Even though the weather wasn’t quite on my side it did improve during the day to make this a simply amazing hike. My first visit to the Glyderau range of mountains and the start of what I think will be a long love affair.
The Route
Car Camping at Llyn Ogwen
On my Scotland trip earlier this year I did spend the one night in the car, sleeping on the passenger seat as flat as it could go. With a little bit of thought and only a small investment I’ve created a little kit which allows me to turn my car into a mini camper experience. At 5ft 10 I can lie down comfortably in the back of my juke and still have a place to sit.
I do need to keep my stuff organised, or else it can quickly become a very small space! Still the array of free parking by the side of Llyn Ogwen along the A5 is great.
The carparks do get busy quickly in the morning so I decided to drive up the night before, it means I can start with the sun and get in a full day of hiking.
Devils Kitchen
Once you have navigated around Llyn Idwal, the ascent starts, slowly at first as the rocky face of the Devils Kitchen gets closer into view. The fog that hung around added to the atmosphere of this hike. I could only ever see the next section, I had little idea of what was coming after it.
There is a mix of steps and rocky bouldery section that I needed to use my hands to get through. Sometimes I found the steps become slightly harder to find as these section do require some deviation from the set path.
Once I got passed the mouth of the Devils Kitchen waterfall, the path started to flatten out a little. It was a happy sight to see the style that marks the start of the plateau between Glyder Fawr & Y Garn.
I could feel the wind a little more on this section, as see it little less as the clouds were pushed across the sky at a slightly quicker pace. There are quite a few options for paths in this flat section, but I was heading east towards Glyder Fawr.
Glyder Fawr
The first mountain I encountered on this hike was Glyder Fawr. Although the words derives from the name for a heap of stones it can also be loosely translated to gladness too. Which I though was pretty fitting.
The ascent starts, and carries on with a loose scree scramble. I had only done this once before on my way up Scafell Pike. This one however, was a little bit steeper. With the clouds masking most of the landscape around me, this section seemed to last an age. Until I reached a cairn and the path started to level out.
It was a hard slog. When I reached the top, I then had to double check with my maps which of the rocky mounds was the summit of the mountain. I wanted to properly bag my first Nuttall Summit of the Glyderau Range.
I will admit, I quite liked that clouds of fog were passing through at this point. The rocky surface of the summit is something else. It looks like a moonscape. DC if you’re listening. If you ever want to create Superman’s home planet there is no need to fake CGI it. The Glyders would make an amazingly believable back drop for Krypton.
Castell Y Gwynt
I only went past this one, I didn’t exactly reach the summit. It was probably the worst point of the wind and fog.
One good thing though is that it gives me a good excuse to go up these mountains again. Maybe at a point where I can get a better view, and fully appreciated the landscape.
Glyder Fach
The final summit of the day and one that I quickly took in. I will admit that the climb and the wind had taken it out of me. At this point I was really just looking for my quickest route off the mountain. Don’t know why I do that as it usually doesn’t take too long until the weather starts to improve.
Usually, I get another boost of energy, a like Superman getting his power form the sun. I wished I had stayed a little longer. Following the wide ridge and bagging the two Nuttalls on the far east of the range.
These mountains aren’t going anywhere though, they will wait. I don’t think that it is going to be long before I return to this absolutely awe inspiring part of North Wales.