This whole region is more agreeable in descent (use GL31 for the hard work) in which case it pays to stay on the tongue for a while. You can then decide which side takes your fancy to drop down to, provided you are careful not to leave it too late and get mixed up in the crags of Y Galan. A novel idea, if time permits, is to pick up a little track that curls round the tip of Yr Esgair into Cwm Coch. This leads into some very wild and remote country with striking views of the curious pinnacles of Creigiau Gleision and the vicious Yr Esgair ridge (GL30,1). A knee-jarring descent by a wall brings you down to the road by the footbridge at 638623. Once again you need to steer clear of the actual ravine, this time of Cwm Bual.
Carnedd y Filiast
‘The Hill of the Lady Greyhound’ is a melancholy place. Presiding over the N tip of the Glyders with heartwarming views (from Lleyn to Llandudno, Anglesey to the Carneddau and back over the Glyders) it ought to be a popular haunt. But the way-out position that makes it such an outstanding eyrie, coupled with the proximity of the largest slate quarries in the world, is too great a deterrent. So it is, instead, a haven of quiet, far removed in spirit from the bustle of its Glyder peers.
What visitors there are usually arrive across the crisp sheep-cropped saddle from Mynydd Perfedd. An easy, breezy walk with a splendid view of the smooth slabby cliff face that Carnedd y Filiast presents to Cwm Graianog. Near the same spot a stile over a wall ushers in the summit cap; a windshelter surrounded by a ramble of mossy boulders that are disconcertingly slippery when wet.
Of the three routes below, Cwm Graianog amply repays half a day of anyone’s time; the others only if they fall into place as part of a longer round.
Cwm Graianog route (GL31)
Leave the old road near the elbow at 630637 and work your way across the marshy ground S of Cwm Ceunant, with crags L, to get onto the ridge almost directly above Tai-newyddion. Scraps of track gradually merge into a gritty path that takes a while to make up its mind, but eventually steers a heathery course between the grassy hollow of Cwm Ceunant R and boulder slopes containing Cwm Graianog L. Towards the top the latter coalesce into a wall of extraordinarily smooth, tilted, rocky slabs. These are clearly visible from the old road near Maes-caradoc. Easy angled, they are nevertheless out of bounds to walkers and even climbers are set a few problems as holds and belays are few and far between. Above the slabs a scree and bilberry slope goes straight to the top.
Deiniolen route (GL32)
Best used for a circuit of Llyn Marchlyn Mawr from Deiniolen (GL H3).
Walk down the reservoir road from 595631 as in GL27. Pause to admire Llyn Marchlyn Mawr and then, depending on your stamina, it is simply a matter of choosing where to cross some marshy ground before scrambling up to the NE ridge, dodging outcrops en route.
NE ridge (GL33)
A descent that is desolate and unutterably sad and, unless you love quarrying as well as hills, pointless.
In bygone times, long before the age of slate quarries, this must have been an enjoyable walk, facing the sea and the setting sun. The ridge starts NW before veering E of N in a gentle decline that enters the quarry works near the Glyders’ last buttresses around 623644. Quarry roads then lead to the A5 by the layby at Ogwen Bank (627654).
Tryfan
Anyone not moved by Tryfan is unlikely to be inspired by any mountain. Of all the Welsh peaks it is the most brashly spectacular. Nothing prepares you for the colossal triangle of rock that leaps so dramatically into view on the road from Capel Curig to Ogwen. Narrow crested, unremittingly steep, isolated, generously garlanded in heather and bilberries, it is a scrambler’s paradise to its very roots. Most striking of all is the E face, a massive edifice of precipitous rock, buttressed with frowning gullies that soar to a triple top. The W face is only marginally less steep; it rises from the placid Llyn Bochlwyd, over grassy steeps and scattered islands of rock, before merging into the topmost rocky crown.
The usual lines of ascent follow the N and S ridges. There is no better scramble than the N ridge, a long succession of rocky steps, shelves and giant boulders where the use of hands is obligatory. The S ridge is shorter and easier but no less rewarding. The W face is unfashionable, but if you can survive the early grind there is again an excellent scrambling finale. Curiously, for such a bastion of power, it is the E face that offers one of the easiest approaches – along a shelf known as the Heather Terrace that slants diagonally across it and is easily distinguishable from the road.
Of the three tops the one in the middle is the main top, the highest; a boulder-strewn platform where two famous monoliths called Adam and Eve (often mistaken for climbers by viewers in the valley below) stand in for the customary cairn. The spikier N top, 5min away across the scree gully that rends the W face, is the smallest and most rugged of the three tops. Airy and free of crowds, it is the most ‘Tryfan-like’ in character. The S top is flat and slabby beneath a tiny wall that can cause a minor problem for ordinary pedestrians. Finally, nearly 300ft below across a much-trodden col, is the far S top, a rocky eminence with a tiny tarn that from some viewpoints looks like a Tryfan in embryo.
Despite being overtopped by Pen yr Ole Wen and Glyder Fach, Tryfan is a first-class viewpoint, as befits a peak that rises over 2000ft from the road in under 0.5 mile. To the N the Carneddau stretch from the scarped slopes of Nant Ffrancon to the bald top of Pen Llithrig-y-wrach, leading the eye SE to the elephantine sprawl of Gallt yr Ogof and the lone elegance of Moel Siabod. SW are the threateningly sharp, even weird battlements of the Glyders beyond which a discerning eye can just catch a glimpse of Snowdon. Finest of all is the nexus of little-known cwms and hills to the W: the two arms of Y Garn, shy Cwm Cywion, Creigiau Gleision and the Mushroom Garden, the spiky arete of Yr Esgair falling away from Foel Goch, the slow curve of Elidir Fawr, and far-off Carnedd y Filiast. On a bright day you will be doubly blessed with the mosaic of greys, greens and mauves leavened by the glint of sunlight on the clear waters of Ogwen, Idwal and Bochlwyd.
Provided you stick to established routes Tryfan is safe in mist. The main paths are so well worn and nail-scratched that, with care, it is difficult to stray. In snow and ice, however, it is a different proposition and Tryfan should then be left to specialists who possess ice axes and crampons and know how to use them. In short, though Tryfan can be ruthless to the unwary, you have only to treat it with respect to be rewarded handsomely, time and time again!
Tryfan from the east in winter
Note The six routes on Tryfan described below start from one of four different points along the A5: Ogwen cottage for GL36/37, the car park towards the E end of the lake at the bend in the road at 660603 for GL38, the car park below Milestone Buttress at 664603 for GL34, and Gwern Gof Uchaf Farm for GL35/39. These are the most convenient starting points but it will be clear from the map that other permutations are possible given a bit of simple cross-country work. In particular I refer in the text to starting the Heather Terrace from Milestone Buttress and N ridge from the farm. To add to the variety, there are at least three other potential starting places: a stile on the A5 near the W tip of Llyn Ogwen, a layby at 656603 and a stile at 668606 opposite