Great Mountains: The Carneddau

The largest area of upland in either England or Wales that sustains a height of more than three thousand feet is called the Carneddau and lies in North Wales within the Snowdonia National Park. The highest points within the Carneddau are the twin peaks of Carnedd Llewellyn and Carnedd Dafydd with another five peaks that rise above three thousand feet. These, with one exception, all lie on a single, long ridge of great mountains that maintains a height above three thousand feet for almost its whole length. The ridge starts on Pen Yr Ole Wen whose craggy slopes rise steeply from the shores of Llyn Ogwen and gazes across the lake into the iconic Cwm Idwal. I have climbed this mountain by just one route on three separate occasions. The obvious route of ascent is direct from Idwal Cottage, but this is an unrelentingly steep ascent and I had been warned against it in favour of the eastern ridge. A path follows the Afon Lloer into Cwm Lloer, but it has invariably been very muddy, though the weather is usually poor when I take the path. I first took this route in 2003 during my first walking holiday in Snowdonia and I think the weather was good, but the path was still boggy and difficult to follow. Once the gradient eases as you approach Ffynnon Lloer the route up Pen Yr Ole Wen turns towards the eastern ridge with an easy scramble.

If the path beside the stream was better this would be a grand way up along a great ridge that steadily climbs with precipitous drops into Cwm Lloer on your right. It is a shame that despite three ascents by this route I don’t have any good pictures of the climb up this great ridge that leads all the way up to the summit of Pen Yr Ole Wen. In 2006 I descended straight down to Idwal Cottage from the top and I remember it being an awesome, relentless scramble that destroyed my knees for weeks following. I would love to attempt the challenge of the south ridge as an ascent, but good weather would be essential as it is an accident hotspot. A much easier and gentler route up is the one that I took as a descent in 2015 down the grassy slopes of the north west ridge of Braich Ty Du, but while this definitely works as a descent it would be very dull as an ascent. Attention at this point should be on the main Carneddau ridge that starts on Pen Yr Ole Wen and sets off around the top of Cwm Lloer gradually rising to the large cairn that sits at the summit of Carnedd Dafydd. This is truly a great mountain with rock in abundance everywhere and impressive cliffs that fall spectacularly down the northern faces.

In 2007 I climbed these northern slopes on Crib Lem, a ridge that separates Cwmglas Bach and Cwmglas Mawr, requiring a scramble that is not too difficult even for someone like me. It is a grand way up a mountain, but if you prefer your climbs considerably more gentle then the slopes of Mynydd Du on the north-west ridge would be better, but for me this is better as a descent so I took this route down in 2005. The main ridge continues above the precipitous cliffs of Ysgolion Duon for an excellent walk across a saddle that doesn’t drop below three thousand feet before climbing up to the top of the highest point in the Carneddau, Carnedd Llewelyn. A great ridge heads off east from the summit before turning south narrowing deliciously along Bwlch Eryl Farchog before rising steeply to Pen yr Helgi Du. This was my route off the main Carneddau ridge in 2003 and again when I repeated the walk in 2009 and 2019. A round of the two main peaks of the Carneddau with Pen Yr Ole Wen and Pen yr Helgi Du must be the best mountain walk in the range and is why I have done it three times. It is great in any weather and I endured some terrible weather on the round in 2009, but I still enjoyed it as these mountains are too great to be ruined by a bit of bad weather.

On the other side of Carnedd Llewelyn is its companion, the shapely Yr Elen that is connected to its parent by a narrow ridge. In 2007 I descended from the top down the broad grassy slopes of Braich y Brysgyll, but for an ascent I prefer something steep and the north-eastern ridge provided me with a glorious route up in 2015. In 2003 and 2006 I visited Yr Elen as a diversion from the main ridge returning to Carnedd Llewelyn to continue along the main ridge, but this unfairly relegates a fine mountain to a supporting role tagged onto its bigger parent. This is not fair as it deserves to be climbed for its own sake and not simply to tick a box in a list of mountain tops. Resuming the walk along the main Carneddau ridge a long descent down the slopes of Carnedd Llewelyn takes us to the grass saddle of Gwaun y Garnedd before rising again to the top of Foel Grach. Just beyond the summit is a small refuge hut that was very welcome on my walk in the area in 2003 as it provided me with shelter from heavy rain and gave me somewhere dry to sit while I had my lunch. Grassy slopes continue the descent and now for the first time the ridge drops below three thousand feet, but it isn’t long before the gradient rises again to a peak whose fortunes has improved considerably.

At one time Garnedd Uchaf was not considered to be more than three thousand feet high, but then a re-survey revealed that it was, although it is still the smallest in the Carneddau. The first couple of times I visited it I had difficulty finding the top because of low cloud and a low prominence, until eventually in 2006 I had good weather and was able to appreciate the great views across to Yr Elen and Carnedd Llewelyn. Since then the top has been officially renamed Carnedd Gwenllian to tie in with the historical connection of the names of the other peaks, but I will always remember it as being Garnedd Uchaf. At this point the ridge splits in two descending west over Bera Bach and Drosgl on a ridge that I have climbed a few times, twice (in 2003 and in 2015) climbing onto the ridge from the nature reserve to the north and once (in 2005) from Bethesda to the west. Despite long grassy slopes it is a convenient route up to the Carneddau ridge. East of Garnedd Uchaf the ridge crosses a boggy saddle before rising one more time to reach the summit of Foel-fras, the last three thousand footer in the Carneddau

The terrain beyond Foel-fras is broad and grassy with much less rock and less of the mountainous feel as the ridge descends over Drum, also known as Carnedd Penyborth-Goch, gradually descending all the way to the coast. I came down this ridge in 2003 and it makes a great descent with far reaching views out to sea. In 2006 I got off a train at the station in Llanfairfechan and walked from the coast all the way into these great mountains on an epic walk that took in all seven peaks in the Carneddau in one single day. This is the only time I have reached them all in one day as usually I do the northern peaks separately from the highest peaks, for example, as I did in 2003. Although the whole range is an awesome series of mountains it is really the two highest mountains, Carnedd Llewelyn and Carnedd Dafydd, and those near them that deserve the accolade of being Great Mountains. In that area rock abounds with sheer cliffs, narrow ridges and great views that are enough to hail these mountains with ultimate praise.

Snowdon from Nant Gwynant

Friday 16th March 2007

While researching my post on Snowdon that started my series on great mountains I listed each time I had climbed the mountain and realised that I had never described the occasion when I climbed Snowdon in March 2007. A colleague at work had expressed an interest in climbing Snowdon, which is not uncommon as this mountain, more than any other, seems to exert an unnatural attraction to non-hillwalkers that has resulted in me leading another three trips up Snowdon with friends and colleagues. Despite the time of year almost guaranteeing wintry conditions I arranged this trip in March taking advantage of a four-day week at work. The weather forecast for Friday had looked good at the beginning of the week, but by the time Friday came around the forecast had deteriorated significantly, nevertheless my colleague picked me up and drove us all the way over to the valley of Nant Gwynant parking in the car park that during the summer is always packed to overflowing, but not on this occasion. With thick cloud overhead and cold temperatures we had the path to ourselves as we set off out of the valley climbing into Cwm Llan on the Watkin Path.

It was great to be climbing a mountain again after the winter exile, but we should have picked better weather as the views were terrible, though the craggy hillside was fantastic to see and as we climbed I exclaimed emphatic enjoyment at being in such tremendous scenery again. My colleague soon realised he should be brought a pair of gloves with him as the temperature plummeted, but I had deliberately brought a spare pair of gloves with me so I gave these to him. He seems to have also borrowed my walking pole as the pictures I took near Bwlch Ciliau clearly show him holding it. I don’t remember why he had my walking pole, but he may have realised that climbing a mountain is a much more serious undertaking than he had thought so asked to use the pole to ease his efforts up the steep path. The pictures that I took on this walk show that despite the poor weather we still had views south to Yr Aran and over the ridge down to Llyn Llydaw even under the dull, grey clouds.

From that point we were crossing the loose stones that lie on the steep southern slopes below the summit of Snowdon and I remember trying to carefully select the best, easiest route through this difficult terrain to ease the way for my colleague. The Watkin Path is the most difficult of the six official right-of-ways up Snowdon mainly because of the difficult traverse of these slopes. My colleague was rather annoyed when I told him we had taken the most difficult route, but I argued it is actually easiest route from Nant Gwynant and it could have been much harder. When we finally reached the western ridge the gradient was now much easier, but the weather was really harsh with bitterly cold wind and freezing temperatures as we made the final ascent to the top. At the time the summit building had been recently demolished and work had not yet started on the new building, so when we got there we found the astonishing sight of the tiled floor of the old building, but no building. The summit of Snowdon was covered in hoar frost, but no snow and it was stupendously cold.

We tried to find shelter behind the summit rock to have our lunch, but it was so cold I soon realised that it was silly trying to eat our lunch in this weather, so I suggested we both head straight back down without eating our lunch. Retracing our steps past the site of what is now the Summit Visitor Centre (Hafod Eyri) we continued past the top of the Watkin Path and across the narrow ridge of Bwlch Main veering left down the southern ridge above Clogwyn Du. I had come up this ridge in good weather in 2005 and would follow my steps of this walk coming down the ridge in even worse weather (but warmer) in 2008. I have not been along it since and it is not on any of the official routes up Snowdon, yet I remember it as being a good route with plenty of rock to keep me interested. This rock may have caused some problems for my colleague as I remember near the bottom he said the gloves that I had given him were now soaking wet, probably due to him repeatedly touching the wet rocks for support during the tricky descent.

Eventually we reached Bwlch Cwm Llan where we turned left to take the path into the valley and rejoin the Watkin Path for the short distance back into Nant Gwynant. This was a tough walk in bitterly cold, damp weather that really tested my colleague who was not used to climbing mountains, but he came through it in one piece and was able to drive us all the way back to Leicester.