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.

Idris' Chair

Considered one of the finest mountains of the principality, Cader Idris is one of the “Welsh 3 Peaks” and its location in the south of Snowdonia National Park thankfully limits its popularity.

Craig Cwm Amarch

Starting from Minfford we soon passed the café and followed the pitched path up through the woods, quickly gaining height.  As we left the arboreal, we turned towards more open terrain and the amphitheatre of Cwm Cau.  The classic view of Cader now reveals itself, with the pyramid of Craig Cwm Amarch taking centre stage.  Many will look upon this and think it is the summit but the true highpoint lies just beyond the top of what you can see of the more rounded mass to the right which, despite its stature, doesn’t have as much merit as a view.

Penygadair - Cader Idris

Ascending the ridge, the path passes just below the ex-Nuttall of Craig Lwyd – a top for only the keenest baggers – and continues unerringly to the summit of Craig Cwm Amarch.  It’s an obvious summit with expansive views, especially down into the cwm.  The same can’t be said for another subsidiary summit – Mynydd Pencoed – yet another ex-Nuttall, but the tramp out to it isn’t unpleasant and provides a contrast to complement the rocky way up to the top of Cader.

Cwm Cau

At the top, two walkers had firmly claimed their seat at the base of the trig point, on the phone to friends boasting of their mountaineering achievement.  It was just about impossible to take any photo that would include the trig point without including the couple; such hogging of summits is something that I regard as contrary to considerate hill etiquette.

Following my diversion to Mynydd Pencoed I caught up with my companions at the summit shelter.  It was roomier than I thought it would be although it was missing a door at the entrance.  One hardy soul had taken up temporary residence and stayed through the previous night but despite the legend there were no apparent signs of madness or poeticism.

Summit shelter

The mile along the ridge to Mynydd Moel is a promenade as attractive as any other that I’ve walked.  It is from this summit that most decide to head downhill on a beeline back to Minfford but continuing along the ridge to its terminus at Gau Graig affords a solitudinous stroll, with the intervening Mynydd Gwerngraig completing a hat-trick of ex-Nuttall summits.  From the final top it is easy to decide to follow the fenceline that is marked on the map because it appears to lead to Bwlch Llyn Bach; but beware – it drops straight over a crag.  Such are the perils of using out-of-date Ordnance Survey maps that don’t show the footpath!

Cader Idris from the Mynydd Moel ridge

After the trudge back to the car we wandered back to the café to refuel with cake.

I slept most of the way home and although the day didn’t feel too strenuous at the time, my legs disagreed with that assumption for most of the next day.

Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains

The Spring 2018 issue of The Great Outdoors magazine, as part of its “40^th Birthday Collectors Edition”, included a supplement called Britain’s 40 Finest Mountains.

In the introduction to the list it is said that “Of course, any such list is highly subjective…” but it would be hard to argue against many, or perhaps even any, of the mountains that are included.  Although there are a few that I haven’t yet climbed – all of those are in Scotland – their reputations alone make me think that the list has been chosen on merit and I haven’t spotted any obvious exclusions.  Having said that, only Scafell Pike of the National Three Peaks does not appear but its neighbour Sca Fell does!

Some years ago TRAIL magazine published a list of “the 100 finest UK mountains” which I always felt contained some entries that were chosen based as much on their geography as on their mountain characteristics.  The TGO 40 doesn’t appear to suffer from that bias and I feel that it is a purer list, albeit quite a bit smaller.

Of the TGO 40 list, 37 of the mountains are also on the TRAIL 100 list.  The three that aren’t are Ben Loyal, Braeriach and Creag Meagaidh.

Of course, I now have to amalgamate the TGO 40 into my own combination of hill lists, but I only have to add two of the mountains as Braeriach is already on my list as a Scottish 4000 foot summit.

East of Blaenau

Starting from a near empty car park in Blaneau Ffestiniog the road from the back led up to a quarry track, itself leading through cement pools made up of slate dust on a footpath marked by yellow-topped poles through the abundant rhododendrons before coming to a halt at a ruined winding house.

Moelwyn Mawr over the quarry

From here, open moorland beckoned with a sharp turn left the start of the ascent of a snow-dusted Moel Penamnen over the Moel Bowydd plateau.

Moel Penamnen

I took the obvious weakness up the south face which could, only with some imagination, be called a gully.  The small snow patches were hard to avoid and by stepping on them the snow compacted to ice rendering the tread on my boots quickly useless and causing a few slips.

Tryfan from the ascent of Moel Penamnen

Once on the summit ridge a short walk over the minor top resulted in some impressive views from the grassy summit.

Manod Mawr from Moel Penamnen

Allt-fawr, Moel Druman, Moel Hebog and Ysgafell Wen

From the summit a broad ridge led to Foel-fras, along which I kept Manod Mawr North Top in view, noting its snow cover and what looked like a steep slope to ascend.  A descent to the treeline and then to the fence over boggy ground led to a morass.  I tried to keep to the fenceline in the forlorn hope of keeping my feet dry but admitted defeat and took aim for a ruined building at the edge of Cwt-y-bugail quarry to escape the infinite bog.  It turned out to be a good lunch spot!

From here I saw a walker on Foel-fras following my track but they disappeared and I didn’t see them again.  The only other people I saw during the day was a group of four and then a couple were seen walking towards the quarry, probably from Penmachno.  East of Blaenau is definitely a place to escape the crowds!

Heading to Manod Mawr some care was needed over the loosely stacked slate rubble to reach a stile at the track before following the fence up an easy slope, complete with footsteps of previous walkers.  Unusual cubed piles of stones, topped by a single plinth stone, marked the way.  At the north top of Manod Mawr a large cairn on an attractive natural pavement marked the summit with the extent of the Graig-ddu quarry hidden by the flat top.  Time taken here to linger and enjoy the expansive view is well spent.

Manod Mawr North Top summit cairn

Tryfan, Moel Penamnen and Moel Siabod from the north top

I walked to the quarry edge with a sheer drop straight ahead and no obvious way off to the west, so I turned left and followed the edge to a disused track which led to the main quarry road.  Just before the road started to descend into the main chasm, I struck off towards Manod Mawr.

Locating the subsidiary top, even in excellent visibility, was challenging and I chose a small prominence to mark it, although it could have been any of two or three others.  When Moss compiled his list, I suspect that there was a single 2000-foot contour ring (or spot height) to mark the point, now long lost to metric mapping.

An easy walk led to Manod Mawr’s highpoint, with uninterrupted 360-degree views, from Moelwyn Mawr to Snowdon to Tryfan to the Carneddau to Siabod to the Arenigs and distant summits east and south.

The Arenigs from Manod Mawr summit

Manod Mawr North Top from Manod Mawr

The descent of the north-west spur led to a disused incline, the start of some welcome easier walking back to the car park following the sometimes challenging ground experienced on the day’s higher ground.

The way down

Ysgafell Wen

Three days after abandoning the plan to end my walk with a traverse of Ysgafell Wen I returned to finish the job.  This time I started from Gelli-lago in the west.

Craig Llyn-llagi

I followed the path towards Llyn Llagi and then aimed for the switchback of the path up to Llyn yr Adar which was initially hard to find.  I overshot the turn and climbed too high but from above the path was much easier to see.  Although the path looked a lot less accessible than it actually was I was soon at the shore of the Llyn.

Llyn yr Adar

The lessened visibility coaxed me to take a bearing towards Ysgafell Wen and I touched the tops of all of the likely candidates for the highpoint within the larger of the 670-metre contour rings.  A short drop to the col and then up to the pronounced outcrop saw me on the Nuttall summit.

Ysgafell Wen summit

Cnicht (in the distance) from Ysgafell Wen

It didn’t take long to reach the north top and then the far north top before continuing across some mildly boggy terrain (as most of the day turned out to be!) to take aim for the WASHIS summit of Moel Meirch.  The cloud base had risen affording ever-improving views with Cnicht and the summits of my previous walk particularly caught the eye.

Cnicht and Llyn yr Adar from the north top

Moel Druman, Ysgafell Wen and the north top from the far north top

The final ascent was not well defined; the lack of classification of the hill obviously deters visitors and therefore only indistinct tracks, if any, found their way across the heather and jumbled rocks.

Moel Meirch

It is obvious which is the highpoint, it being an impressive looking pyramidal tor, especially when seen from the east.  Actually reaching the top takes an easy scramble from the more accessible western side. And the juxtaposition of the top block and Yr Aran gave the opportunity for some interesting photographic compositions.

Moel Meirch summit rock

Descending the valley eating jelly babies, the cloud was lifting from Snowdon and Lliwedd; Crib Goch was already in clear view.  Snowdon was clear for about half an hour before the cloud descended again, but I managed to take plenty of photos.

Yr Aran, Snowdon, Lliwedd and Crib Goch

Snowdon, Lliwedd and Crib Goch

The final off-road walking needed some careful navigation, using field boundaries as the major aid to keep on course but once on the road, the last kilometre gave me the chance to cover some ground quickly before eventually reaching the car and a welcome removal of boots.