Moel Hebog

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.

Snowdon from Rhyd-Ddu

Saturday 7th March 2009

I planned to go for a walk on this particular weekend several weeks before, but when it came to it the weather was poor. The snow of the month before had largely gone and the weather was spring-like right up until the week of the walk. I drove to the village of Rhyd-Ddu first thing in the morning in good weather but it wasn’t long before the weather deteriorated and I found myself walking up Snowdon in bad weather, again. I was going up on the Rhyd-Ddu path, which I’ve never been on before. In fact I have only once before climbed Snowdon from this side of the mountain and that was on the very first occasion I went up Snowdon, back in 2003. Since then I have always gone up either from Nant Gwynant or Pen-y-Pass, simply because the best routes start from there, so as an alternative I thought I’d see what the south-western side of Snowdon has to offer.

To start off, I climbed up a track before turning left onto a path that weaved around rocks up the hillside on what I thought was another great path, but soon the rain started and the wind picked up. I continued to climb the wonderful path until I got to the top of the western ridge, Llechog, where I had a great walk along the top until the ridge opened out and the path zigzagged horribly and steeply up the hillside. It was at this point that the snow under foot started to get prevalent and I had to decide whether to continue. I had seen some people turn back, but others had continued so I decided  I would keep going and see how far I could get. The snow was soft, not particularly deep and although it was raining it was so warm there was no chance it would turn to snow (which could have been disastrous), so I was able to climb the zigzags easily enough by keeping to the edge of the path where the snow was less prevalent.

Further up, the ridge narrowed once again as I reached the fabulous ridge over Bwlch Main. The snow was now getting quite deep but I kept going along the northern side of the ridge with Cwm Clogwyn lying, unseen, steeply below, to my left in the mist, as the ridge narrowed. Although tricky I was able to climb up to the top of the Watkin Path and along the last section of the climb up to the summit. During my ascent through the snow I made a point of looking at the feet of the people who passed me and nearly everyone else also didn’t have crampons on, and it wasn’t until I was near the top that I saw my first person with crampons on. In fact from what I saw the thing to have was not crampons (although they would have helped, I’m sure those with them were a lot more confident on their feet), but walking poles. Those without walking poles seemed significantly less stable on their feet. I saw two lads clambering over Bwlch Main without poles and they were very unsteady, which makes one hope that they made it safely back down to the bottom. I had one pole, which was a help, but I think I would have benefited from a second. If I keep on making a habit of going up mountains in these sorts of wintry conditions I really need to get some crampons, ice axe, or at least a second walking pole. For now I think I’m fed up with snow and I am glad that it seems like this weekend saw the last of the winter snow. The summit was an inhospitable place with deep snow and very strong winds, so I did not want to linger and after touching the top I quickly got back down and sheltered behind the new café along with many others. It was bizarre to see so many people up Snowdon in what must have been atrocious weather conditions; many of those people, surely, were not as well prepared for the conditions as they could be. I had my lunch while crouched in the snow behind the shelter, and then set off with very cold, wet feet down the main path beside the railway, gingerly making my way down the slippery, snow-covered steps of the path. Opposite the top of the Pyg Track I turned left and after crossing the railway lines I followed the Snowdon Ranger Path down. The snow soon disappeared and I was able to get my feet warm, but the cloud, wind and rain remained with me all the way down to the bottom. I was trying to get down as quickly as possible, partly because of the strengthening wind, but mainly because I had become frozen while having my lunch so I was desperate to get active to warm up. The Snowdon Ranger Path, although the route of my first ever ascent up Snowdon, did not appeal to me. The path is too gravelly, and the terrain near the path is predominantly grassy, so lacks interest.

Near the bottom of the path I branched off and took a faint path that would take me back to Rhyd-Ddu. Although the path was faint it was easy to follow as there were frequent signposts marking the way, even as the path meandered through a spectacular, disused, slate quarry. It looked spooky in the misty conditions, but I would have liked to have been there in better weather as it would have been fascinating to explore the abandoned workings. Eventually I got back to my car, very wet, but happy to have taken a fabulous new route up a familiar mountain. I was even a little annoyed with myself that I had never been on this path earlier, as it was just the sort of route that I love. There was an abundance of rock on the climb to the top of Llechog to keep the interest, and the Bwlch Main saddle was delightfully crossed in its entirety. I really enjoyed the walk up the Rhyd-Ddu Path, but the other sections of the walk were less than enjoyable. I think I was most annoyed with myself for doing this walk in such poor weather; I really need to come back in better weather and do it justice.

Causey Pike

Sunday 25th January 2009

This was a good little walk over a fabulous fell. I only had a couple of hours in the Lake District before having to drive home so I decided to go for a walk up the distinctive fell of Causey Pike. I had recently been reading Wainwright’s book on the North-Western Fells and been thinking that if I lived locally (which would be a dream), I would often go for short walks up the fells and this walk was an ideal example of what could be done. As I was preparing to go to the Lake District I still didn’t know where I would be walking on the second day, until I thought of this lovely little walk inspired by Wainwright’s guide book. I parked just above the farm of Uzzicar and walked along the road past Stoneycroft to start to climb the hillside immediately after crossing the bridge over the Stoneycroft Gill. I previously went up Causey Pike only once back in 2004 after walking from Keswick, past Cat Bells, to the foot of Rowling End.

On that occasion I took the popular route across the hillside below Rowling End making a direct course for Causey Pike, but on this occasion I decided that I would take the older path that climbs steeply up to the end of the ridge at Rowling End. Soon after I started the climb the good weather that I had enjoyed the day before came to an end as it started to rain. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the climb up Rowling End on an excellent path that ascends beside Elias Crag and gave me fabulous walking with occasional rocky bits to scramble up. The rain was intermittent and had stopped by the time I reached the summit of Rowling End which provided me with good views of the Newlands valley but fails to earn a chapter in Wainwright’s guide books. Walking through the rain and heather along the top of the ridge, I passed over Sleet Hause and started to climb the wonderfully steep, rocky buttress of Causey Pike where more delicious scrambling was required. Once at the top of Causey Pike I encountered snow once again but it seemed safe enough to proceed as I visited the many distinctive tops of Causey Pike, and so I traversed the ridge over Scar Crags, which unlike Rowling End was deemed worthy of it’s own chapter by Wainwright. The snow was a little deep in places but safe enough to proceed and was not as tiring as it had been the day before when I had actually grown rather sick and tired of the snow. In fact I quite enjoyed that walk along the ridge (ridge walking is one of the best forms of walking and is always a delight); I even began to enjoy walking through the snow, but I was to get a rude awakening once I got to Sail Pass.

My desired course was to turn right towards the miner's track through the Stoneycroft valley, but that way lay under deep drifted snow. To my left was little snow and I could easily have descended that way into the Rigg Beck valley, but I decided to try the snow. In other circumstances this may have been dangerous as it was steep just below the pass; in fact, later on I was chatting to someone about the path at this point as he had been up there the previous evening when the snow was frozen solid and needed crampons. As stated in my previous post I don’t have any crampons but I think I will have to get some if I want to do any more walks like these. Fortunately when I went through the snow it was soft and deep enough for me to be able to wade through it following the footsteps of others that had passed along this steep path earlier in the day. Under ordinary circumstances this is an excellent narrow path, created by miners, that cleverly crosses the steep hillside below Scar Crags dropping gradually down onto High Moss. I passed this way in 2006 in poor weather and now, once again I was passing in tricky conditions.

Soon the path eased and all that was left for me was a long, easy descent through the valley back to my car, but the weather had a few more treats in store. Once I was on High Moss it started to snow, and as the snow under foot disappeared during my descent so did the snow that was falling from the sky, turning into rain. So it was that I had a wet end to the walk as I followed the excellent miner’s road beside Stoneycroft Gill all the way back to the road where my car was waiting. I really enjoyed this walk, despite the poor weather, as the hills themselves were of such high quality, particularly the distinctive Causey Pike itself. The snow below the pass was a little tricky but was soft enough to be negotiable without crampons, and without being in danger of slipping so at no time during the walk did I feel that crampons were necessary. As I prepared to leave to go home a really annoying thing happened: the rain stopped and the sun came out, so it was becoming a really good day for walking, which is really annoying, but couldn’t be helped. I have learnt many times over the years that one can always come back to a hill and try again in better weather, and frequently I have changed my plans due to the weather. The hill never changes and will still be there next time. During this weekend I made decisions to continue walking in weather that it could be argued I wasn’t prepared for, but I believe I always made the right decision to continue as I was able to complete my walk successfully. I learnt a lot during this weekend about walking in snow and I will certainly try to be better prepared next winter.

Glaramara in deep snow

Saturday 24th January 2009

I was back in the Lake District to grab a chance of a weekend with relatively clear weather for a walk over the fells immediately south of Borrowdale, though with tops that I found were under snow with very deep drifts. It was really tiring trying to walk through the knee-deep snow and quickly wore me out; in the summer this would have been a short, easy walk, but in these wintry conditions it was long and exhausting. I parked just outside the small village of Stonethwaite (there’s nowhere to park inside the village), and after walking through the village I took a path that climbed steeply up the hillside beside Big Stanger Gill. This was the route that I'd tried to find last May but was unable to find it. Now I tried it in ascent and found that it is a fabulous route that climbs steeply up the hillside on a manufactured path that is old enough to be well bedded-in. It didn’t have the paving that they like to use these days, and is well-constructed as it zigzags up the hill. The path just got better and better as I got near the top of the huge gully where I was simply in awe of my surroundings and the path that weaved cunningly around the rocks below the crags, but all too soon the path emerged at the top of the gully and I was confronted by snow in abundance.

The path now disappeared and I had to try and make my own way to Bessyboot, the top of Rosthwaite Fell, but after a tiring climb up a shallow gully I realized that I was going in completely the wrong direction. It wasn't until I got to the top of a low hill that I was able to see that I had gone the wrong way and Bessyboot was still some distance away across the snow-blanketed, undulating terrain. It was at this point that I abandoned Bessyboot and settled for trying to reach Glaramara, bypassing the tops in between, but even that proved to be difficult. I have never done any serious walking in snow before and don’t possess any crampons or ice axe, which may have been needed at this point. While walking on level ground I had no problems, but trying to walk up a slope was very tricky as I kept slipping and my walking pole wasn’t much help, nevertheless I battled on and learnt to pick my route in such a way as to ease my progress. I found that the steeper slopes were actually easier as I could climb up them by forming steps in the snow and using my collapsed walking pole as a makeshift ice axe. The steepest section I had to climb was immediately below the summit of Glaramara where there is what Wainwright describes as a ‘rock-step’. Someone had been up there already and left behind steps in the snow-face, which I was able to follow climbing up to the summit.

This walk from Bessyboot to Glaramara was very difficult and could have been potentially dangerous. The terrain traversed is undulating, pathless and complex at the best of times and I was climbing it under snow of varying depth and varying solidity without the usual winter equipment of crampons and ice axe. Frankly, I may have been lucky, and if the snow had been just a little less soft I would not have been able to climb up to the top of Glaramara without having an accident. If I am to continue walking in such conditions I need to buy some crampons and an ice axe. I think one reason I managed to get to the summit safely despite travelling across such complex, pathless terrain was because I had waymarked the summit in my GPS last May so I knew where to head toward. Once at the summit of Glaramara I had my lunch, but it was so cold and the wind chill was so severe that by the time I left the summit my hands were painfully frozen and I had to keep them in my pocket until they warmed up. Another thing I should have brought was warmer gloves. Now I had a path to follow or I would have if I could see it, as there is an excellent path between Glaramara and Allen Crags, but I couldn’t tell where it went. Instead I followed the footprints of other walkers, but they sometimes didn’t go in the right direction, and at one point even led to the top of a ten foot drop. Generally this side of Glaramara was a lot easier with less undulation and shallower terrain, so in fact after what I had just been through, this was quite dull. I was able to follow the tracks all the way up to the top of Allen Crags and down to the false Esk Hause on the other side. There I turned left and descended the snow covered slope on the bridlepath to Langdale following the footprints of others through the snow to Angle Tarn where I turned off the main path and headed for the Stake Pass. Before reaching the top of the pass I turned off the path and followed my course of New Year's Eve by cutting the corner to the top of the zigzags on the northern edge of the pass. The snow had begun to deplete as I approached the pass and was thankfully almost gone by the time I reached the edge. Once on the main path through the pass I descended into Langstrath and after crossing the beck, I returned to Stonethwaite on the western side of the valley. I have taken the eastern side a couple of times before, including on New Year's Eve, but this was the first time I’d taken the other side and it appears to be the easier route, and certainly Wainwright agrees with me. This proved to be a very tiring walk on a complex fell, in very cold weather and with conditions under foot that I had not been expecting, and had never come across before. The ascent was great, but battling through the snow was just too tiring. I’m not a winter walker and I’m not used to walking in these sorts of conditions, so I should avoid them in future unless I have the right equipment.