Carneddau

Date of Walk : Thursday 4th January 2013

Distance : 9.53 miles
Time Taken : 5 hours 22 mins
Elevation Gain : 3396 feet

This walk involved a very early start from Oswestry and getting out of bed at 6am, we wondered what we were doing as it seemed so dark. However, as the day continued, this early start was most definitely worth it. The original plan was to walk in Snowdonia but upon driving over, it was looking extremely grim, so a unanimous decision from myself, Gary and Neil was made to head for the Ogwen valley. A better decision couldn't have been made. as Snowdonia seemed to be shrouded in cloud all day.

We parked on the A5, and started by heading up Pen Yr Ole Wen following the river which was flowing rather quickly, especially when I missed an easy crossing, but eventually I rejoined Neil and Gary without the need for mountain rescue. We continued up the mountain before starting the scramble up to the summit. Our route turned at the outflow to Ffynon Lloer before following the ridge to the summit.

The cloud was creating spectacular effect on the way up, with perfect views of Tryfan on the way up and then the whole range would disappear in swirling mist.

I was hoping that we may be lucky enough to witness a brocken spectre, as conditions seemed similar to one I had experience previously in the Lake District. However, one never arrived although walking across the plateau the sun was creating spectacular effects. Eventually, we reached the summit although we didn't linger for long as it was extremely windy.

Thanks to Neil for the photo.












Despite the slight disappointment of no brocken spectre, the awesome cloud invesrions more than made up for it. I've never seen one as clear and the only thing missing was a peak poking through, but it was still a fantastic sight.

We continued along the ridge before climbing to Carnedd Dafydd, and then moving on to Carnedd Llewelyn. The final summit of the day was Pen Yr Helgi Du. Hopefully I've got all these summits correct, but my GPS log confirms visiting these summits! All in all it was a spectacular day in the mountains, and was worth both the early start and the decision to change our planned route.

A massive thanks to Neil and Gary for their company on a great mountain day. A brilliant start to 2013 and hopefully there is more weather similar to this on many days this year.

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