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.

Advertise your Snowdonia Business here! Email for info.

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.

Moel Wnion Circuit and Aber Falls
Distance and Ascent 19km / 750m OS Map Required OS Explorer 17 Landranger 150 Time 7 hours Difficulties Navigation off path. Start Location Aber on the A55 End Location Aber on the A55 Grading Hard Facilities Cafe, parking WC. Public Transport Buses to Aber from Bangor and Conwy. GPS Files

It's always exciting to be trying out new kit. Well, this time, it seemed i had more new kit than tested. New tent, new sleeping bag, new stove and pans and new rucsack. Oh yes, and the boots were new too. Mabye you're ahead of me here in guessing the purpose of this walk, but i'll tell you anyway. Gear testing. I needed to test it all out and get a general feel for it before trying anything too adventurous.

Still, i think starting a walk after a hard week's work (when bed is all i wanted) was rather adventurous, and it turned out that the evening's stroll would be harder than anticipated.

The walk started in Aber, about 6pm, it should have been earlier but traffic from Anglesey was atrcious. You can, like me take the first footpath right, and it takes you straight up the hill, though ends dead in bracken half way. Or, more intelligently, you can wander a little further up the road to the falls (2 mins or so) and take that path. It was this path i struggled upon after thrashing through chest high bracken that's found in abundance in these parts. But at least i was on the path, and on the way to my pitch for the night.

The path is easy from here, if steep in places. You need to be aiming for the cross shaped conifer plantation, where a path takes you past it's top. Don't follow the one that cuts across the trees, that's the north wales path and will be my return route. After a while, the view opens up to your left of the Carneddau and Aber Falls, the destination for tomorrow.

The easy path contours around Moel Wnion to the wide col between this hill and Drosgl. Tonight, it was dry and i had my pick of places to pitch, however the col is clearly a boggy place under normal conditions. The biggest problem is finding water, as the river is far down a grassy gully and was no more than a trickle. It is also the first stream this route passes. Pitching was easy, and i was soon scoffing a curry i'd frozen to make it more robust in the rucsac, and watching the sun quickly set. It had taken nearly 3 hours to get here, i couldn't beleive it. So I decided to stroll back the next day and not try and push it. Tonight however, i lay reading in the tent till one, and had one of the best night's sleep for ages, not waking till after eight.

It was a nice morning, with sunshine and mist intermittently. I didn't cook breakfast, instead i ate a cold cooked sausage i had (mattesons) which filled a gap. I think next time i go on an overnighter, i shan't bother with a stove and carry cold, ready-to-eat rations. Though, i must admit, the curry was the best morale booster i could have had.

Today, i decided to return to Aber via the North Wales Path, and this was reached by a path going north. It's a nasty, eroded path, but i realised that my knees were giving me no descent pain (that's a first). Beware the path here, as it's easy to lose and end up heading for where you think the NWP lays. However, farmers tend to circle their fields, and usually, any direct routes, in barbed wire, which i now had to traverse. Of course, it is just at the right height to perform an impromptu mountain vasectomy, so that's out of the question. The wire is too flimsy to take weight, so neither is that. I eventually find a lengthy section where i am, with great care, able to limbo up and over between the barbed wire and the fence.

The track from here onwards is impossible to lose. It's wide and grassy, and generally in good nick. The only drawback are the pylons that seem to be ever present. On reaching the Cross Plantation, i decided that the walking was easy and continued along the NWP to the Aber Falls and finally to Aber to enjoy a couple of pints. The last section is from the falls to the A55, and is touristy and level enough for pushchairs. The most notable thing on the walk was the fact that my knees didn't hurt, which bodes well for more interesting routes in the future.

This route, might be of interest if you want to do a low level walk around Aber or want an access point to the Northern Carneddau. Possibly, you might fancy a Friday start and the wild camp area above, might be just right for an all out assault on The Carneddau the next day (my initial plan).

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.