Search This Blog

Pages

Wales: Snowdonia Weekend

Day 1: 28th June 2014 - Y Garn and Devil's Kitchen

A forum meet based at the stunning location of the Ogwen Valley.  Surrounded by mountains, the Yr Hafod "hut" - our base for the weekend - was perfectly placed for the main walk.  For most of the group that was a full mountain day out circuit of The Glyderau.  For me and a couple of others, it was a shorter version up Y Garn and down Devil's Kitchen.  A walk totaling only 5.5 miles but every single one of those miles was on tough, gnarly mountain rock paths with steep gradients.

Some pictures:

Ready for the off!

View down the valley


The start of the climb

That's not the top!

Having a breather (the top is in the mist behind)

Looking down towards Llyn Ogwen and Llyn Idwal

Into the mist we go

Visibility is getting worse

Y Garn summit!

The group on the summit

Meeeeeee! on the summit

Llyn Cwn

The start of the descent down Devil's Kitchen

Llyn Idwal under the mist

Devil's Kitchen (our path is out of shot to the left of this pic)

Out of the cloud and heading along the headwall

Not that you can tell but this is a vertical stream

The headwall from the shores of Llyn Idwal
(we've just been up there in the clouds)

Llyn Idwal

Cute gate near Idwal Cottage (youth hostel)


The final walk back to our accommodation
(building in the centre of the pic)

A VERY tough day's walking for me.  I struggled, even with the shorter route.  It was exhilarating though - getting up an over 3,000ft Welsh mountain (Y Garn).  Shame there was no views from the top as I'm assured it is absolutely stunning in good visibility!! Typical!!!!

Day 2: 29th June 2014 - Llyn Crafnant

Much better weather today!   This walk was more my "thing" and I really enjoyed the scenery.  The rest of the group raced on a little too fast for me, and my Achilles tendon started to really play me up as a result, which was a shame as this spoiled what was otherwise a fantastic walk and one I'd do again sometime.  I believe it was about 8 miles in total.

Some pictures:

Looking back towards the Snowdon "Horseshoe"
from the start in Capel Curig

Nice, easy woodland paths

Heading up towards Crimpiau

Lovely

View of Llyn Crafnant from the top

It would be wrong not to!

Enjoying a cuppa in the sunshine

Fabulous mossy hillsides

Old quarry

An even better view of Llyn Crafnant later in the afternoon

Enjoying the views

On the final path back to Capel Curing
(with the Snowdon Horseshoe in the background)

... and back into Capel Curig we head

After this walk we all went our separate ways home, but not before a stop-off in Betws-y-Coed for fish and chips...

Lovely waterfalls on Afon Coed

And finally, a few random pictures from our accommodation for the weekend:

The group plotting routes

Lovely sunset

Pen-y-Ole-Wen

The "local" pub (about 5 miles away!)

All in all, a great weekend in a stunning and remote location.  With hindsight, even the shorter walk that I did was too much for me and I felt a lot of pressure to "keep up" with the rest of the group who are evidently a lot more used to mountain terrain than I am.