free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
While many in the UK were caught by surprise by storm Ophelia, maybe even more so where we, unsuspecting tourists from the mainland, visiting that beautiful island.
The alarmclock sounded at 5 in the morning of Saturday the 14th of October, the Dunkerque-Dover ferry went at 10 and we arrived at our cottage near Rhosgadfan somewhere between 6 and 7 that same evening.
I'd previously been in Wales three times, twice alone, once with my brother, but never with the mrs. I was going to show her around that small but beautiful part of the country that I've quite come to love during my previous visits.
A week of joy is short though, way shorter than a week at work, so we had a busy schedule. Sunday was not going to be a day of waking late and acclimatizing. Rather it was going to be a day of scrambling and mountainfun, with Crib Lem and Carnedd Dafydd as our objectives.
So again an early alarm woke us Sunday the 15th, 2 days before Ophelia was going to hit the UK. But as soon as we left the car in Bethesda we noticed the wind had already picked up. Nothing to worry about, and both delighted with our holiday and the surrounding landscape we set off along the minor road leading to Afon Llafar.
After passing the last houses of Bethesda the landscape opens up and the muddy meadow path takes you past an old ruin.
Soon after that the Afon Llafar will lead you towards your goal.
Following the stream upwards we saw one of the Carneddau horses lying dead and already decomposting or being eaten by creatures that apparantly withstand the smell better than we did.
Further up we reached the foot of Crib Lem. Time for a small bite and a zip of water before engaging on the scramble that lied ahead.
From there we could see the sunlight stroke some of the half hidden subsummits behind us.
We weren't the first that day. Here's some people following the waterfall up.
And here a closer view on the waterfall, again with the sunlight shining up the backward top.
From here on it's pretty much onward and upward. First with a steep walk along the waterfall, from there with the scramble to just below the summit of Carnedd Dafydd. Here's some photos unaccompanied by words.
As you can see, it became cloudy while approaching the summit. Hardly any views from the summit for that reason. I did have great fun though, as the pre-Ophelia winds were really hard on the summit. To get a good idea of them watch the last seconds of the below video. First there's two more shots from the way back to Bethesda.
" />
