Wales - 2015
23 April 2015 ........... Snowdon horseshoe
One of the things that I hadn`t ever done is the whole of the classic Snowdon horseshoe - from Pen-y-Pass, up the east ridge of Crib Goch, along Crib Goch and up to Garnedd Ugain, then up to Snowdon, returning via Y Lliwedd, and the Miners Track back to Pen-y-Pass.
I have done various bits of it - twice up Crib Goch, twice up Snowdon, and once over Y Lliwedd - but I hadn`t ever done it all in one go.
So now I have - it is a fair trek, and it presents a fair amount of scrambling, but it is a rewarding day.
This is just after starting up the Pyg Track, looking up to Crib Goch -
Halfway up the steepest part of the east ridge - and this is where the real mountain goats hang out -
I don`t seem to have a picture of it, but there was a very young one in amongst the group - it would only have been a one or two weeks old.
Looks like they could all do with a hair cut !
Up on the sub-summit where the north ridge and the east ridge meet - this is looking back down the north ridge -
Looking westwards along the Crib Goch summit to Garnedd Ugain and Snowdon - this is what is still to come !
Having a break on the summit of Garnedd Ugain now - looking westwards along past Moel Cynghorion to Moel Eilio -
Up on the summit of Snowdon now, and the good news was that trains were not running, so there were only hundreds of people, not thousands.
I even got up onto the cairn without waiting in a queue for half an hour !
It was quite hazy, so not the best of views, but Crib Goch looks quite impressive from up on Snowdon.
So does Y Lliwedd - the next bit of the journey -
Working my way along the ridge between Snowdon and Y Lliwedd - and Y Lliwedd looks just as impressive when you are looking up at it -
The climb up Y Lliwedd was good fun - if you stay close to the edge, you get the best scrambling, there is a path for quite a lot of it, but it is well away from the edge.
Up on the summit of Y Lliwedd now, and looking south to Yr Aran - it may not be the biggest of mountains, but it still looks quite chunky -
If you look down from the summit of Yr Aran there is an old quarry or mine - I don`t know if it was a slate quarry, it could also have been a copper mine, there is another copper mine somewhere up at the top end of the Miners Track.
However a bit more interesting is a row of standing stones with top lintels on them - again I have no idea about its history - did it predate the quarry or mine by a few thousand years, or was it set up as something to do with the quarry or mine ?
From the summit of Y Lliwedd you get a good side-on view of Crib Goch, which gives you a good idea of the steepness of the east ridge, as well as showing off the pinnacles nicely.
Time to head down - looking down on Llyn Llydaw - the path down has some quite steep sections, and eventually joins the Miners Track at the far end of Llyn Llydaw.
It is a bit of a relief to reach the Miners Track, the hard descent is over, and it is an easy walk back to Pen-y-Pass.
It was a longer day than I have done for a long time - I think it was about 7½ hours for the whole trip - I am getting very slow going down steep bits, and there are a lot of ups and downs.
But a fabulous day !
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I thought you might like one of the out-takes - when I was up on Snowdon, and taking the pictures of Crib Goch, a seagull decided to get into the action -
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