The well worn path eastwards from the main road junction towards Crafnant was an easy enjoyable start to the day, passing through attractive woodland and turning into the Nant y Geuallt valley at a footbridge. Capel Curig is a focus for outdoor training and ahead we saw a common sight in these parts: a group of backpackers with the trademark signs of huge packs, usually with those awful rolled foam mats strapped on the outside along with other paraphernalia. One day I must find out the M.O. of these groups and how they operate just for interest.

The group had disappeared at the valley head leaving us with an unaccompanied ascent to the rocky summit of Crimpiau. There is a good view of Llyn Crafnant below and north-westwards towards the imposing rocky crags of Craig Wen.

We descended the south-west ridge to visit Llyn y Coryn, a small lake whose shore had always been too boggy to approach on previous visits in dull weather. It's quite an attractive spot in the right conditions with good mountain scenery as a backdrop.

From the lake a good path contours back along the flanks of Crimpiau to the bwlch before the looming crags of Castell y Gywnt and Craig Wen. There is a discernible trodden line ascending to the foot of Craig Wen and passing along its flank of rocky buttresses, a lovely secluded wild corner of Snowdonia where years ago we once scaled the rocks to its spine. No such mini-adventures these days though, we continued across the spongey ground past the lesser rocky bastion of Moel Ddefaid to ascend to the first Nuttall top of Craiglwyn.

Arriving at the main summit of Creigiau Gleision the cloud had thickened to a dull grey draining the landscape of vitality but the skies brightened approaching the north top. The main concern now was finding a good high level tent pitch on this mountain of untamed heather, tussocks and cotton grass, and hope was beginning to fade as we decided to investigate the small unnamed lake not far below the summit. We lurched towards the lake and found a suitable patch of short heathery growth very close to the water. The pitch was a very good one and the pool had extensive bogbean to augment the ubiquitous cotton grass thereabouts.

At dawn a pleasing and warming sunrise cast its glow over the water into the tent door, a fine way to start the day pottering around the shore for attractive viewing angles in the early light and admiring the waking landscape. On such mornings we are always very slow at striking camp, lazily pausing often to scan the surroundings and soak in the atmosphere.

Rejoining the path we continued our descent to a flat stretch, usually very boggy but relatively dry today, to the kink in the fence where the path down to Llyn Cowlyd starts. This path has two variations on the map and is confusing in descent: a prominent worn path sets off but disappears without trace a short way down, once again we lost it and descended the rough heathery slopes until we spotted it again lower down the slope. Approaching Llyn Cowlyd we saw another group of overladen backpackers ascending the other branch of the path.

The dam affords a good view of Llyn Cowlyd from near water level.

Surveying the tangled lower heathery slopes of the north ridge of Pen Llithrig y Wrach, we decided to aim for a grassy green stripe climbing alongside a line of crags. We ascended the first few contours on an easy winding track to the old quarry, continuing some distance beyond as a deteriorating quadbike track, but that soon petered out in heather and tussocks. We slowly inched forwards to a large rock outcrop where we could assess the next stage - a brief descent into a shallow heathery ravine and a short walk along to the base of the stripe. From here the terrain was easy, and looking down from the climb we could see a distinct line coming up to this spot from the lake farther SW than our starting point on the quarry track.

The sky was becoming increasingly grey as we reached the top of the climb and soon joined a clear but relatively little walked path along the broad ridge, Carnedd Llewelyn and Pen yr Helgi Du intermittently disappearing in mist. All the summits were clear if rather dull as we reached the summit area of Pen Llithrig y Wrach to be blasted by an unsuspected and quite strong wind.

The descent to the footbridge at the SW end of Llyn Cowlyd follows an obvious path at first but becomes a bit vague lower down in the hummocky terrain: it is very tempting to drop down leftwards too early but keeping faith in the overall line we arrived accurately. The bridleway track provides an easy completion directly to the A5 near Capel Curig.