Cambrian Way rerun: Dinorwig to Llyn Ogwen

Thursday 5th June 2025

The weather forecast for this walk was for rain, on and off, which should have convinced me to not do a mountain top route over the Glyderau, but the winds were not too high and after almost three weeks on the Cambrian Way I wanted to keep to the correct route. When I first attempted to do the Cambrian Way last year bad weather intervened which prevented me from following the route throughout most of Eryri (previously known as Snowdonia). This year, so far, I was more successful, but I still encountered bad weather in southern Snowdonia which had prevented me from going over Cadair Idris so, if possible, I wanted to keep to the route for the rest of the Cambrian Way. The penultimate stage of the Cambrian Way starts from Pen-y-Pass, but a lack of accommodation at the youth hostel meant I had spent the night at the Dinorwig Hostel above Llanberis. Rather than going via Pen-y-Pass I decided I would take the direct, mountain top route over Elidir Fawr and Y Garn, which initially meant heading north before turning back towards the mountains on an access road for the Marchlyn reservoirs. At Marchlyn Bach Reservoir I turned right to climb along a clear path heading south towards Elidir Fach with views behind me out to sea while temporarily enjoying an easing of the rain.

There were many places on this walk when I could or should have turned off the treacherous mountain top route and the first of these was at the start of the access road where I could have followed the Snowdonia Slate Trail to Bethesda, which is what I did last year. Instead I slowly headed up to Elidir Fach, soon disappearing into the clouds, and at the top I turned left to follow a fence steeply up the hillside as the rain inevitably came back. Despite the promise of low winds, this was a blustery location which gave me a lot of problems as I tried to put my waterproofs on. With hindsight, I should have put my overtrousers on before leaving the hostel and as a result my trousers stayed wet for the rest of the day. I got very annoyed and frustrated with my difficulty in putting my waterproofs on in the windy weather but eventually I was ready and set off up the stony hillside. The wet conditions meant the rocks were very slippery so I had to take extra care as I climbed up to the summit ridge and along the top in the murky weather. I love Elidir Fawr as it feels like a proper mountain, like a Munro in Scotland, but I often have bad weather when climbing it, so I want to return some time in good weather so I can really appreciate its merits and this route up appears to be the best. Eventually I reached the stone shelter that marks the summit and since it was already almost noon I stopped there to have my lunch.

When I set off again I slowly made my way along the bouldery ridge until I eventually came off the rocks and onto a path which negotiates an excitingly narrow ridge with glimpses through the clouds to my left down to Marchlyn Mawr Reservoir. As I crossed the head of Cwm Dudodyn I was rather frustrated to see the sun shining in the valley, around Llanberis, while I brooded under dark clouds with rain never far away. At the lowest part of the col I saw the stile I had crossed last year after passing over the windswept hills of Carnedd y Filiast and Mynydd Perfedd. I had escaped the winds on that occasion down the grassy slopes into Nant Ffrancon and I could have taken the same escape route this year, but instead I kept going along the ridge, though I bypassed the minor top of Foel-goch, before climbing the zigzags all the way up to the top of Y Garn while the weather slowly improved around me. At the summit I was astonished to encounter some people, my first of the walk, with many more wearily climbing the broad grassy slopes on the other side. At Llyn y Cŵm, at the bottom, I could have turned left into Tŵll Du, the Devil’s Kitchen, but this was another escape route on this walk that I ignored as I set off up the horrible scree slope of Glyder Fawr. This is one of the worst paths in Britain, either in ascent or descent, and so I soon wished that I hadn’t decided to take this route. Initially it zigzags up a scree slope but eventually deteriorates into a steep, featureless slog on a path that is heavily eroded down to bare earth.

Half way up it started to rain again, which just added to my misery, as I slowly headed up to the summit of Glyder Fawr. The Cambrian Way takes a different route up Glyder Fawr, climbing the southern slopes from Pen-y-Pass and now I wished I’d taken that route, which I have previously taken only once before, back in 2006 in descent. With the rain now falling quite heavy, I made my way across the barren summit to Bwlch y Ddwy-Glyder where I was confronted with a wall of rock and no sign that the path ascends that way, but I knew from experience that I had to scramble up the rocks. Trusting in my memory of the route and taking extra care on the wet rocks, I scrambled up and after a brief rest, and a check of my bearings, I continued the scramble until I reached the rocks that mark the summit of Glyder Fach. This was a very difficult place to walk in this treacherous weather and so I couldn’t help thinking of all the opportunities I had ignored to escape this torturous terrain, but I had no choice now except to keep following the route of the Cambrian Way and trust in my experience of walking in mountains to see me safely down. The path eventually led me to a large cairn where a trail of helicopter bags seemed to mark where a path was being constructed, however this didn’t match the path marked on my map so I stayed at the top of the ridge until I reached a much more slender path which finally swung into Cwm Tryfan to descend across the steep hillside, but this was a very difficult path to follow in the wet weather. 

Further down I came upon a clear manufactured path, the bottom of the path I had seen earlier, and probably should have taken, but the good path was short-lived and soon I was struggling again along a narrow, rough path until I eventually reached Bwlch Tryfan. A good, manufactured path led the way for me beyond, but was still slippery in the wet weather, although the rain had now eased as I slowly made my way down to Llyn Bochlwyd and the path continued beyond beside Nant Bochlwyd on a tricky, steep descent until eventually the gradient eased and I was finally able to accept that I had survived a traverse of the Glyderau in wet weather. It has been said that I am a fair weather walker because I will usually not go walking in bad weather, which is true. I walk purely for pleasure and not to challenge myself so I don’t see the need to walk in bad weather, which is why on the Cambrian Way I didn’t go out of my way to reach every checkpoint if the weather was not right. This is my holiday and I do this for enjoyment, so I don’t care if I miss a few checkpoints so long as I am enjoying the walk. However, on this walk I had challenged myself to keep to the mountain tops despite the bad weather and I survived and my waterproofs kept me dry, except where I had failed to put them on in time, though I was very relieved to safely reach the youth hostel at Idwal Cottage.

Cambrian Way rerun: Nantlle to Dinorwig

Wednesday 4th June 2025

By this point my trek along the Cambrian Way had been going on for two and a half weeks and over the remaining three days I was faced with traverses over the highest mountains in Wales. I could say that after two and a half weeks of strenuous walking across Wales starting from Cardiff I didn’t have the energy left to climb those mountains but I could also say that I was now so fit from all that walking I could climb anything. The reality, of course, was in between with the weather being a key factor. In my second week on the Cambrian Way I had encountered a lot of rain and strong winds that prevented me from keeping to the trail, but fortunately the weather on my third week was better, though not as good as on my first, and so now with the weather on my side I felt revitalised and able to set off towards Yr Wyddfa, better known as Snowdon. When I attempted to do the Cambrian Way last year the weather was so bad I rarely followed the trail during the second half of my trek, including on the day when I should have gone over Snowdon, but on this, the rerun, my second attempt, I was going to reach the highest point on the Cambrian Way, the highest point in Wales. The demands of accommodation meant that I started this walk a long way from the route of the Cambrian Way, so instead of being in, or near, Beddgelert, where this stage begins, I was actually in the village of Nantlle, almost eight miles away. After walking just over half that distance along the road to reach the village of Rhyd-Ddu, instead of turning south towards Beddgelert, I kept heading east straight up Snowdon along the Rhyd-Ddu Path.

Initially I was on a wide gravel path that brought me to a junction and a signpost that directed me to turn left along the Rhyd-Ddu Path while keeping to the wider path would have brought me to Bwlch Cwm Llan where I could have rejoined the Cambrian Way at the start of the ascent along the southern ridge of Snowdon that passes over Allt Manderyn. Instead I decided to keep to the Rhyd-Ddu Path, partly because it is more direct, but perhaps more because I had only once before been on the Rhyd-Ddu Path, back in 2009, when there was snow on the ground and so conditions were much worse. Now, my only problem was a large crowd of people standing around on the path that I had to negotiate my way around before reaching the point where the terrain steepens on a great path with awesome views behind me back towards Nantlle while a cold wind picked up. As I slowly climbed, the path became less distinct amongst the stones until I eventually reached the top of the ridge, Llechog, where I had views across Cwm Clogwyn and up towards the top of Snowdon, but I still had a lot of walking to go. When the path steepened again a fence guided me up the zigzags that meander across the slope before passing to the left of a sharp peak, which the Cambrian Way traverses and on the other side I was finally reunited with the trail for the exciting traverse of the narrow ridge of Bwlch Main. 

My ascent continued as the ridge broadened until I eventually reached the visitor centre with the crowded summit just beyond. I was last on Snowdon in 2019 and before that in 2015, both occasions starting from Llanberis. At one time I was climbing Snowdon twice a year, but by 2012 I was fed up with the crowds so I stopped, and this was the first time since 2012 that I had climbed Snowdon from somewhere other than Llanberis. Although Snowdon is a great mountain, I don’t understand why so many people climb it, other than its superior height, but at least it leaves those discerning few to enjoy all of the other great mountains in Wales. After lunch I rushed down the busy path, mainly to get away from the strong, cold wind, past the tourists who were struggling to climb up and down the path, and to avoid the crowds I branched off onto the Snowdon Ranger Path which is a route I have often taken, mainly because it is relatively quiet. However, if my goal was to escape the cold wind then this was not the path to have taken. The Cambrian Way goes in the other direction to descend the Pyg Track which may have been more sheltered. This stage of the trail ends at Pen-y-Pass where there is a youth hostel, which I stayed at last year despite not going over Snowdon, but this time there was no accommodation available there so I once again had to divert off the Cambrian Way.

Gradually I descended along the ridge of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu before traversing steep rocky terrain on zigzags to reach a more sheltered, grassy landscape with views back towards Snowdon and the ridges that I had taken in ascent and descent. After crossing a fence I turned right to follow a good path up to Bwlch Maesgwm and down into the valley. This was the route I had taken off Snowdon in 2015 and I enjoyed the good, clear path that provided me with a relaxing route off the mountain and all the way into Llanberis. After buying some food I followed the route of the Snowdonia Slate Trail, and my own of last year, through the woodland up the slopes above Llyn Padarn until I reached Dinorwig where I stayed in the independent hostel. Despite the crowds, Snowdon is a great mountain, so any walk over it is going to be amazing, especially if the weather is kind, which it was on this occasion, despite a cold wind.