A 4-day eastern route through the Pumlumon hills of mid Wales.

This was planned as a 3-day trip but forcibly extended en route by an extra night due to misjudged effort, blistering heat and some atrocious, debilitating terrain.

It approaches via a section of the Wye Valley Walk (WVW) to ascend Pumlumon Arwystli and continues northwards through the heart of the hills around Carnfachbugeilyn and Glaslyn.

The route then heads westwards around Llyn Cwm-bwr and through the Esgair y Ffordd forest to ascend Foel Cerrigbrithion and traverse Bwlch Hyddgen, finally picking up Glyndwr's Way (GW) through the northern hills towards Machynlleth.

The first day was a bank holiday Monday and the initial WVW section follows the main access track through the Sweet Lamb sports complex: we had visions of a hectic scene here with crowds milling around, but the whole area was eerily deserted, as were the hills beyond. We saw no other walkers at all until a solitary GW walker appeared near the end of day 3, our only sighting in the four days.

The extra night meant scouting the phone mapping for a reasonable pitch spot, not easy on such a small screen in this area, but we found a good woodland one. As it turned out, it also meant that for a significant portion of that night, we were pitched in a dramatic thunderstorm.

Recently several of my planned routes have been culled entirely or hacked apart to form shorter easier ones, even those designed only a couple of years ago but, evidently, I still sometimes think in the old ways and overestimate our capability relative to the route. This trip was highly instructive regarding food in this situation: stretching out the food to last another night and morning was a non-problem. In our exhausted state we could barely face the thought of eating anyway, only managing to force down a small amount and only because we knew we should.

Full report & Photos

A 2-day backpack of the south-western tip of the Kinder area and around the western fringes of Bleaklow, visiting our last remaining unclimbed 500m Dewey top in the Dark Peak, culminating at Higher Shelf Stones and returning to Glossop via the Shelf Moor path.

The first backpack of this year, having done one single-day walk to assess our weakening capabilities, we designed this route as a rather easy trial overnighter with almost the lowest weight of kit possible for a backpack. The ascent on the first day in the sheltered heat of William Clough was slow and arduous as expected but improved considerably on the second day ascending to Higher Shelf Stones, a very encouraging result.

This trip included a Saturday for day 2, not a choice we wanted on a sunny forecast in the very popular Peak District but the only available slot between appointments. We chose what we thought would be a relatively little used path for the return leg but we were spectacularly wrong.

Anyway it was great to be out with the tent in superb weather and a welcome morale booster to show we could still do it, at least on a very modest scale.

Full report & Photos

A single day training walk of the eastern half of the Etherow-Goyt Valley Way (EGW), a route that runs from the Longdendale Trail at Hadfield station on the western fringe of the Dark Peak to Vernon Park in Stockport, terminated today at Marple station.

After a long winter layoff, enforced in recent times by medical issues, coupled with an apparent big drop in fitness and stamina late last year, we tackled this very modest route mainly to assess our current state.

Allowing for the lesser weight of a daypack, the ascents and distance coverage went considerably better than expected, an encouraging result. The time however did not:- arriving in Compstall around 17:00, much later than originally expected, we diverted off the EGW to follow the Midshires Way through Brabyns Park to nearby Marple station.

The delays were partly because of inaccurate mapping of my GPX version of the route in a couple of places, but mainly due to improvising a diversion around a major footpath closure near Hollingworth. The interactive OS map linked above shows the normal EGW route in magenta and our diversion route added in blue. The closure notice is signed on the A57 at Tara Brook Farm and is scheduled to remain in force until winter 2028/2029.

Report & Photos

An open ended walk with the main target of the new 500m summit of Moelfre, a grand hill forming an isolated outlying spur of the South Western Rhinogydd.

The route follows the splendid riverside path from Tal-y-bont along the Afon Ysgethin to Pont Fadog and leaves it for a good track through pastoral land to ascend Moelfre from the south.

Like the last trip to the South West Mawddach on which I suffered a bad fall and gashed my eye socket – now healing remarkably well – this was another trip allowing for up to three days but soon curtailed. An ongoing ankle problem became considerably worse on the final steep ascent, also walking performance seemed to have nosedived again to really worrying levels. Assessing the possibilities at the pitch, we decided that none of our route ideas would be happening this time and the only feasible option was to retrace the route back to Tal-y-bont.

Full report & Photos

A curtailed hike across the south-western region of the Mawddach estuary, approaching via the Afon Dyffryn valley to the new 500m top of Esgair Berfa and returning via an optimally rapid retreat to Barmouth.

This was planned as a three day hike to Dolgellau but was aborted after the first day due to a bloody mishap on the Dyffryn track as detailed in the report.

The weather stream had been described on one forecast as a ragged low pressure area, giving generally overcast skies and low mist in the mornings with variable cloud and sun in afternoons, the best of the clear skies and sunshine in the far west. Geographically accurate as it turned out, but very limited sunshine even here and a quite strong gusty wind made things chilly at height.

Full report & Photos

A trek through the Moelwnion hills to the north-west of Blaenau Ffestiniog. This is the route we originally intended to walk on our recent Crimea Pass trip that we were forced to abandon earlier in April and improvise a new one.

This time we followed our easy ascent line through lower Cwm Lledr via the westerly rail underpass using the excellent track made for the construction of the Blaenau tunnel air shaft, culminating with a steep direct ascent to the summit of the very rarely walked Moel Dyrnogydd.

The middle section continues the westward arc of hills to the high point of Moel Druman and descends a splendidly wild, trackless line to Cwm Corsiog.

The final section crosses the Rhosydd quarry area to ascend Moel-yr-hydd and continue via the Stwlan mine track below the cliffs of Moelwyn Mawr and Craigysgafn, a new path for us that we have never seen described before.

Another heatwave was forecast for this period and hydration was a primary consideration, though a decent breeze at height helped a lot with the blistering temperature. The final low section of the route via the Stwlan access track and valley road, the quickest option chosen due to time constraint, reminded us that even when well hydrated, there is still a danger purely from the temperature: we were feeling seriously grim as we slowly plodded into Blaenau and found relief in the shade and air con of the Co-op.

Full report & Photos

Squeezed between clinic appointments, this is another short two-day route centred around the Warland group of reservoirs: Blackstone, White Holme, Light Hazzles and Warland.

The outward line from Smithy Bridge station follows the southern shore of Hollingworth Lake and ascends to join the Pennine Bridleway (PBW) around the flanks of Stormer Hill, leaving it to climb via a new approach up the slopes of Cowberry Hill to Blackstone Reservoir and the Pennine Way (PW) track around the reservoirs.

The return line continues the PW as far as Stoodley Pike and follows the Dick’s Lane route to cross Erringden Moor for the final descent to Mytholmroyd station.

This route was designed to use the same excellent Stony Edge camp as on our Warland and Ramsden trip to this area last year, a most unlikely pitch spot amid the large gritstone boulders and rough heather. Once again we carried all our water from the start.

Full report & Photos

A hike through the western hills of the Cadair Idris range, including first visits to two mountain lakes.

The outward line crosses the Mawddach estuary to ascend to the westernmost hill Braich Ddu and traverses the cliffs of Craig-y-llyn and Tyrrau Mawr to the major path junction at the centre of the range.

The mid-section follows a line below the cliffs of the eastern mountains to the corrie lake of Llyn y Gadair. The descent follows the lower section of the Fox's path to the lane near the Gwernan Hotel, leading to the fine woodland track that borders the Nant y Ceunant down to Dolgellau.

This extraordinary long spell of dry weather for Spring and early Summer continues, blue skies and sunshine for days on end in many parts. With a forecast of west Wales for the best conditions, we set off on this route that I mostly designed a few years ago, the section from Braich Ddu onwards being the intended latter part of our ill-fated Western Tarrens trip.

Below the Cadair cliffs the route uses a path, shown on the map as a pecked line, that I have never seen described anywhere except in a book from 1991 that briefly mentions its existence. In our new enforced slackpack mode, an unknown path in a mountainous region is a risk, this time we got away with it but only after much debilitating effort.

The first half of the trek is the unfashionable western arm of the Cadair galaxy where few walkers venture, but was completely deserted despite the unbroken sunshine. The big surprise though was the eastern half where we saw only three walkers. The Fox's path and lakes were deserted too.

Full report & Photos

A very short 3-day route through the Crimea Pass north of Blaenau Ffestiniog, improvised late on the first day to replace our intended trek that proved too much for the circumstances.

The route follows the Afon Lledr to gain Access Land north of Moel Dyrnogydd, rising to join the excellent track around to the Crimea Pass and onward to the Llynau Barlwyd lakes.

The return descends via the quickest route through the moorland and quarries to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Another morning medical appointment at the foot clinic meant a late start in mid afternoon for our trek, one contributory factor to our over optimistic expectation, another being the residual ankle soreness that was barely alleviated, if at all, by prescription-grade pain killers. The final factor was the excruciating terrain on the lower slopes that was both painful and debilitating to the point of exhaustion. We would have to think of something else: a short and simple route via Llynnau Barlwyd was quickly conceived from a mental map of the area and verified on our electronic mapping.

Despite the shaky start, we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the trek. The ankle pain disappeared overnight and we slackpacked at a very relaxed pace in unbroken sunshine with fine views for the bulk of the walk, a highlight being an excellent lakeside pitch.

Full report & Photos

A short 2-day trek of the hills and lakes north of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The outward line is a new route to Moel Penamnen, ascending through the valley of the Afon Hafod-llian and approaching the summit via the broad north-east ridge.

The second part ascends Foel-fras and crosses southwards to Llyn Bowydd for an easy descent to Blaenau via the maze of quarry tracks above the town.

The first trip of 2025 after a long winter layoff, combined with health issues including an intractable foot problem and a marked drop in fitness, required a short adaptable route with good options. As it turned out, this trip was very instructive and we took the shortest option for the second day. Slackpacking is a term we have sometimes coined for a very relaxed and modest approach to backpacking, it seems this will be the new modus operandi from now on.

The weather in the last couple of weeks had been striking: clear blue skies but with quite strong cold winds in the hills. We just caught the last two days of clear conditions when the wind had subsided and the days were very warm, an excellent and enjoyable first trip of the year.

Full report & Photos