A 2-day backpack around the hills and cwms of the upper Tanat valley of north-east Wales, visiting a couple of new Dewey 500m summits.

Llangynog nestles at the head of the Tanat valley, more tightly squeezed by towering hills than any other village we can remember. Perhaps the most striking is Craig Rhiwarth, an iron age hillfort whose broken slopes were quarried leaving an aggressive south face overlooking the northern quarter, while the steep nose of Y Gribin presides over the west. The western side is steeply riven by two major cwms, Cwm Pennant and Cwm Llech, that we have walked on previous trips.

This route was designed to explore the summit of Craig Rhiwarth and return on the high-level route above Cwm Pennant and Cwm Dwygo, joining the two sections via Post Gwyn and the pass of Milltir Gerrig. I didn’t see another walker in the whole two days.

Full report & photos

A 2-day circuit of the hills flanking Garsdale, a choice inspired by an overlap with a bank holiday weekend to avoid the influx of walkers to the well known areas – it was a good one in that respect, we saw nobody at all and the whole area was completely deserted. The tent pitch was an excellent one with a grand sunrise.

On the north side of Garsdale is the huge sprawl of Baugh Fell, home to two Nuttall 2000′ summits and divided on the map into West and East Baugh Fell, and its vastness is readily appreciated on a traverse like this: usually with a total lack of people it is a study in serene emptiness. Dotted with small curricks, tarns and gritty outcrops with evidence of a few old workings, it would be more akin to its Pennine neighbours to the north but for the lack of heather: this is a landscape of moorland grasses and sphagnum presided over by skylarks, curlews and plovers rather than their ubiquitous grouse.

On the south side is the Marilyn/Dewey top of Aye Gill Pike (Rise Hill), a long shallow whaleback hill that could hardly be less like the popular notion of a ‘pike’. This was to be the day of views, but apart from the brief dawn period the sky was grey and murky all day and the vistas very muted.

Full report & photos

A short 2-day out-and-back solo trip approaching Tryfan from the east via Gallt yr Ogof and Y Foel Goch.

Another two days of almost unbroken sunshine and superb mountain scenery, this was an excellent chance to revisit the phenomenally popular Tryfan before the Easter hordes invaded its boulder pile – we last climbed it over seventeen years ago. Despite the weekday strategy, there were so many people congregated around its famous apex monoliths that no acceptable photos of the summit area were possible in any direction – I really don’t like humans in shot.

I also have an innate dislike of out-and-back routes but I made an exception here, partly to keep the exertion under control but mainly to give myself plenty of time for a relaxed first pitch at Llyn Caseg-fraith, a superb location.

Full report & photos

Another 2-day circuit of Cwm Eigiau, this time exploring the excellent upper reaches of the cwm below the eastern cliffs of Carnedd Llewelyn, a very seldom trodden pocket of the Carneddau cradling the hidden Ffynnon Llyffant, the highest lake in Wales. This exquisite wild rocky mountain landscape shows once again the rewards of leaving the paths and backpacking the little known corners: in favourable conditions there are real gems to be discovered.

After a long and extremely busy hiatus this was our return to the mountains in style: two days of unbroken sunshine and a landscape flecked with remaining snowfields on the high tops with unseasonally warm days for March.

Full report & photos