2 Day route in North Wales by staff from the Chester store
Simon Bryant and Tony Didcock from the Chester store took to the mountains of North Wales on a 2 day walking trip. Route details below.
Start point: Llyn Ogwen, North Snowdonia
Via: Ffynnon Llugwy Reservoir
Penywaunwen
Carnedd Llwelyn
Foel Grach
Garnedduchaf
Foel-fras
Finish point: Llyn Anafon Reservoir
Distance: 14KM
Total Ascent: 1000m
Total Descent: 800m
Time taken: 5 to 6 hours walking
Route Reversed on Second day.
It finally stopped raining once we had ascended the col lying between Penywaunwen and Pen Llithrig-y-wrach, giving us the opportunity to take in the scenery. Half way up this ridge, it turns into a grade one scramble. This would not normally cause us too many problems, but carrying bags up to 70 litres does make you think twice about certain moves on the scramble!
The view from Penywaunwen looking south onto Tryfan (the black triangle), with the Glyder range behind. The sun came out and continued to shine right through until day two. Excellent! Heading North West, a 200m climb would take us to the summit of Carnedd Llwelyn, our highest point for the trip, standing at 1062m.
Standing close to the summit of Foel-grach looking towards the spectacular ridge line of Yr Elen. To me, this is a rare moment as it is not often that I see such clear skies in Wales, especially during the winter.
Which way do we go? On the top of Foel-grach, there is a small mountain rescue hut. Although the weather was perfect, we took shelter within the hut and used it to our advantage. We used our MSR pocket rocket stoves and made ourselves a well deserved brew. N.B; Most mountain huts are not published for fear that they may be misused, but this particular hut is labeled on the Ordnance Survey map.
Even though Llyn Anafon looks close, it took longer to descend to Llyn Anafon than anticipated. Our tired legs dictated how fast we could reach the reservoir to enable us to pitch out tent. Just as the tents were pitched and the stoves alight, the sun set and darkness fell upon us. By now, our water supplies were low, so using a Katadyn Hiker water filter; we managed to get ice cold water to reward us on our day’s efforts!
The view was glorious. It was refreshing to see the coastline, seeing as far over to Anglesey and the city of Bangor.
The weather closed in on the final ascent up to Carnedd Llwelyn on the second day. Using the data on the Garmin Etrex H GPS, we followed our first day’s route markers to safely guide us to the summit. Visibility went down to approximately 10m at one point, yet the GPS continued to work. Our efforts on the final ascent were rewarded with Baby Bells and brief glimpses of the valley floor below. Convinced that we were the first to summit Carnedd Llweyln that day, we happily set off to descend the ridge back to down the Ffynnon Llugwy Reservoir, only to be met by a set of footprints in the snow.
