The Northern Carneddau

Saturday 6th September 2003

In my goal to walk up all fifteen mountains in Wales above three thousand feet I had just three left to complete, but there was a major obstacle in my way: the weather. As I sat in my car at the Bont Newydd car park near the village of Abergwyngregyn on the North Wales coast, rain was hammering down. Up to this point in my walking experience I had never walked in weather anywhere approaching this severity, so I was seriously considering abandoning the walk. I got the plan for this walk from the Walking Britain website where it says “not all of the route follows clear paths so it is recommended you choose a day with good visibility and remember that this part of the Carneddau offers few places to shelter in poor weather” but eventually the rain stopped and I cautiously ventured out of my car and headed off into the reserve. Coedydd Aber is a National Nature Reserve whose main attraction is the waterfall of Rhaeadr-fawr, Aber Falls, and I’m sure the rest of the reserve is also worth a visit, but I have little memory of it, and actually I don’t even have vivid memories of the waterfall. I have never been back, though I have thought of returning many times, if only so I can take the path to top of the falls.

On this occasion I stayed on the main path to the foot of the falls and after a moment continued round to the right along the path to the river, Afon Garn, where I crossed a dilapidated fence and made my way slowly up the valley. It must have been a scary moment for me as I headed out onto the featureless hillside in poor weather when I didn't have the confidence gained from previous excursions in poor weather. Eventually I reached a path at the top of the shallow col, whose reassuring hand led me along the path gradually climbing the hillside soon plunging into low cloud. Slowly I passed around Drosgl and drew near to the outcrops of Bera Bach, where despite wet rocks I climbed up to the top before continuing along the ridge carefully following my compass as I made my way across the bleak hillside.

Two years after this walk I returned to the area to bag the lesser tops that I had missed out on this occasion, so it was then when I stopped to bag Drosgl and head across to Bera Mawr, the twin of Bera Bach. I had other concerns on this occasion as I was still developing my skills in bad weather and didn’t want to risk tragedy by veering off route. My goal on this walk was to visit the three tops that are more than three thousand feet high and nothing else mattered. I also had poor weather two years later during this part of the walk, and since I have never been back to the area around Bera Bach you can say that I’ve never actually seen anything from the top. The closest I’ve gotten is in 2006, while visiting the three-thousand foot high mountains of Wales again, I passed close by on my way up to Carnedd Llewelyn, which was when I took the photo below.

The weather had not improved as I bypassed Garnedd Uchaf and headed towards Foel Grach, but just as I was beginning to feel I could navigate anywhere it started to rain heavily again. Fortunately there is a purpose-built stone shelter near the summit of Foel Grach that was a welcome sight in the pouring rain and was a great relief for me to be able to have my lunch in the dry while the rain fell outside. Once the rain stopped I emerged from the shelter and after visiting the summit of Foel Grach I headed back along the ridge to the top of Garnedd Uchaf, which I found without too much difficulty despite not having a GPS to pinpoint the location. I had somehow, with the aid of little more than a map and compass and not much experience of using them, been able to safely locate the summits of two of my three target mountains, despite bad weather.

My third target was Foel-fras, which lies a little further away from the other two along a ridge in a north-easterly direction. I was now feeling very happy with myself and my ability to navigate in bad weather and it wasn’t too long before I reached the top of Foel-fras and the last three thousand footer of my week’s holiday. All that remained now for me was to continue along the ridge slowly losing height as I passed over the top of Drum (Carnedd Penyborth-Goch) following a developing track as it passed below the long line of small tops north of the Afon Anafon and pick up the route of the North Wales Path dropping down into the valley and back along the road to my car. This was a ground-breaking walk as this, more than any other walk, established my ability to walk in bad weather. Despite being at the top of open grassy hills I had been able to use my compass to navigate a route to the top of three three-thousand foot high mountains and come back down again. I would never be the same again.