The Watkin Path and Nant Gwynant

Friday 6th September 2019

I was near the end of my holiday in Wales where I had been retracing my steps over particularly memorable walks from the last twenty years, but I did not have anything planned for this day. In the end I decided that I may as well do Snowdon and the route that I initially picked was based on a great walk from May 2005 when I combined a walk up that great mountain with two of its satellites, Yr Aran and Y Llywedd. The weather had been brilliant for that walk, but that was definitely not the case now so instead I decided to take my inspiration from my second ever ascent up Snowdon, in 2003, climbing the Watkin Path and then down the Pyg Track to Pen-y-Pass followed by a return through Nant Gwynant. From the Bryn Gwynant Youth Hostel I took a route beside the river to the start of the Watkin Path, and by ten o’clock it was raining. As I climbed into the Cwm Llan valley I saw vast numbers of sheep being brought down off the hills while behind them several shepherds were rounding them up with the aid of dogs. Despite the poor weather I enjoyed the walk up the path beside the waterfalls in the Afon Cwm Llan and up to the Gladstone Rock where a large gathering had assembled to hear the venerable Prime Minister William Gladstone open the Watkin Path on 13th September 1892.

As I stood beside the rock I felt a trickle of water go down the back of my neck, which should not have happened while I had the hood of my waterproofs over my head. Thinking no more of it, I resumed my trek along the Watkin Path until I reached the disused quarry workings where the path begins to climb steeply, but by this time the rain was really heavy and the trickle had become a soaking leaving me feeling very cold and wet. Once I realised I was soaked to the skin and so cold it would be dangerous to continue up Snowdon I decided I was not enjoying myself so I turned around and headed back down the path. Eventually I realised that I had left a lot of the zips on my waterproof undone, which was possibly why I had got so wet when the rain became heavy, but the zips were down because I had been getting very hot, which I realised has often been a problem with this cagoule that must not be very breathable. I could have zipped up and headed back up the path, but I was so wet and cold I decided to continue down eventually catching up with the shepherds and their sheep. It was fascinating to see how they worked with their dogs to round up the strays and they were a bit of a traffic jam for me, until eventually I got past them and made my way back down to the bottom of the valley.

I was now unsure what to do having abandoned my walk up Snowdon and eventually found my way back to the Youth Hostel where I had my lunch and changed my top for a dry one. Annoyingly, the rain had now stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds, and although I could have returned to the Watkin Path (with a different waterproof), I instead opted to walk past Llyn Gwynant and up the valley on the old road all the way to the main road near the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel. The sunshine proved to be elusive with the midday blue skies soon passing and leaving me with only occasional spells of sunshine mixed in with more rain, although the views back down the valley were quite special while Snowdon continued to look inhospitable as it clung to dark clouds. When I turned onto the relatively new path that links the roadside parking near the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel with Pen-y-Pass, it was sunny and I was enjoying the views down the valley while making my way along the well-made path towards Pen-y-Pass. When I reached the junction with the path from Pen-y-Pass to Nant Gwynant I was back on the route that I’d originally intended, as done in 2003, so, as then, I turned left heading down into the valley.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time walking down this path following the Afon Trawsnant past the Cwm Dyli hydro-electric power station and into the valley until eventually it started raining again, briefly but heavily. The narrow path was not nice where it was muddy, but I have fond memories of following this path in 2003 and again in 2005 after going over Crib Goch, and it was good to make its reacquaintance while walking through this beautiful valley. The weather was very mixed on this walk with heavy rain and sunshine, which proved to be annoying when the heavy rain prompted me to put my waterproof trousers on only for it to stop soon after and for the warm sunshine to soon force me to take them off again. Despite the weather, I could have done Snowdon if my waterproofs hadn’t let me down and left me soaked and dangerously cold. The best, most memorable parts of this walk were when the sun was shining, particularly at the top of Nant Gwynant, near Pen-y-Pass, and this was a problem with all the walks that I did in Wales on this holiday. Any walk can be memorable if the weather is good enough, but in Wales that doesn’t happen all the time.