Arenig Fawr

Saturday 20th December 2008

The weather for this walk was quite horrible. It was raining, it was very windy and there was a thick mist everywhere. It was just not the sort of weather one would want to go for a walk in, and I couldn't help thinking as I prepared to set off that just a few years ago I would never have dreamed of going for a walk in these conditions. But things have changed; I have walked in this sort of weather many times before, and some of them quite recently. The weather was like this when I went up Snowdon at the end of August, and again in Scotland in September I had several walks that had weather almost as bad as this. It’s not ideal weather to go for a walk in, but since I was already in the area there was nothing else to do but go for a walk. Although it is always nicer to walk in bright sunshine there is still something about walking in weather such as this. It is a challenge of man against the weather, against the mountain; you are pitting yourself against the worst that the weather and the mountain can throw at you. Usually I come through unscathed, as on this day.

Arenig Fawr is a lovely mountain, somewhat isolated from others, but with some fantastic facets. It is a great sprawling mass of a mountain with narrow ridges, cliff faces and a lake (actually a reservoir). I walked up it four years ago during the same weekend I went up the Berwyns and I had clear views from the summit all around Snowdonia, even though it had been very windy. I could see north all the way up to Snowdon itself, south to the Aran range, and west to the Rhinogs. I remember noticing the remarkable notch in the Rhinog range and wondering what it was. Less than a year later I found out when I had walked up the Rhinogs and through Bwlch Drws-Ardudwy. Coming home that day from walking up the Rhinogs I drove past Arenig Fawr and I remember thinking what a fine looking mountain it was, bulky and adorned with plenty of cliffs and rocks. I was keen then to walk up it again; so it's a tragedy that it's taken me 3½ years to return to this fantastic mountain, and unfortunate that it should be in bad weather.

My ascent repeated the route taken in 2004 as it is clearly the best route up with a clear path, which is handy in these poor conditions. I followed a track that heads south from a minor road across heathland to Llyn Arenig Fawr where I crossed a dam and started to climb the ridge on the far side of the reservoir. This was an enjoyable walk with frequent rock under foot and a clear, winding path, and the wind and rain failed to spoil my fun, mainly because I was in the lee of the mountain. After crossing two fences, the rock under foot petered out and I crossed steep grassy slopes to head towards the summit. Rock returned as I neared the summit and climbed the steep slopes up to the trig point and wartime aircraft crash memorial.

After lunch at the summit I started to make my way down following old fence posts along a steep ridge. During the ascent I had been sheltered by the mountain, but now I was exposed to the full force of the wind and it was quite a battle to keep going. This was still a good route down as there was an abundance of rocks to maintain interest until near the bottom I found really wet ground and I had to wade through ankle-deep water to get to a track that took me finally down to the bottom of the valley. My return to the car was now a simple walk along a disused railway line that took me all the way back. Arenig Fawr is a wonderful mountain in any weather so, despite the poor weather on this walk, I really enjoyed it. I must do it again in good weather as this mountain really deserves another visit.

The Berwyn Hills and Pistyll Rhaeadr

Friday 19th December 2008

Just before Christmas I went to Wales for a couple of days to go up a few mountains that I had previously been up four years ago. When I went up then it was extraordinarily windy and started to rain as I made my way off the hills; on this walk it started overcast with glimmers of sun and just got worse. By the afternoon it was forecast to get really bad so I wasn’t going to take that long. This walk was on the Berwyns, a range of high hills and boggy heathland near Llangollen in Wales. I parked near a huge waterfall at the end of a narrow road from the village of Llanrheadr-ym-Mochnant (seriously, that is the name of the place, just don’t ask me to pronounce it!). Slowly, I made my way along a track that climbed the hillside into the short valley of the Nant y Llyn, which was a great, well-graded route through a picturesque, narrow valley with a sight of the Berwyns always ahead of me. The climb eventually brought me to the cliffs below Moel Sych with the lake, Llyn Lluncaws in the bowl below.

After climbing up onto the hilltop I bypassed the summit of Moel Sych and headed towards Cadair Berwyn, the highest point in the Berwyns, sticking close to the cliff edge as I walked along the ridge. Clouds had already descended onto the tops by the time I reached the ridge and the wind was picking up, but the weather failed to spoil my enjoyment as I reached the trig point at the summit of Cadair Berwyn. After a while I headed back along the ridge to the top of Moel Sych where I determined the direction I should go and followed a path across the boggy hills. After a couple of kilometres of walking I began to wonder why I didn't seem to be getting anywhere so finally I had a look at my map and GPS and realised that I had been heading west across a vast moorland in the opposite direction to where I should have been going. I had no choice but to reluctantly turn around and walk all the way back through the bogs to the top of Moel Sych.

Once I returned to the top I took the correct route off the hill, descending steeply down the grassy hillside of Trum Felen. The weather by now was beginning to turn nasty with the winds picking up and rain trying to fall on the tops so I was clearly getting off the hills only just in time. Near the bottom I reached a track that took me back to the bottom of the valley, rejoicing in the abundance of well-graded tracks in the area that are a hold-over from when lead mining was actively undertaken. Fortunately, the tracks are now the only trace that is left of all that industry but they do provide good, enjoyable routes for getting onto the hills. At the bottom I visited the waterfall that I had parked near and glimpsed from afar at the start of the walk. This is Pistyll Rhaeadr, the highest waterfall in England or Wales at 240 feet, and easily the highest waterfall I’ve ever seen; from the footbridge at the bottom it was really scary as I gaxed sharply up at the enormous waterfall that towered above me. This place must be absolutely amazing in the summer, unfortunately it wasn’t the summer and the weather was getting worse.

I don't think you can consider the Berwyns as great mountains as they have far too many bogs and so is really just high moorland, especially on their western side. But the route I took for my ascent was the best way up and showed off its best side. I was starting from the south beside an enormous waterfall that is surrounded by high cliffs to the rocky eastern edge of the Berwyn Hills.