Snowdonia Links

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

Advertise your Snowdonia Business here! Email for info.

Accuweather

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

Public Transport

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.

Mynydd Mawr from Rhosgadfan. map

Weds Apr 16th 2008

click for the map

Distance and Ascent	10km, 550m ascent	OS Map Required	OS Explorer 17 Landranger 150
Time	5 Hours	Difficulties	Navigation in mist from summit.
Start Location	Minor road layby near Rhosgadfan.	End Location	as start
Grading	Moderate	Facilities	None
Public Transport	Buses to Rhosgadfan or Waunfawr, but then adds a few km to the route.	GPS Files

Simple out and back from a backroad between Waunfawr and Rhosgadfan.

This starts from what i call the Kate Roberts memorial on the back road between Waunfawr and Rhosgadfan (SH  514583), i’ll do the walking but i’ll let you work out how to get there. You can easily get to this walk from the Snowdonia Park Inn in Waunfawr via the route described in this walk.

This is a very straightforward trip in clear weather. Very much a case of pick a path, any path, so long as it’s vaguely in the right direction. Ideally you’ll leave the minor road up a concrete road and follow this as far a farm (on the right) and an enclosure (left). Cross between these and there’s a path that leads uphill through the heather.

It’s best to take the path uphill left and then right along the trees, but you can easily cut across the heather to get there. Once you’ve got the stone wall and conifer plantatin to your left then you’ve got the first bit sorted. Yr Wyddfa is seen clearly over these trees, and the imposing cwm of under Mynydd Mawr dominates the view ahead. You may also notice why it’s better known locally as Mynydd Eliffant (Elephant Mountain).

There is an easy track to follow, which takes you after a few km to a slight drop and what seems to be a drying up lake (SH 528 558 ). The path is a little boggy here, but only for a few steps before it pulls steeply up the heather. This is NOT marked on the map, where the path stops at the labelling Sheepfold and turns south west. It levels a while, before joining another, larger track on an obvious path up the mountain.

Unfortunately, illegal scrambler bikes have made an absolute mess of the first section of path that used to snake gently upwards. You can still follow the snaking path, but must cross the destruction left in the wake of the motorbikes. See this blog entry for further information on how to stop illegal scrambling in the National Park. The first steep pull ends at an old mineshaft, and thankfully, the path beyond is reasonably good (but how long before this too is destroyed?) and goes straight and steeply upwards.

The cliffs dominate the view to the left, and this really is a hidden gem. I think that the evening light that this cwm will receive does make it much more scenic. So think of doing this later in the day for best impact.

The path becomes fainter as you reach the top, where you will need to bear right to find the summit (check map for a bearing in mist). Being so isolated, probably the most solitary summit in Snowdonia, the views are superb. The Nantlle dominate one aspect, while the taller summits of Northern Eyri form a horrizon so crammed with mountains it could be Scotland. Today they were snowcapped, and reasonably clear. The new building on Snowdon also has its glass in, as that reflected in the evening light.

Descent is by the same route, but you can follow a line of cairns directly from the summit, presumably to keep you on a bearing away from the cliffs. In poor visibility, you’ll be wise to take a bearing just in case!

Finally, you can follow the path to the very minor summit of Moel Smytho, a decent viewpoint for such modest height, before following the obvious track back to the farm and to the minor road.

Digital Mapping

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.