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Although I have lived in Scotland now for 6 years, I was born in Wales. North West Wales is an excellent area, and for
density of good stuff (mountains, beaches, history etc.), it beats anywhere in Scotland, managing to cram so much stuff into a relatively small area. As such, it is always great to go back an visit.
Last year my parents happened to be on Anglesey for a few days. I decided that it would be a good idea to gate-crash their trip, and so joined them for a long weekend. It was March, and this was the first warm weekend of spring. And what a gorgeous weekend it was. Sun warming through the slightly hazy conditions. Given the weather, I decided to go for a walk in the mountains, and, taking advantage of my parents offering their excellent taxi servicing abilities, I thought it would be nice to start and end in different valleys. I hadn't actually done that much serious walking in Wales before, so spent a little time looking at a map before settling on a route. And off I went!
The conditions couldn't have been better, here are some snaps:
My route (starting in the South)
Gorgeous conditions. The start of my mountain walk, from Pen Y Pass to the Ogwyn Valley, over the Glyders.
Up through the morning haze.
Nice views of Crib Goch and Snowdon on the way up
The summit of Glyder Fach, a bizarre, lunar landscape, up above the clouds.
Lovely inversions.
Wandering the shattered summit.
Walking across the plateau.
The view down into the Ogwyn Valley, which was full of clouds.
The army cheated to get up here... (But they were friendly and waved!)
Helicopters are definitely cheating.
Some winter snow clinging on in the lovely warm sunshine.
A sea of clouds.
Tricky shattered surface with lots of ice.
Yet more beautiful weather!
Glyder Fawr.
More summit fun.
Looking Westish towards Y Garn, the only other proper mountain in Snowdonia I have climbed.
The famous Canter Lever rock, unfortunately, there was no one else around, so I couldn't go the classic photo of me on the end there...
The start of my descent down Bristly Ridge, I'm not sure I took the best route... intense, difficult, icy scrambling with sheer drops to the side!
Down we go - plenty of exposure on the ridge.
Looking across to Tryffan, which I sadly didn't have time to climb.
I was aiming for somewhere down there in that sea of cloud.
The Ogwyn Valley.
An excellent walk, overall!