This wasn’t my first attempt to reach the summit of Pen y Ole Wen. During my first try I reached a small scramble section and something just didn’t quite feel right.
One thing I’ve struggled with is following my gut and on previous hikes I’ve carried on forward when I should have turned around.
I have mixed in a few photos from my first try in with this post.
The Route
I started this hike from my favourite car camping spot in the Ogwen Valley along the A5. I can highly recommend this spot if that’s your jam. After visit g the area a few times now I’ve also got some places I want to go back and camp in.
The first stretches of this hike follows a rocky grassy path beside streams and waterfalls. There are a few sections where I could see bags of rocks ready to be laid out by the amazing volunteers of the BMC.
Pen Yr Ole Wen
On my first attempt of summit Pen, this scramble section is when I turned around. It looks worse than it is in the photo below. Since I was unsure about what the path was like after this I followed my gut and turned back. As it turns out this is probably to most technical section of the whole hike, and the path that follows after is a fun and easy to follow zig zag towards the summit.
Carnedd Dafydd
Carnedd Llewelyn
As you can see from the photo below the second highest mountain in Wales also wasn’t offering too many amazing views.
Thankfully this stone shelter offered enough protection so I could sit an enjoy a coffee at the summit.
Pen yr Helgi Du
The last summit of the day was pretty spectacular, it was a bit of a scramble to reach the top but I’m gad I went for it.
One thing that I find amazing is the way the same mountain can look almost completely different depending on your perspective. Even in these shots all taken from the same direction.
