Sunday 8th March 2009
The evening before this walk I really didn’t want to do anything. It wasn’t that it was a difficult walk, it was simply because the weather was lousy the previous day. It had rained all day and I wasn’t in the mood for a repeat performance. Nevertheless I parked in the picturesque tourist village of Beddgelert and started to walk even as it started to rain again. The prospect for the day did not seem good, but I was still prepared to go out there, if only because I had nothing better to do. In the event, the weather cleared and by the time I was coming back down from the mountain the sun had come out and it was turning into a glorious day for a great walk. The rain didn’t last long as I walked up the road and turning left, I crossed the river and under the new narrow gauge railway. As the farm road climbed the hillside the railway climbed with me, crossing my path on a level crossing not once, but twice as it snaked up the hill. Beyond the second level crossing I passed a farm and turning right to enter open country.
I previously did this walk in 2004 on a crowded August bank holiday weekend. I had walked up Moel Siabod in the morning and then drove over to Beddgelert and walked up Moel Hebog. The weather had been very good and the views were just as good. During this walk, however, the weather was not so good, but the views were just as good as before. The path I took is the only one shown on maps, but it is so good that you would not want any other. The path climbs the north-eastern ridge of the mountain between Cwm Llwy and Cwm Bleiddiaid with much rock underfoot and the occasional scramble that lifts this ascent into first class. This is a fantastic walk onto an imposing hill that, although less than 800m, deserves the title of a mountain due to the awesome cliffs and great rock scrambles on it’s eastern side. We just don’t look at the grass covered southern and western slopes.
Eventually I neared the summit as I reached a cairn at a vantage point that looks over the Colwyn valley across to the enormous bulk of Snowdon. Occasional hail failed to dampen my excitement for the walk and now with hailstones underfoot I completed the climb, plunging into clouds and onto the summit where I found a large cairn and a trig point near a wall corner. After lingering around the summit for a while I started my descent down the steep grassy north-western slopes following a wall towards Bwlch Meillionen. During my descent, after coming below the cloud level, stunning views were revealed over Moel yr Ogof towards the Nantlle ridge before it soon disappeared again under mist as the hail returned, this time driven by powerful winds blowing through the pass. Under foot, the terrain improved as I passed through bands of rock before reaching the bottom of the wind-swept pass, which I quickly crossed while trying to protect myself from the hail before climbing up to the shelter of a deep natural rift in the cliffs that has scree running through it. I loved climbing through there five years ago and I had been looking forward to ‘threading myself through the needle’ once again as I climbed through the narrow gap. I stopped for a while in the middle of the rift until I had caught my breath and the hail had stopped before resuming my climb to the windy top of Moel yr Ogof.
(I must apologise for this photo - I left my camera in the car by mistake. This was taken using my phone)
Climbing out of the rift, I followed a wall past a small lake and up through a cleft in the rocks to the summit of Moel yr Ogof. In 2004 I continued along the ridge to the top of Moel Lefn, but this time I was in a hurry so I returned to Bwlch Meillionen where I now found better weather and a rough path that followed the wall steeply down below the impressive cliffs that encircle Moel yr Ogof. The weather was now clearing nicely with blue skies appearing and the sun was coming out as I dropped down through the rock strewn landscape and entered Beddgelert Forest following a footpath that descended the hillside beside the Afon Meillionen. The stunning scenery, good path and sunshine made this descent a sheer joy and a delight. Near the bottom of the hill I emerged onto a forest track which I followed out of the wood and back to the farm that I had passed at the start of my ascent. Once again I had to cross the railway line three times before finally returning to Beddgelert. After an inauspicious start, this turned out to be a fabulous walk on a mountain that, were it not next to Snowdon and a little higher, would surely rank as one of the best. After the bad weather of the previous day's walk, this was a complete surprise; I was astonished to realise that I had really enjoyed the walk.
Climbing out of the rift, I followed a wall past a small lake and up through a cleft in the rocks to the summit of Moel yr Ogof. In 2004 I continued along the ridge to the top of Moel Lefn, but this time I was in a hurry so I returned to Bwlch Meillionen where I now found better weather and a rough path that followed the wall steeply down below the impressive cliffs that encircle Moel yr Ogof. The weather was now clearing nicely with blue skies appearing and the sun was coming out as I dropped down through the rock strewn landscape and entered Beddgelert Forest following a footpath that descended the hillside beside the Afon Meillionen. The stunning scenery, good path and sunshine made this descent a sheer joy and a delight. Near the bottom of the hill I emerged onto a forest track which I followed out of the wood and back to the farm that I had passed at the start of my ascent. Once again I had to cross the railway line three times before finally returning to Beddgelert. After an inauspicious start, this turned out to be a fabulous walk on a mountain that, were it not next to Snowdon and a little higher, would surely rank as one of the best. After the bad weather of the previous day's walk, this was a complete surprise; I was astonished to realise that I had really enjoyed the walk.
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