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.

Snowdon Silly Season

Even on a murky day in December, Snowdon still sees plenty of people heading for the summit.  A small group of us decided to forego the ways of the masses and after alighting the Snowdon Sherpa bus at Pen-y-Pass we headed for an ascent of the Y Gribin ridge.

The easy Miners’ path took us to the outflow of Llyn Glaslyn which we forded and then started on the scramble.  It was raining, but not heavily, and as the route started to steepen, the rock became uncomfortably slippy and the mist obscured the top of the ridge, giving rise to doubts about its ease or more likely, difficulty.  Caution seemed the sensible decision and we made our way back to the Miners’ path before taking on an off-piste scree slope to reach the PyG track.

Which is where we met the masses we were originally hoping to avoid.

On the approach to the zig-zags the path started to fill out with snow.  Although the path was not overly crowded, there were still plenty of inappropriately dressed walkers.  Trainers, wellies and even deck shoes were the footwear of choice for many who were slithering the way down the path, as often as not on backsides rather than on feet.  No doubt they would probably get off the mountain without incident and have a great story to tell in the pub but it wouldn’t have taken much of a slip for a serious accident to spoil their day.

Even in my winter boots there came a point where I decided it prudent to put on my crampons.  As I was strapping them on, I heard a voice behind me that said “good move”, from a similarly shod and obviously experienced walker.

I almost felt overdressed in my winter boots and crampons, but the ease with which I made progress soon overruled that thought.

At the top of the zig-zags we decided that there wasn’t much point following the railway up into the clag to the summit so we turned right and made our way down the Llanberis path.  I’ve been to the top seven times so far so I didn’t feel as if I was missing out on anything.  And a couple of beers at the club’s hut made an acceptable end to the day.