Turning left on the far side of Gelli farmhouse, we started the ascent to Cefn y Capel on the often indistinct line of this little used approach route and soon realised that the general conditions were not as wintry as expected. They were however, as we discovered after traversing the shallow hump to Bwlch Goleumi, considerably wetter, a mild foretaste of the flat areas to come. The clarity and views were excellent though.

Arriving at the breezy ridge, the character changes as Tryfan bursts onto the scene and the view opens out. A short ascent right gains Gallt yr Ogof, a much ignored summit on this little trodden spur.

The bwlch before Y Foel Goch was pretty well waterlogged and we spent some time finding the least wet line, though not enough to keep us dryshod, but with glorious views like these the spirit could not be dampened by such trifles.

We gained the top, passing the site of our summit pitch of years ago, and surveyed the broad expanse of the bwlch ahead. One advantage of these very wet conditions is water collection, you just know it will be much easier than usual. We veered right on the descent to pick up the main flow and slowly picked our way across the sodden landscape towards Llyn Caseg-fraith and ancillary pools. The site of my solo pitch was far too wet from the snowmelt but we made a superb pitch on slightly higher ground nearby with a view of Tryfan and the lake from the door.

Later an enterprising heron flew by and alighted at the water edge to try its luck. At the same time a small group of wild goats appeared and scanned us from a distance before moving on a little to continue grazing.

A freezing night with fantastic views of the stars prompted us to make an early hot brew. After dawn the rising sun warmed the landscape very quickly and we were soon outside for more pictures. This is the rare kind of splendid pitch that represents the pinnacle of wild backpacking, we were loathe to leave it.

We ascended a little westwards to locate the start of the path that drops into Cwm Tryfan and traverses around to a brief climb to Bwlch Tryfan. The glorious conditions had held and there were already quite a few walkers about with a few figures near the top of Tryfan on its eastern face.

Attention now turned to Cwm Bochlwyd and the grand view of the north-western arm of the Glyderau towards Y Garn. We descended to Llyn Bochlwyd amid the growing numbers of walkers in both directions and arrived at the point where our intended path branches off NNE. As mentioned in the introduction, the OS map shows this path but, as I discovered back home, the Harvey map does not. Harveys are very good on real paths in my experience and it appears they are right in this case. One would expect an OS-marked path so close to the extremely popular Ogwen to at least be visible, but we could see no trace. Not wishing to risk a steep arduous descent farther on, we took the main path which meant a longer walk on the road.

At road level the hordes were out in force in the summery warmth and the road hike to the start of the Telford byway held a perverse interest in the brazen nature and inventiveness of the car parking, I don't know if this is normal hereabouts. The long Tryfan layby was coned off for the roadworks but they parked anyway and replaced the cones. Nose-to-tail rows of cars all along the A5 were fully on the pavement and blocking it, making for a frustrating walk to the byway.

The byway itself provided an easy and pleasant valley walk directly to the Capel Curig car park.