventually the rest appeared one by
one. We
had a good, if expensive drink in the pub, some of the meals were
(coughs) a
bit expensive so I didn't get anything.
Saturday 27th July.
The Nantlle ridge was, er, very cloudy, apart from Mynydd
Tal-y-mignedd
where we eat lunch. The mixture of wet, thick cloud (what
else is cloud?)
slippery rock and large drops made parts of the ridge very
nervous for many
of us. I'm really starting to get interested in GPS now. At least
I'd have
known where the hell we were most of the time! Simon seemed
intent on going
to Mynydd Graig Goch, but all the rest just wanted to get
down. I think
Simon was disappointed, but the cloud just put a dampner on the
whole walk.
Back at campsite, it was drizzling and a Barbecue looked
unlikely, but about
7 pm it brightened up and the cooking did begin. However,
unexpected vistors
turned up. Midges! And they bite. Not as bad as
MacMidge, but I've still
got a few bite marks around the ankle 2 days later. Paul
has a fasination
for geordies and kept asking me loads of questions, even his beer
was a
"Broon Ale" and by the end of the night he could be
heard saying "Why aye
man", "drink ya toon broon doon". Went to
bed at 11pm
Sunday 28th July.
Up at 6am, The expedition members left a load of rubbish at the
Barbie!!!!!!! So I picked it up. Also, someone left a
good alpine stove
lying on the ground and a fish corkscrew! Drunken lot - tut
tut;-) Soon
packed up and went. Totally exhausted back home, I
slept like a log.
Monday 29th July
I'm itching all over my ankles as those pesky midges have eaten
chucks out
of me. Downloaded Nigel's video - it's great!!! Just
realised that I
enjoyed myself! Here
for Jhimmy's full Tr
--------------------------
Paul Saunder's
Once Tim Jackson arrived from his nearby comfortable
lodgings, the group set off into the mist, ne'er to see the sun
again that
day...
Around 10am the lazy bunch started thinking about doing
something. I'd been
checking out a few short easy walks and we decided on a river
walk from the
Aberglaslyn Pass to Beddgelert. Myself, Bill, David Laight,
Fran & co.
headed off, initially to Porthmadog since Fran was desperate for
petrol.
At the Aberglaslyn car park we read the warning signs that said
the railway
tunnels had been closed and the route now followed the
"Fisherman's Path".
This was apparently "dangerous and difficult" in
places. The path was a
little rough but mostly okay and there were plenty of other
people following
it. Here for Paul Saunder's
full Tr
--------------------------
Bill Grey's
I can't speak for the Nantlle ridge walk as I didn't do it,
but I gather
from those that did - it was excellent. A real shame about the
low
cloud/mist if only for the sightseeing side of things.
Paul, David, Fran & Co plus me did an alternative low-level
walk from
Pont Aberglaslyn to Beddgelert and back.
Here
for Bill Grey's full Tr
--------------------------
David Laight's
From camp site on edge of Beddgelert up far side of lake to
bottom of the Watkin pass. Up the pass to the S rim, turn
right
along the ridge (away from snowdon) until the path decended down
to the causeway across Llyn Llydaw. Wondeered which was the
best
way back (now 5pm since I hadn't started until almost 1pm),
decided to turn left along the miners path and ascend snowden
itself.
Arrived 7pm, descended via S ridge towards Yr Aran then back down
to the Watkin path and finally the road back to the camp site.
Here for
David Liaght's full Tr