Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains – the Top 10

Following the publication, by The Great Outdoors magazine, of their “Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains” supplement, the magazine’s staff canvassed attendees of the 2018 Kendal Mountain Festival to find out their opinions as to which should be top of the list.

It was acknowledged that the list might be skewed against Scottish mountains because the festival was south of the border.  Despite that, it is a reasonably impressive list.

1              Tryfan

2              Buachaille Etive Mor

3              Great Gable

4              Cader Idris

5              Helvellyn

6              Lochnagar

7              Cnicht

8              Moel Siabod

9              An Teallach

10           Schiehallion

I would argue against the inclusion of Cnicht and Moel Siabod; they’re good hills but I suspect that their accessibility to major centres of populations ensured their prominence.

I’m also surprised that neither Snowdon nor Ben Nevis made the top 10 but perhaps their 3 Peaks notoriety went against them.

And also the exclusion of any or all of the Torridon giants was a bit of an eye-opener.

For the record, I’ve ticked 7 of the 10 with the outstanding 3 all being in Scotland.

A 2018 Summary

At the start of 2018 I had 459 summits on my combined ticklist of TRAIL 100, Nuttall, WASHIS, Simpson, Dawson, Dewey, Moss, Wright, Bridge and Buxton & Lewis summits.  2018 was the fifth year of my arbitrary 10-year completion plan and I had aimed to tick 52 summits on my list which would include 23 Nuttalls and 4 TRAIL 100s.

The year was one of distraction, with personal and family issues taking precedence over ticking summits.  So, for the fifth year in a row I didn't reach my targets.  From now on, I won't be setting annual targets and I'll take a more relaxed approach to reach completion.

Overall I :

            went on             11                                 walks

            walked              76.5                              miles

            ascended          24,390                          feet

            walked for         55 hrs 6 mins              (including rest stops !)

            reached            28                                 individual summits that I hadn’t been to before

            reached            4                                   individual summits that I had been to before

            reached            27                                 summits on my combined ticklist

            reached            1                                   previously unclimbed TRAIL 100 summits

            reached            14                                 previously unclimbed Nuttall summits

            drove                2343                             miles on trips to and from walks

2018 saw 3 Nuttall reclassifications:

            Miller Moss (Little Lingy Hill) was promoted from ex-Nuttall to Nuttall status;

            Foel Cedig was "discovered" as a new Nuttall;

            Cyrniau Nod was demoted to ex-Nuttall status.

Another change was that Cefn Gwyntog North Top was split into 2 summits – North Top and Far North Top – which increased my ticklist by 1.

I also added a couple of more lists to my own ticklist.  I added the ex-Nuttalls which increased my list by 5 and I added the TGO40 list – The Great Outdoors magazine's selection of the 40 best mountains to celebrate its 40th anniversary – which only increased my list by 2.  The TGO40 is roughly a subset of the TRAIL 100 list!

The most significant walks included explorations of the Moelwyns, my first ascent of Cader Idris and my eighth ascent of Snowdon.

All of this meant that after additions, promotions, demotions and my walks, my ongoing ticklist decreased from 459 to 441 summits.

An Erratic Walk

A short Sunday stroll today.  We walked to Clapham and then uphill through the tunnels next to Ingleborough Hall before turning onto Long Lane and then up to Ash Tree Crag before following an easy rake to higher ground.

Pen-y-ghent from above Norber

We were wanting to cross the drystone wall but there were no stiles and it took us some time to find an easy way over the wall, especially for those shorter of leg.  A stop for sandwiches in the lee of a small crag was the prelude to descending the limestone pavement to the Norber erratics for some impromptu bouldering.

a classic Norber erratic

We found the path to the bottom of Robin Proctor's Scar and followed Thwaite Lane back to Clapham before indulging in a little afternoon tea on Lowstern's terrace.

The Yorkshire Trap

Staying at Lowstern on a club meet, today was about ticking a couple of Nuttalls in the Yorkshire Dales.  Firstly I drove to above Dent station and parked up.  Starting the walk by heading south on the Pennine Bridleway, after about half a mile I turned left to follow the fence uphill.  Fairly easy walking, passing some cairns to the right, led directly to the trig point of Great Knoutberry Hill.  Like many a Pennine trig point, this one was surrounded by a pool of water and only a couple of strategically placed fenceposts prevented a few feet of paddling.

Great Knoutberry Hill summit

On these hills, map and compass work is not always needed as fences and drystone walls can be used to show the way.  I walked to the eastern edge of Widdale Great Tarn and followed a wall across some boggy ground to Widdale Fell East Top.  Not wanting to return over the same bog I crossed to the other side of the wall in the hope of some better ground.  At a small stream I came across a short length of telegraph pole crossing the stream with a Rail type animal trap attached to it.  The pole was obviously placed there to give wildlife easy access across the stream but the trap in the wire cage was the reward!  Probably meant to catch stoats or weasels to protect the grouse on the moor, the trap was set.  Killing wildlife to protect birds that themselves are bred to be killed by driven shooting is not something that I agree with so, concerned that the trap may be illegal, I took photos so I could send them to the local police.

the Rail trap

Continuing over the hags marking the summit of Widdale Fell, I followed the wall to Widdale Little Tarn.  Losing some height brought the tarn into view and I saw that a stone shooting butt had been built in the middle of the tarn, with a narrow stone causeway leading to it from the far side.  The grass-topped butt isn't marked on the map and after taking some photos I headed almost exactly west to the car.

Widdale Little Tarn

Widdale Little Tarn's shooting butt

The second walk of the day started from Cam High Road, a Roman road above Hawes.  A mile of easy walking along the track ended at a gate, from where I headed uphill towards the top of Drumaldrace.  It was a simple tick followed by a leisurely walk back to the car and an exploratory drive across the Dales back to Clapham.

Drumaldrace summit

When I returned home I sent an email to Cumbria police about the trap on Widdale fell and received a reply saying that there was no reason to suspect that the trap was illegal.

The Back o’ Tremadog

The day after a Snowdon summit day calls for a shorter walk and a low-ish level jaunt around the back of Tremadog proved a welcome tonic.  Parking at the old hospital, we walked up the lower reaches of Cwm Mawr to Erwsuran before reaching the very minor 265-metre top just south of Foel yr Erw.

Some thickly vegetated terrain led to us in search of a footbridge to cross the stream, which led to some very pleasant wild flower meadows.

Tremadog meadow

towards the Nantlle Ridge and Moel Hebog

A short spell on tarmac took us to some easy farm tracks that took us to the top of Cwm Mawr and some gentle downhill walking.  The final descent back to Tremadog was through some woods on a slate, mud and tree root footpath.  The shards of slate underfoot were particularly sharp as one of my fingers found out after an untimely slip on a particularly damp section of the path.

The Snowdon Circus

The prospect of ticking 3 Moss summits drew my attention to the southern and eastern slopes of Snowdon.  Rather than battle the crowds up one of the better known paths to the top, I suggested starting on the Watkin Path and aiming for the Yr Aran – Yr Wyddfa col before tackling the south ridge.  It is much less known than the usual routes and doesn't suffer from the hordes that can be found elsewhere on the mountain.  It is also, in my opinion, the best purely walking route to the roof of Wales.

Starting from Nant Gwynant and passing above the attractive falls flowing out of Cwm Llan, we reached a point where it was sensible to take a direct line to the col on the skyline.  Because there is no obvious path up to it, we had the col and the start of the ridge to ourselves, taking the opportunity to enjoy the views over Snowdon's southern outlying summit, Yr Aran.

The south ridge, Allt Maenderyn, is not difficult to follow and its solitude adds to its enjoyment.  Although we were now in cloud it was easy to acknowledge to drop to the right and imagine the views that would be seen in good weather.  It was here that my first Moss summit of the day – Yr Wyddfa South Top – was found and ticked.

We became part of what is the summit throng, queuing to get to the very top.  But I did succumb to the "tourist" atmosphere by taking advantage of the souvenir shop and bought an "I Climbed Snowdon" badge!

Descending the Watkin Path proved a little tricky high up as the path was being repaired and the many helicoptered sacks of stone were obstacles to overcome.  But once past the difficulties and having descended to less steep ground, we explored above the top of the Y Gribin ridge for the best views and I ticked off Yr Wyddfa East South Top.

Lliwedd

Crib Goch

Llyn Llydaw

I tried to find the third Moss summit – Y Lliwedd West Top – but with the grid reference I had, there was no summit, obvious or otherwise, and I assume that the entry on the list was based on a spot height on a long obsolete OS map.  I'm noticing that some of the entries on the historic lists are ephemeral – is it worth continuing to tick them?

The walk back to Nant Gwynant was taken at a leisurely pace, enjoying Cwm Llan.  The quiet and lack of walkers made a pleasant contrast to summit circus.