Saturday 30th April 2005
The first of the three days was spent going over the Carneddau, the largest area of hilltop over 3000 feet high in the whole of England and Wales (which isn't really saying much, but it's the best we’ve got). After driving over to North Wales in the morning in pouring rain I parked at Gwernydd, which is just off a side street outside Bethesda, and started walking up a road past Ciltwllan heading up the side of the hill. Once I was out into open country I followed vague paths up Y Garth onto the ridge of Gyrn Wigau and across the grassy plain past a rocky Right-of-Way path and up onto the top of Drosgl.
The rain was still falling and as I was now also in the clouds there were no views for me to enjoy, but that seemed to be the norm when I was walking in this area. The last time I was there I'd parked at Bont Newydd and accessed the hills by going past Aber Falls. That day had been wet with low clouds as well and on that occasion I'd missed out Drosgl by staying on the right-of-way so on this walk I decided to right that oversight and climb through the boulder field to reach the large summit cairn at the top of Drosgl. My next target was Bera Mawr, which is the northerly of two prominences north-west of Garnedd Uchaf. Bera Bach is the higher of the two at 807m but since it's collection of rocks is on top of the main ridge it has virtually no drop. Bera Mawr, however, is somewhat to the north of the ridge and has a large enough drop to put it on some mountain lists. Despite this it was Bera Bach that I'd climbed two years before so on this walk I veered to the left of Bera Bach following a faint path at the foot of the rocky outcrops towards Bera Mawr. This is quite a fun lump of rock as a little scrambling is necessary to get onto the top; it was just a pity visibility was nil as I'm sure the views across the Aber Falls Nature Reserve towards the Lavan Sands and Anglesey would have been tremendous.
Coming down off Bera Mawr I refrained from rejoining the top of the ridge and kept to the contours edging around the top of Cwm yr Afon Goch, across the infant river below Garnedd Uchaf and round towards the top of Llwytmor. This was another hill in the northern Carneddau that I'd never been to before and now I had completed the list of hills that I wanted to bag in this area. The last time I'd been there, two years previously, my sights had been solely on the three-thousand-footers. This weekend I wanted to take in some of the other hills that fall just before the Munro standard as well as those great hills themselves. After lunch on Llwytmor I headed across the col to Foel-fras and I was surprised to discover significant amounts of snow in the sheltered northern areas of the hill. When I was in the Lake District over Easter I had not seen any snow even on Helvellyn, but in Snowdonia I saw a lot of snow on all of the three-thousand-footers in the Carneddau. The snow wasn't icy and most of it showed signs of being in the advanced stages of a thaw, but it was still a surprise for me to see snow so late in the season.
The south-west ridge took me to Garnedd Uchaf, the summit of which was quite a hunt for me in the clouds, and I seem to recall I had a similar problem two years previously. Those GPS thingies may have come in handy to find the top but a map, a compass and a bit of luck was just as good as any technology. Heading south I approached Foel Grach passing the hut where two years before I'd sheltered from a particularly violent rain shower. The shelter was not required on this walk as the clouds were now beginning to lift and by the time I reached the summit of Foel Grach the clouds had lifted enough to reward me with amazing views of the rocky edges of Yr Elen and the massive snow-marked bulk of Carnedd Llewelyn. As if by magic, crowds of people also appeared on the hills so that after hours of having the hills all to myself I suddenly found things a little crowded. To avoid a large number of people coming towards me down the main path I veered off to the left to stay on top of the ridge, which itself veers to the left of the path reaching an imperceptible top at the head of Cwm Eugiau. The outcrop has no name but someone has given it a cairn despite having no drop to speak of. It may be a hill that's not worth bagging (it's not really a hill at all, merely part of Foel Grach) but at least it kept me off the overpopulated main path.
Turning back towards the south-west I eventually rejoined the path and the literally dozens of people who were enjoying tremendous views from the top of Carnedd Llewelyn. After the bad weather of the morning it was astonishing how brilliant the weather had now become and how quickly all these people had responded to the clearing weather. I could only surmise that the hills in the northern Carneddau where I'd been walking were the last to clear (not really too surprising since the bad weather had been moving northwards). Now in glorious sunshine and with stunning views all around me I headed down to Bwlch Cyfryw-drum and keeping to the very top of Cefn Ysgolion Duon I headed up to Carnedd Dafydd which was also heavily populated (although I suspect they were all part of the same large group).
I now had a decision to make, whether to walk across to Pen yr Ole Wen or miss it out. In the end I decided that since I'd been up there before, two years before this walk, similarly with Yr Elen, which I'd also missed out, I would begin my descent from where I was back to the car. So, heading down the scree to the north of Carnedd Dafydd I passed over Foel Meirch descending enjoyably down Mynydd Du eventually joining a footpath alongside the Afon Llafar. Following this footpath through fields I reached the beginning of a road and walked the half-mile distance back to my car. This was a very enjoyable walk in very changeable weather conditions that just got better and better.
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