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.

Cnicht and Ysgafell Wen from Beddgelert.

click for the map

Fri 2nd to Sat 3rd June 2006 (22km, 1050m ascent).

This is a rather long approach to Cnicht, but worth it. You start it off by following the tourist path down the Aberglaslyn Pass. Some later sections of this could be slippery in the wet. Other than that, it's a straightforward walk to Nantmor. Turn left along the main road, and then left again at a junction to pass through the hamlet of Nantmor. There is a bit of lane walking now, but you soon arrive at the road junction at Bwlchgwernog. Cross the lane towards the dirt track that leads uphill opposite. Follow this and you are very soon on open hill.

The track you need to follow is easy and wide, ascending only slowly. It's easy to take your time along here on a warm day and rest by the small river you pass (Afon Dylif). Onwards, and you soon arive at a large, new gate and a track that leads downhill right or left, towards Cnicht. It starts off easy, but the last kilometre to the summit is rather steep and can be exposed in places. Considering that this is the tourist route up the hill, it could be tricky following the ridge in places in mist. There are some sections of scrambling, but these are avoidable.

The summit arrives as soon as the steepness eases, which is a relief. There is no trig or cairn on top, but there is a spectacular view from here, especially of the Moelwynion themselves.

The ridge leads off ahead, and a definite path can be followed toards Llyn yr Adar. There are a lot of small lakes ahead, and most look similar. Llyn yr Adar is the larger one with a rocky island in the middle, you can't mistake it. It is a popular wild camp, and so we pitched here for the night. I shant say exactly where, that leads to overuse of these locations.

There is an excellent view over Yr Wydddfa and most of Snowdonia from here, owing to it's central location. Where we camped was a bit low, so you missed out on the view from the tent, but what we did have was still worth every bead of sweat shed to get here.

To continue the walk, Ysgafell Wen is not just ahead, but occupies most of the skyline. It's a rather long ridge, with small summits along it's length, making it more difficult than it should to find your way around. Like us, you'll certainly come across a lake where you dont expect it to be. Argue briefly with the map, and give in to the fact that the lake is probably where it should be and it's you that's temporarily misplaced.

From Llyn yr Adar, you will be able to see a cairn atop one of these minor summits. This is the lower of the two main Ysgafell Wen summits, marked by a 669m spot height on the 1:50,000 map, but nothing on the 1:25,000. You can head directly for this if you want, or head towards Llynnoedd y Cwn and make your way along this pleasantly complex terrain. Just be warned, that this part of the Moelwynion has only faint paths and needs some decent navigational skills in all weathers, let alone mist.

The first summit of Ysgafell Wen (SH 663 485) is furnished with a well built, triangular cairn. It is useful as it is visible from a fair distance. Like most points along this walk, there is a superb view again. Cross a boggy col (most of them are around here) and pass a small lake to reach the main summit of Ysgafell Wen, which isn't as well furnished as it's shorted sibling.

Descend down to a fence that now forms a useful handrail for our route. Follow the path to another lake, Llyn Terfyn, with it's crystal clear waters. Then ascend Moel Druman. Beware the first gate here as it is placed in a quagmire. You will need to cross over the fence to it's left. There is a problem here with motorbike scramblers, and the damage along this section is significant. The park warden we met said that the local farmer let them up as the scramblers kept cutting his fences (sounds like intimidation to me), some pics are in the gallery to judger for yorself. There are also electric fences around here, so take care! We avoided the summit of Moel Druman today, but by barely any height or distance, and descended towards Llyn Conglog and it's smaller, un-named neighbour to its north. From here, a clear path can either take you up Allt Fawr, or a less clear one along it's northern flanks to the Crimea Pass.

Our packs were weighing heavy, so we decided to descend to Crimea Pass directly, and decided to do so via the small Llyn Iwerddon. This has dams on 2 sides and must have been a reservoir for one of the quarries. Ideal spot for a bit of lunch.

The last bit of walk was rather dull, as once we'd descended from Llyn Iwerddon, keeping to the left of the river, and towards the railway air shaft, we followed the road to Dolwyddelan. There are other options on the map, but this was the shortest, and seemed like a good idea at the time! Blaenau Ffestiniog would be a better descent option, or the intended route to Dolwyddelan over Moel Penamnen.

Height Profile of the route (image courtesy of Tracklogs)

GPS Files

	Recommended route in tracklogs format.
	Recommended route in Memorymap format.
	Route in .gpx format, this should load into EasyGPS and then you can load it onto your GPS or convert it. See this page for more information about different file types.

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.