Snowdon made difficult

Sunday 26th August 2007

An alternative title for this report could be "How to avoid the crowds on Snowdon on a Bank Holiday", but I didn't really avoid the thousands of people on Snowdon except for a couple of all too brief moments when I took unorthodox routes on and off. Snowdon is such a popular mountain that one is almost inclined to give it a wide berth at such times, but on this walk I showed that even at its busiest a great day can still be had on Snowdon. It's such a great mountain that it would be a shame to give it a miss just because thousands of other people are up there as well.

I parked in the large Nant Peris car park and caught a bus up to Pen Y Pass; even at 9am the car park at the top was already full. At the start of my walk I followed the families on the Miner's Track past Llyn Teryn and Llyn Llydaw up to Glaslyn. At the outflow I left the families behind and crossed the stream to follow a faint path to the foot of a steep rocky ridge and the start of a scramble up the ridge, called Cribau by the OS and Y Gribin by the website where I'd heard about it. This was fabulous climb and kept me well away from the crowds with the only problem being that it was far too short and soon deposited me at Bwlch y Saethau, though still some distance away from the Watkin Path.

Wandering slowly towards Snowdon I was tempted to turn around and go up Y Lliwedd, but I had no reason to and I would have had to come back down again. I would not have gone on any path that I had not done before, but I suppose I just wanted to use up some time, which I would find somewhere else later. At the foot of Clogwyn y Garnedd, ignoring the wild goats that were in the area, I took a direct ascent up the east ridge to the summit instead of going across the screes on the Watkin Path. I have always avoided this route before believing it to be too difficult but the website previously referred to said it was only a grade one scramble, so why not? It was certainly do-able though harder than the previous climb and the scope for getting oneself into higher grade territory is all too easy.

Eventually I arrived at the summit where the sheer number of people was obscene. I felt like getting away from there as quickly as possible but first I wanted to get a good look at the building work for the new café. They are still working on the roof but it will be interesting to see what it's like when complete. Hopefully it will, as advertised, be less of an eye-sore. It isn't yet. When the cloud descended again I left the summit and started listening to the Turkish Grand Prix on Radio 5 Live while wandering towards Garnedd Ugain, and before I reached the summit I stopped to have my lunch.

I had planned to finish the walk over Crib Goch but since it was still early and my attention was being distracted by the radio, I skirted around the hillside and descended the steep slope down to the promontory of Gyrn Lâs, which afforded me with tremendous views of Nant Peris, Crib Goch and the train station at Clogwyn, while the clouds thoughtfully cleared for me. I stood for a while admiring the views and listened to the rest of the Grand Prix (Massa won). Returning to Garnedd Ugain I reached the summit and began the traverse of Crib Goch undistracted and with clear views. This is the third time I've been over Crib Goch, but it was my first time in this direction and it certainly makes a difference.

The early section along Crib y Ddysgl was enjoyable and easy, so I stayed on the top of the ridge as much as possible while defying the sheer drops either side, and then after passing Bwlch Coch I began Crib Goch. While climbing around one of the pinnacles I got stuck when I lost my nerve to climb down a sheer 2 metre drop. While scrambling around to avoid it, I scraped my hand on the rock, and drew blood. Henceforth, hand plastered, I was much more cautious and hesitant, and therefore I traversed the exposed section with a great deal of trepidation. The previous year I had traversed this section while standing on the top of the edge for much of the way, but now my hands were desperately gripping the top as I edged along. I think it really is best to get the difficult section over with as soon as possible.

From the eastern end of Crib Goch I descended the quiet northern ridge and left the crowds behind and after a while any difficulties reminiscent of the main ridge receded and left me with a wide ridge that I could fearlessly stride down. At the bottom I turned left avoiding the cliffs of Dinas Mot and followed a very faint path to pick up the Afon Gennog where a clear path beside the stream took me to Blaen-y-nant at the bottom of the valley. All that remained now was for me to walk along the road back to my car. This was another good walk even if Crib Goch had once again terrified me.