Stay at home

[Rekrab]

at Hogmonay this year I said that my hill walking goal forthe year was to complete a round of the welsh 3000ers.
I've been ticking them Quite rapidly and as of this week I found that I only had two more to go. Crib goch and Crib y Ddysgl.
I had a organised to do the Snowdon Horseshoe with a friend on this day as she was heading to N wales to help out over the weekend with the ogwen valley mountain marathon event.
she headed out a day earlier for a wander around Snowdon with me and here's what happend!!

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we didn't end up leaving Llanrwst until 12:30 I think. Once we got to the Pen-y-pass it was full up (as usual) so we drove back down to Pen-y-gwyrd hotel and decided that we would walk the mile to Pen-y-pass. once pen-y-pass was reached Jude decided she wanted to get the ridge right from the start which I was up for as I also wanted to tick Craig Fach a Sub-Hewitt and then take in all the the wee lumps and bumps of the Horns. I have taken a lot of pics with my mobile as I'm to skint to buy bateries for my camera which only likes ones wrapped in gold that cost £100.00 each.

the Horns and Craig Fach. Crib goch ahead in the mist.

once up on the horns the days weather was letting us know it was there as we seemed to be putting on and taking off our jackets every 15 minutes it seemed as the rain was coming off and on.
The banter was great all along the horns and we had reached the Stile where the Pyg track and the Crib goch path go their separate ways.

Looking to Glyder Fawr from Craig Fach

The first bit of scrambling begins

as you can see it is as Jude put it a "full frontal assault" as we found ourselves scrambling from ledge to ledge right from the start.
on the second or third ledge I found a very difficult section with a nice Chunky gully off to the left or a smaller option shimmying along a small ledge then kinda shimmying around a boulder but pushing yourself away from the wall so you are kinda overhanging.
I went for the Left option and once I got up top all the holds disappeared and it got even steeper so I climbed down and went for the other shimmying option and had to catch up with Jude who had already reached the upper ledge.
Now I must say this is the only part of the walk that I found difficult or remotely scary. the rest of the day was incredibly enjoyable.
I took off and started to lead on some of the scrambling taking pics of Jude for... well scale really!!

moving Ledge to Ledge. with Craig Fach below.

Things flatten out a little.

before we new it we had reached the Top of Crib Goch and I could not believe the Knife edge that I was now looking at continuing along the ridge. I've walked CMD arete and Aonach Eagach but I found myself crab crawling/walking with massive drops on both sides it was a whole new kind of scrambling it was scrambling horizontally!!

Jude just reaching the top.

heading onward toward the pinnacles

me still standing upright just leaving Crib goch summit

more ridge

now we weren't Planning on taking the pedestrian route here today as we saw all the pinnacles we made our way up to the top of everyone once we skirted around one to see what the down climb looked like before heading back and heading up it but we went up every one and I was very please d to have taken it all in.

first look at the Bumps

more bumps

our first tasty looking Pinnacle

View along the ridge from the top of the first pinnacle and our first walkers spotted.

it turned out that going this late was a bonus as the weather and views were improving, and there were no ques for the climbing.

down climbing first pinnacle

Looking to the next one with judes foot joining me on the ledge.

This one was easy. really nice holds all the way up.

I think this is the 958 top. as we are just finishing the tricky bits

Looking back to the Crib Goch and the Pinnacles just walked. from Bwlch Coch

as the Bwlych coch was reached and our feet were back into solid ground it nice.
and the cloud started to lift for a minute.

looking too Y Garn and Glyder Fawr from Bwlych coch

the next few Pinnacles were very fun and easy and we found ourselves descending back to the ridge after every one.
The cloud was coming in and out and giving us some great atmospheric views.

Looking back to Crib Goch

Looking and heading to Crib Y Ddysgl

almost on Crib Y Ddysgl I took this great shot of Jude Scrambling.

Jude almsot on Crib y Ddysgl

Lookign to the Last bit

Me Chuffed on Crib y Ddysgl my 15th welsh 3000 foot peak.

It was what I expected.
I found it very tiring I must say.
I didn't want the Aonach eagach to end and the Carn Mor dearg arete took us three hours to traverse but this ridge seemed never ending and I was glad to rach the Summit cafe to have a bit of lunch.
we got too Snowdon summit around 17:00 and spent 30 minutes eating lunch and then we had reached Pen-y-pass via the Pyg track by 19:30 and Pen-Y-Gwryd by 20:00

Very happy to have reached my goal of walking all these hills this year, and I'd like to do them in a onner next year I think.

thanks for reading

MacKenzie,

[mountainstar]

Nice report, and well done for completing it.
You took some good pictures, slightly let down by the quality....mobile phone camera?
I intend taking some WH members along there in October, on the meet I am arranging, the best "walk" in Wales
As you well know, fancy it again?

[susanmyatt]

Great report and photos come out good,some fine ones of Jude, long while till Santa for that battery though

[The Hanging Monkey]

That ridge is a belter.

I've done it a couple of times.

[ClimbingCalum]

Just returned from Snowdonia today - as my first real attempt at any actual scrambling or climbing and i decided to head up the Pyg Track to the summit of Snowdon, then took Crib Goch in reverse. Despite finding myself on some dangerous scree slopes towards the end as I diverted away from the ridgeline slightly, it was a magical experience. Definately some challenging parts on the reverse - I left from pen-y-pass at near 4pm, arrived at snowdon summit by around 5 and was on my way to the crib by 5:30. Only saw two sets of people on the entire scramble, both of which commented on the difficulty of the reverse as you reach the final stages and indeed there was some very fun back-climbing to be done as i reached the final descent. It was in parts extremely committing, although i suppose this was often due to my own decision making. I managed to reach pen-y-pass by 8pm and there was still a good deal of light - the timings worked out perfectly as i was alone for nearly the whole experience!

I was wondering if anyone else had tackled Crib Goch in reverse, starting out from Snowdon's peak, and if so how did you find it? I climbed the north face of Tryfan directly the next day, descending down the West face, and found that to be quite a bit easier and quicker (took me about 2hrs30mins with plenty of stops for pictures).

Also, i was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions for mountains in the UK which would be a natural progression in scrambling/climbing difficulty from the likes of Tryfan and Crib Goch? Im thinking along the lines of Ben Nevis but there must be many more options out there in Snowdonia alone?

[foggieclimber]

Good to see a report of Crib Goch.
I'm hoping to do most (if not all) of the Welsh 3000ers in the forthcoming WH Snowdonia Trip.