Carneddau: Pen-yr-Ole Wen (978m) and Carnedd Dafydd (1,044m). on 21 December 2021. Winter Solstice and Shortest day of the year.
Started from layby at east end of Llyn Ogwen. Crossed Afon Denau and walked around the north side of Llyn Ogwen, west to the far western end of the lake at Rhaeadr Ogwen, the outflow (essentially flat terrain) and then turned straight up the southern ascent of Pen yr Ole Wen, a 675m/2,215ft ascent, at times a nearly vertical scramble. Made the summit of Pen yr Ole Wen (978m), and continued along the ridgeline to Carnedd Fach, and Carnedd Dafydd (1,044m). Continued northwest along the ridge to a point about half way between Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llywelyn where I made the descent down the southern side of Cwm Llugwy to the west side of Craig y Llyn, and back to Rout 5, and the Layby Parking.
Total Time: 6 hours 30 minutes; Total Distance: 14.22km; Total Ascent: 2.160m
Route Planning Included daily weather review at MWIS video updates, and Met Office Specialist Reports for the mountains in Snowdonia, and XC Weather on the day. In the past couple of weeks we had to 'Named' storms which dropped snow and ice on the mountains above 600m, after which a High Pressure area arrived and sat on the UK with mild weather and temperatures. Most all of the snow and ice had disappeared over the days leading up to this Solstice walk. Temperatures were cold though at 2C at the start, and 1C at the finish, colder on the summits, but the winds were mild. This regional High Pressure provided interesting Inversion of clouds in the valley below (as can be seen in the pictures below).
Added to the usual review of OS17 maps for route planning, I recently purchased the Cicerone "Great Mountain Days in Snowdonia" which is the best guide I have found for Snowdonia. After the recently completed Scrambling course with Plas-y-Brenin I found certain guide books can be exceptionally helpful. This guide book played a significant role in planning this route.
Also tried out new gear for this walk. My normal walking boots, which I love, are Scarpa R Evos, which I love. With all the snow and ice in the recent forecasts I was trying out my new Scarpa Manta Pro GTXs. These will be great boots if and when I need crampons for snow and ice, but they were far to stiff and like board planks for bare rock trails. I will be out again tomorrow in the Carneddau - wearing my Scarpa R Evos.
This was day one of a pair of QMDs. Tent camped overnight at Dolgam in Capel Curig on this evening to be in place for the walk tomorrow (the next) morning.
Area :
Carneddau
The Carneddau (lit. "the cairns"; Carneddau is a Welsh plural form, and is sometimes anglicised to Carnedds) are a group of mountains in Snowdonia, Wales. They include the largest contiguous areas of high ground (over 2,500 or 3,000 feet (910 m) high) in Wales and England, as well as six or seven of the highest peaks in the country—the Fourteen Peaks. The range also encloses a number of lakes such as Llyn Cowlyd and Llyn Eigiau, and the Aber Falls waterfalls. It is delimited by the Irish Sea to the north, the Conwy valley to the east, and by the A5 road from Betws-y-Coed to Bethesda to the south and west. The area covers nearly 200 square kilometres, about 10% of the area of Snowdonia.
