Snowdonia Panorama - January 2011

From Pen Llithrig Y Wrach

A spectacular weekend of sunshine and sub-zero temperatures at the end of January. As usual - a click on the pictures should show them large!

Day 1 Carnedd Llywelyn from Capel Curig.

leaving road near Capel Curig

Pen Llithrig Y Wrach

Up onto Pen Llithrig Y Wrach with a great vista encompassing Snowdon skirted with thin clouds and the Glydders with Tryfan rising up in front and to the right the target Carnedd Llyweln with Carred David beyond.

From here with line of sight the route is obvious - following the up and downs of the ridge,  over some (slightly) scrambly bits and the intermediate top of Pen yr Helgi Du.

A scramble down on the way up!

Fantastic views all the way and some ice underfoot.

Top of Carnedd Llywelyn with pointy tryfan at centre 

On a mountain top it is hard to resist the panorama setting (click for full effect!) ...

And over to the other side to find a route back to the north of the ridge.

On the way up I shared a joke with four people from South Wales (who would bother with the Brecons when these views are available?). In this view the helicopter is probably taking  the body of one of them - a 51year old man from South Wales who collapsed on the way along the ridge while walking with two ladies and another man who tried but failed to revive him.

Skirting along the far side of the ridge and then over the hill brings you to the path along Llyn Cowlyd reservoir into the sunset and back to the starting point. A round trip of around 25km nicely fills a fine winter day.

Day 2. A short route up Gyder Fach. Taking the ridge from Capel Curig village with views of the Carnedds on the right and Snowdon on the left.

The route starts above Capel Curig

Look up the ridge towards Glyder Fach with Tryfan on the right

Cantalever on top of Gylder Fach

 Each time I came here I wonder where all these large and shattered rocks could have dropped from. Maybe there is a geographer that can put me right on this?

The rocky top looking east