Pete's Eats - The well known walker's and climber's caff in Llanberis.

Weather Links

MWIS. Weather forecast for Snowdonia.

Met Office. 5 day mountain forecast.

Snowdonia Snowline - Daily record of the Carneddau Snowline.

Metcheck weather - Longer range forecasts.

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Accuweather

Snowdon Weather Station Project. Weather data and Webcams of 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.

Crib Nantlle Traverse. Across the Nantlle Ridge.
Distance and Ascent 14km, 1100m ascent OS Map Required OS Explorer 17 Landranger 150 Time 7 hours. Difficulties Steep ascents, some scrambling. Nav on latter sections. Start Rhyd Ddu End Nebo Grading Hard Facilities Cafe, parking WC at start. Public Transport Frequent Sherpa buses to Rhyd Ddu, limited bus service at Nebo. GPS Files

The Nantlle Ridge, or Crib Nantlle – sounds a bit more exposed, always a favourite walk. Today it was clearly everyone else’s favourite too as you passed someone every hundred metres or so along the tops. At least they were all small groups today, rather than huge overpowering crowds.

I’ve never wild camped in the Nantlle Hills, or Eifionydd in Welsh, so this trip was intended to plug the gap. The walk, like always, starts from Rhyd Ddu car park. On the opposite side of the road there’s a kissing gate that you need to pass through, and then follow a path along the boggy field. This takes you to a cottage in trees, bear left (not directly ahead into their garden!) and then cross the river at a footbridge. Follow the track and the signs to arrive back at the main road.

You cross a very nasty, metal stile here, and may ponder why you’re now on the road. Bear left and enter the next field to continue on the footpath. Shortly, the path takes an obvious uphill right, which is unmistakeably the way up Y Garn. This is yet another Garn, and may often be called Y Garn II in lists to distinguish it from Y Garn in the Glyderau (there’s a Garn III in the Rhinogydd). Thinking about the other hills named Y Garn might put you off the slog ahead, or maybe not.

In an hour, or a little more, the path eases off and the worst is behind you. Right takes you to the summit of Y Garn, which isn’t more than the end of the ridge, but is a fine viewpoint. You’ll also more than likely feel like you’ve deserved a break after all that steep climbing too, and you’ve even got the choice of two summit shelters to do so.

Route finding now isn’t hard, at least not until you arrive at Craig Cwm Silyn. Follow the ridge. Mynydd Drws y Coed is the highlight, being a grade 0.5 scramble, with a couple of exposed walking sections. But the scrambling is over all too soon, so make sure you take your time and wander off to your right to peer into the cwm far below Craig Marchnad.

The summit is almost a disappointment, being so grassy – but it makes another decent spot for a break. That’s the problem with the Nantlle, so many summits to climb and it feels downright rude not to stop on each one and give the summit the time it deserves. The next ones upon you soon. Steeply down, then steeply up to Trum y Ddysgl, where there are invariably people stopping for their third lunch of the day. The flat, grassy summit being easy on the feet. You can descend to Rhyd Ddu from here (see other route), but it’s much better to walk the lot if you can manage it. Feels complete.

Down again, through the interesting col between Tal y Mignedd and Trum y Ddysgl, with it’s notch to negotiate and much more exposure than you’d expect. Tal y Mignedd is the one with the obelisk. So you can’t miss it. It’s also easily attained, and there’s a wall to lead you most of the way up.

Make the most of the grass, the walk roughens up again soon. First the steep, loose descent to Bwlch Dros Bern. Reachign the col is a relief, and today i was meant to camp here. It was far too windy, and i decided i wanted to ascend all the summits today. Last year i’d have descended to a campsite at this point, it shows that the fitness does *Eventually* build. I did find a nice, sheltered spot in the bwlch though, but the lack of water nearby meant i had to plod on. The climb of Craig Cwm Silyn can be difficult to find, but if you know to contour right for a short while you’ll not go far wrong. Only near the top does the path vanish in the rocks, but perseverance should see you on top.

You can relax now. That was the last real climb you’ll do on this walk. After a 5th break on the top, or if you’re feeling picky there’s two tops near each other so possibly 6th, the walk across to Garnedd Goch is along a wide, stony ridge. There’s a faint path, and this would be easy to miss in mist. Fortunately, there’s a stone wall that can be used as a handrail about half way across. This can be followed all the way to the top of Garnedd Goch, which is really an insignificant bump on the ridge, but being on the edge gives it views down across Pen Llyn.

The wall dips steeply down the slope, i found that by following the side opposite the summit was best idea. The ground is rougher and heathery now, the lack of clear paths a testament to the few walkers that make it this far. Most have already scurried back to their cars in Rhyd Ddu. You can plod on, and i was surprised to bump into a few people at this far end of the ridge. What i’d hoped to bump into was a river, so i descended a couple of hundred metres to a river – that was dry! I couldn’t descend much further without entering farmland, and the ground areound me was too heathery to camp in, so i reascended and aimed for the river shown at Bwlch Cwmdulyn.

This is a clear notch in the walk, but there wasn’t any water. There was no way i was re-tracing my footsteps to Bwlch Dros Bern now, so i decided that i’d had a good day’s walk and that’d be it. Crossing from Bwlch Cwmdulyn to Mynydd Graig Goch was easy and flat, but with some very boggy areas – but mainly dried up today so were easily avoided. You need some decent compass skills in mist to cross the plateau, but the wall that crosses the summit means you can’t overshoot without hitting it.

Mynydd Graig Goch is a remote outpost of Snowdonia, sharing more with Bwlch Mawr on the opposite side of the wide Dwyfach valley than it does with the walk you started. Now that would be an intersting continuation to the walk. The summit is bouldery, and shelter can be found. The eagle eyed might spot the little shelters built below the summit, in the rocks, probably for shepherds in the past – i was hurrying too much today to investigate.

I was relaxing now, being the end of the walk and it all being downhill. I’d not reckoned on the Great Wall of Nebo that blocked my progress. Walking downhill did not reveal a stile, so near the summit the wall hits a large crag. I crossed here – using the rock for balance. Another thing it has in common with Bwlch Mawr – the only other local summit i’ve had to clamber over a stone wall to get to or from.

Once this was passed, then it really was downhill. No path, or an intermittent one at best, that becomes clear near the bottom. Again, in mist you’d be aiming for the stone wall ahead before turning right and downhill to Llyn Dulyn – not to be confused with Dulyn in the Carneddau. It was a lovely spot, and a couple of elderly gents were here – much the worse for wear – making the most of the setting. They told me that the flag on the gate was theirs and i wasn’t to take it.

A track leads down to Nebo from here, or just a little further to Llanllyfni where there are many bus services (but tonight it was taxi time!)

I did the ridge again a few weeks later, returning by the same route as last year along the tramlines. Some pics above are from that trip, some more are put below. I took the right of way that seems like a shortcut from the tramway to the slatequarries, but it was a poor choice. Grass was chest high and invisible underfoot were tussocks of grass and pools of water. One to avoid!

General Links

Snowdonia attractions Several great reviews about some of Snowdonia's better known attractions. 

English-welsh dictionary Links and resources to help you translate that welsh word into English.

Walking shoes - Another site that I found that sells walking shoes online.

Merrell Walking Shoes from fitnessfootwear.com, decent little site i found for Merrell walking shoes.

Whalley Warm and Dry - paramo stockists, great service and range.

V-G Walking and Backpacking. Inspirational website detailing one to three (and more) day walks around the UK.

Trekking Britain. Route descriptions & experience as opposed to guide book.

OutdoorsMagic - Forum based website, lots of information on here.

Phil George - Mountain Leader Training in Llanberis.

Peak and Fell Walking - A photographic guide to walking in Britain's National Parks.

Wild Tramp.co.uk - New site on walking in the UK. Looks promising.

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.

Open Street Map - Open source mapping as featured on this site.

Multimap - Free online mapping.

Get a Map - Free online mapping from the OS

Access Land in Wales - online mapping from CCW.