ron-t climbing
20 March 2018 ................ Elidir Fawr and Carnedd y Filiast
A clear day with little wind, and MWIS was forecasting that all the tops would be clear by the afternoon - they weren`t far off.
I had things to do in the morning so a shorter afternoon outing seemed like a good plan, and I went back to Elidir Fawr.
Driving down the A55 you get a super view across to the northern end of Snowdonia, and it was quite obvious that whilst some of the mountains still had patches of snow on them, Elidir Fawr was just about bare, so it wasn`t going to be necessary to take up crampons or ice axes.
A bit of a relief really, they add a fair bit of weight to the rucksack, and my hip joints have enough of a problem carrying me around, never mind a heavy rucksack.
Up the road to the Marchlyn Bach Reservoir - the small reservoir halfway up the road to the dam - and then instead of going up to the dam, I headed up the steep end of the ridge that eventually leads to Elidir Fach.
It was really strange, I have come down that way a few times, and there is an obvious path - but when I was going up I somehow lost it, and climbed up for ages before I found it again.
I didn`t go all the way across to Elidir Fach, I was more interested in getting up to Elidir Fawr, so once I was up on the almost level part of the ridge, I cut across to the left, and joined the path that comes down the flank of Elidir Fawr, and so on up to the summit of Elidir Fawr.
It is the first time I have gone up Elidir Fawr that way, and I reckon it is a good way to go, somewhat easier than going all the way up to the dam, then climbing up the northeast end of Elidir Fawr.
Super views on the summit, although at that point both Snowdon and quite a lot of the Carneddau had hats on - looking across to the Carneddau -
The southern end of the Glyders were clear of cloud - still a bit of snow on them -
After I had been there a while, Snowdon finally appeared - actually to be more correct, Garnedd Ugain appeared, I think that Snowdon itself is still hidden - Crib Goch was looking good -
A closer view into Cwm Glas Mawr - looks like there is still a bit of the original névé around the upper levels of Cwm Glas Mawr, and quite a good covering of something over the north west flank of Crib Goch.
Something else of interest is the frozen waterfalls in the lower part of the picture, I don`t think they would be much use for climbing though -
Looks like Moel Hebog and the Nantlle Ridge are completely free of snow now -
Some nice lighting looking away down the coast of the Lleyn Peninsula, and a bit unusually, Yr Eifl has a bit of cloud around it -
A good view down to the Marchlyn Mawr reservoir and Carnedd y Filiast, and away along the hills above the north coast -
A good view across to Penmon and Puffin Island -
I spent a while on the summit, and it was very nice, and it didn`t really feel cold at all, probably because there was little wind, and I was sitting in the sunshine.
However the temperature must have been below freezing, although it certainly didn`t feel like it - there was hoar frost on some of the grasses, and it only thawed when the sun shone on it.
It was one of these days that I just didn`t want to end, and I didn`t want to just go back down again - so after a bit a of deliberation I reckoned I had just enough time to go round the horseshoe of Mynydd Perfedd and Carnedd y Filiast - as long as I was back down on to the tarmac road up to the dam before it got dark, I would be okay.
So off I went - it is quite a drop down, and it just seems to go on and on - part of the way down, and a good view across to the surprising cliffs of Foel-goch -
Looking right along the ridge, with the two summits of Carnedd y Filiast and Mynydd Perfedd at each end.
That wall that climbs right up the side of the ridge, over the top, and away to goodness knows where is quite amazing.
Can you imagine how many man-hours were spent in carrying rocks around and building the wall - it is the best part of two metres high, there is a high wooden stile over the top of it up on top of the ridge, it is a massive structure that wall.
There are more walls like that around Tryfan and Bristly Ridge - quite amazing -
It took me 45 minutes to get from the summit of Elidir Fawr down and up and on to Mynydd Perfedd - a bit slow, I am afraid, but steep descents are a bit of a struggle - but once there you get that most surprising view of Elidir Fawr - it doesn`t look real, the almost perfect pyramid shape -
Much easier going across the ridge, and today it was very pleasant walking - that ridge has a bad habit of catching the most vicious of winds -
It took about 30 minutes to get across to Carnedd y Filiast - looking back to where I had come from, and a view of the whole of the Glyders - Mynydd Perfedd, then Foel-goch, then Y Garn, and along the back Tryfan, Glyder Fâch, and Glyder Fawr -
The Carneddau were just about clear of cloud by now, just one small bit sitting over Carnedd Llewelyn -
My last view of Snowdon for the day - both the railway line and the Llanberis track still have quite pronounced snow on them - if that is old snow it is going to be quite icey by now -
Looking across the Marchlyn Mawr reservoir to a more normal view of Elididr Fawr -
Super lighting looking away to the west -
Time to head down, and by the time I was down the road a bit it was heading down towards sunset, so I was able to watch it as I headed down the road - the start of the sunset -
Well down the road, and looking into the old quarry - some quite surprising ice formations at the back -
Back down at the gate, and the sunset is heading on -
When I was messing about with my camera taking a few pictures, I realised that just above the horizon I wasn`t seeing cloud, I was seeing mountains - it was Ireland.
So here you go - sunset over Ireland - taken from Wales !
website design by ron-t
website hosting by freevirtualservers.com
© 2024 Ron Turner
