Crimpiau and Craig Wen – 20/1/2012
Yesterday, I found myself on top of Bury Ditches hillfort with the dogs, a glorious sunset, and a camera.
Sadly, the camera claimed there was “No battery power remaining”. (Splitting hairs: How did it manage to display that message, then?) So, no photos.
But today I’m in Snowdonia (writing this now in the Tanronnen Inn in Beddgelert – good pub food) and have a fully charged camera. But, not a glimmer of sunlight – cloud everywhere.
The forecast this morning was pretty grim, so I decided to wait and see what looked sensible when I got there. All the high hills were cloaked in cloud, but Creigiau Gleision and the other hills NE of Capel Curig looked OK for a quick afternoon outing – and, the rain seemed to have held off.
I parked up behind Joe Brown’s, and headed up towards Crimpiau. Even with the cloud, the views are pretty stunning. There are few places in the park where you can see both Llyn Ogwen and Lynnau Mymbyr. Looking northeast, the valley holding Llyn Crafnant looked worth exploring as well on another day.
I dropped down into the bwlch leading up to Craig Wen, and the wind was really picking up, with gusts up to 45MPH. From here, a wall shows the obvious route up towards the top. Craig Wen has two adjacent tops which seem almost identical in height – I guessed (correctly, it transpires) that the furthest one was the higher. I passed on the scramble up wet, moss-covered rocks from the south, and found a simple walk up from the other side.
With the wind still strong – and limited daylight – I headed down across country to the bridge over the leat below Llyn Cowlyd. From here there’s a good, if muddy, path back to the A5 and a few 100 metres of road back to Capel Curig.
The area around Llyn Crafnant is stunning, we rented a holiday cottage there many years ago. Some lovely low level walks there for when the weather is bad.