Weather Links

MWIS. Weather forecast for mountain regions. Only active Friday to Sunday. Highly Recommended.

Met Office. Now it's improved to a 5 day forecast! Great.

Snowdonia Snowline - States the altitude of lying snow in the Carneddau.

Metcheck weather

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Accuweather

Snowdon Weather Station Project. Weather data, but is down at the moment. The Webcams show Elidir Fawr and Moel Eilio.

Snowdon Sherpa Bus Timetables

Welsh Highland Railway.

Travelline Wales.

theTrainline - Timetables and online booking

The Welsh 3000s - website just about the 14 peaks.

The BMC - British Mountaineering Council.

The Mountain Bothy Association - yes, there are bothies in Eryri...

TAC - The Angry Corrie Scottish hillwalking fanzine, read it free.

Eryri - Snowdonia National Park.

Oggy Cam . Ogwen Mountain Rescue and a Ogwen Valley webcam.

BBC North West Wales.

Graham's Wales Photos. Loads of excellent pics on Eryri in here.

North Wales Photographs Beautiful photos of North Wales by Simon Kitchin.

Cambrian Mountains National Park A 'Should-Be' fourth welsh national park.

Snowdonia Society Charity which looks after the interests onf the National Park.

eryriway.org.uk Sister site to walkeryri, emphasising long distance trails.

Yr Aran from Rhyd Ddu map

Fri 23rd June

click for the map

Distance and Ascent	9.5 km / 650m	OS Map Required	OS Explorer 17 Landranger 150
Time	4 Hours	Difficulties	Some of the ascent can be loose and steep. The descent is pathless and the route given is blocked by a barbed wire fence.
Start Location	Car par (£3) at Rhyd Ddu Car park SH571525	End Location	as start
Grading	Moderate	Facilities	Toilets at start of walk, Pub and cafe in Rhyd Ddu.
Public Transport	Sherpa Buses (S4) from Caernarfon and Beddgelert. WHR Train from Caernarfon.	GPS Files

There's always something special when you manage to fit a decent walk in on a weekeday. It's almost like stolen time as we aren't meant to do fun things on a weekday. It's all work, work, work. So you have to work around that, and make the mosty of things. Well, I live so close to the hills that a bit of organisation means we can be treading the footpaths by half five (and this was later than i'd anticipated). What for? To bag a peak that's been like a stone in my shoe for years. I'd been to Bwlch Cwm Llan somany times, and on all but one occasion gone straight over or turned left for the South Ridge. On the one occasion i turned right, i found my boots had no grip and had to turn back. So i was finally going to go up Yr Aran.

The walk starts quite straightdforwardly from the car park at Rhyd Ddu (£3 per day, broken at the moment), following the path across the Welsh Highland Railway and towards Yr Wyddfa. This is a wide and easy path, posing no problems.

After a while, you will come to a gate that says "Footpath to Snowdon" or similar on it. Don't turn off here or you'll end up on the Rhyd Ddu path to Snowdon. Instead, continue on the path, through the spoil heaps, and eventually to Bwlch Cwm Llan. There is one point where you are nearly at the bwlch, and there will be a lake to to your right and a steep slate path ahead. Both lead to Bwlch Cwm Llan, and it's personal preference. Going along the lake side is marginally shorter, but may also be boggy. This is definately an interesting place for people with interest in industrial history. The slates here are less sterile than the tips above Llanberis, and are softened by thick lichen growth. From some angles, the tips almost look green.

At the bwlch, there is a dry stone wall. Follow this right. The path can be steep, and is polished rock in places (why i had to turn back before when wearing inadequate boots), and loose scree where it isnt! Fortunately it follows the wall for most of the route up. Once the wall starts veering left, you will find yourself on a shoulder with no wall. Following the path right will take you hassle free to the summit. Views from here are extensive, from Snowdon to the Rhinogydd, but not exceptional in tonight's visibility.

The time has come to descend, and you can do that the way you came if you wished. In that way you could combine this summit with an ascent of Snowdon's South Ridge. The quickest way down is to follow the path along the ridge. There is no clear path to take you back to the track, but the gound isn't too difficult to cross. We left the path at SH 601 514, which is as soon as you can descend safely in reality. While we aimed for the spoil tips, you would be better off aiming towards the lake at Bwlch Cwm Llan. Why? Because if you follow the GPS log below, you have to cross barbed wire. This, i assure you, isn't much fun when you're wearing Pertex trousers. A bit of lateral thinking using a neoprene knee brace around the wire saw me safely across though.

Now descend back to Rhyd Ddu along the track. Not a lot of navigational skill needed there.

Height Profile of the route (image courtesy of Tracklogs)

Tracklogs IMHO the best mapping for PC.

MemoryMap Still good, but route handling clumsier.

Viewranger mapping for smartphones.

Fugawi and Anquet are also popular.

Quo The new kid on the block.

Multimap - Free online mapping.

Get a Map - Free online mapping from the OS

Access Land in Wales - online mapping from CCW.