walkhighlands

Carnedau horseshoe from Ogwen valley

Hewitts: Carnedd Dafydd, Carnedd Llewelyn, Pen yr Ole Wen

Date walked: 26/03/2024

Time taken: 5.25 hours

Distance: 14km

Ascent: 920m

Day 2 and the last opportunity to get in a decent hill day before the weather regressed back to January. I have not climbed the Carnedau for a long time and was interested in doing a route which took in the highest summit, which is the third highest summit south of the highlands. I thought about a route from the end of the tiny road at Trasbwll but I recall my attempt to do a full route involved a lot of hideous pathless heather bashing of the type that is labelled as character building, so I decided to have a go from the south.

A straighforward path follows the Afon Lloer to the cwm housing Ffynnon Lloer from which it is a steep hike with very occasional hands-on bottom end grade 1 scrambling stuff to get to Pen yr Ole Wen, in the clag again. Came across a couple who had attempted the horseshoe but decided to retreat as they couldn't see where they were going. The cloud lifted enough to give me fleeting views of the ridge to Carnedd Dafydd and the ridge was just below the cloud so navigation was easy. Some nice views down to the cwm and out along the Ogwen valley eastward towards Capel Curig.

After having lunch in the clag I decided this was a good opportunity to practice map and compass navigation as this area reminds me of the Cairngorms. Big broad hills which look featureless in the mist and where going along the wrong ridge could leave you a very long way from where you want to be. Took a bearing and aimed for a rock feature in the distance and was soon out of the clag and heading around a ridge towards Carnedd Llewlyn. This is where I was really taken aback by the superb geological scenery along here with the big glaciated valley towards Bethesda and the view east across to the ridge, col and the reservoir which would be my route back down. Carnedd Llewelyn was of course in the cloud so didn't stay long, and after taking another bearing headed downhill along a narrowing ridge towards Pen yr Helg Du. A really nice view of a big empty valley on my left which I didn't know what it was at the time, and turned out to be where the Trasbwll car park is on the north-east side. From here I dropped down to a col and picked up a steep zig-zaggy path which required concentration to stay upright and got me down to the valley floor, then followed the path along the reservoir from where a tarred access road took me back down to the main road. This descend really hammered my quads and I had DOMS for a couple of days. Really good views of Tryfan's shark-fin profile from here, then it was a mile and a half walk along the road to the car.

I would like to do this route again in clear weather and knock off a couple more of the outlying summits as this area looks to have some really nice ridge and valley scenery which I can appreciate from a high vantage point.

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al78


User avatar
Activity: Walker
Place: Wester Ross
Ideal day out: A bike & hike or a long walk to set up base campo. Taking aim at a summit or three, with some not too technical scrambling, a nice narrow ridge walk around a corrie where the gouging effect of past glaciers can be seen, and a (clear) view from the summit that covers thousands of square miles with no evidence of human activity.

Munros: 32
Corbetts: 9
Donalds: 1



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Statistics

2024

Trips: 4
Distance: 69 km
Ascent: 3135m
Hewitts: 4

2022

Trips: 4
Distance: 93 km
Ascent: 2985m
Munros: 3
Corbetts: 1
Hewitts: 5
Wainwrights 7

2021

Trips: 6
Distance: 86.5 km
Ascent: 500m

2020

Trips: 1

2019

Trips: 4
Distance: 95 km
Ascent: 1180m
Hewitts: 1

2018

Trips: 1
Distance: 50 km


Joined: Feb 01, 2018
Last visited: Mar 29, 2024
Total posts: 1412 | Search posts