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.

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.

Moelwynion and Cnicht from Croesor. map

Sat 7th - Sun 8th Oct 2006

click for the map

This walk is usually done in the opposite direction. But who is to say which is the right one? Our decision was based on camping half way around, and we wanted to do most of the hard work on the Saturday, leaving an easty descent on the Sunday. It's more of a day walk than a backpack.

Croesor is a remote village that can only be reached by a narrow minor road. It may only be 3 Km from the main road, but it has the feel of being off the beaten track. It used to be the main road from Nantmor over to Maentwrog, but sees no through traffic today. It owes its existence to the slate industry, of which you'll see plenty of evidence on ths walk, and still boasts a village school (of only a handful of pupils).

The walk starts at the crossroads in the centre of the village. To the left there's the National Park car park which you might have driven to. We need to turn right (with the road back to Garreg behind us) up a minor road (although, they all area around here). This steepens, and you don't get much time to warm up on this little stretch. After a little over a kilometre, you arrive at a forest with a newly built stile for access. Cross this and enter the forest, following the path along it's edge. The path was very wet, and basically a stream in sections.

Beyond the shade of the forest, you are on open moor, and the grassy ridge we're aiming for is to our right. Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr are also prominent on the skyline. Cross the boggy stretch of moor, and you find the faint path is following a ditch. Keep with this path until you are nearer the ridge, when it's best to just head uphill immediately. There isn't much of a path, but it is possible to follow some sort of track all the way to the grassy summit.

Once up here, the terrain changes. Moelwyn Mawr and Craigysgafn are much craggier, and so is the parts of Moelwyn Bach that are now in view. The most important bit of navigation today is off the summit. Don't head directly for Moelwyn Mawr, as there is a great big overhanging crag in the way. To avoid certain death, head away from Moelwyn Mawr, and the path descends a grassy slope before intercepting a scree path. This may be a rather loose and uncomfortable descent, but undoubtedly better than the direct route.

The bwlch here has a small track that contours the hillside paralell to the route you have just taken. On such a windy day, this was a relief, and we found it sufficiently sheltered to knock up a brew. Of course, on further exploration, we found a roofless hut that would have been even better!

Craigysgafn ahead involves a little 'scrambling', but nothing major. The wind today made it a bit more exciting! The views down into Cwm Stwlan to the lake make it all the more so. The rock section is over too soon, and you are ascending a final slog to the summit of Moelwyn Mawr. There is no shelter on top, but some superb views and something that's fast becoming a rarity, a trig point.

We descended back to the path we ascended on, and turned left down towards a blunt, grassy ridge. If you keep right, then you can descend nearer to Moel yr Hydd. The grassy ridge, which is just discernable on the map, is the more direct route towards Rhosydd Quarry. Here, you arrive at some buildings which are a little below you, but there is a path past them, and also one to your right. You will need to go past the buildings and down a path with slate heaps high to either side. This track takes you all the way down to the main quarry buildings (SH665 462) which you can explore with care. Be warned though, that the final section of path has become a stream. You may walk it easily, or avoid it by crossing between the track and a tiny resevoir just before the quarry.

The path now continues forwards and left, over some boggy terrain, and sometimes faintly. However, it is reasonably easy to follow all the way to the high ground above Llyn yr Adar. We, however, being intrepid explorers, decided to take the cross country route to Llyn yr Adar. Yes, the path was too easy for us today, not that we couldn't find it or anything. Well, we went off path to look for a campsite, but found nothing. So, decided to take the direct route to Llyn yr Adar, no matter what. Oh, and it had started to rain.

We did make it eventually to Llyn yr Adar with light rapidly failing, the wind strengthening and the rain getting heavier. We were not too impressed by the state the place was in, with some idiots having left the prime spot as a tip. We had to camp there as it was the most sheltered spot and that was fortunate with the tent blowing in all directions during the night.

Morning finally came, and i'd had no sleep. Still, i felt good and breakfast on the hill is always great. It was a better morning than the previous evening, and we could cook and eat outside. I took my time, and it was nearly ten before the tent was packed and we were on the way up Cnicht.

Cnicht is easy from here, aim for the high ground, and turn right along the summit ridge. If you're doing a day walk, then the path brings you onto the summit ridge and leaving an easy climb to the top. Make the most of it, as you're downhill the rest of the way. We were put a bit to shame as there were two middle aged gents on top who'd done the same route as us, but had started it this morning! The path's not too bad in descent, slightly eroded but not overly so. Before you know it, the slope has eased, and you're on a green path that's easy on the feet. This takes you to a track, where you turn left into a forest and this track takes you back to the car park in a matter of minutes.

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.