Hill Walking in Snowdonia

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCING SNOWDONIA

FOR over two centuries a compact area in North Wales has been called Snowdonia. It forms the northern half of the North Wales National Park, contains the highest mountain south of the Border and over 50 peaks exceeding 2000 feet in height. It is mainly a wild and rugged region, interspersed with beautiful valleys. It has long been a favoured holiday centre for those who wish to escape from the stresses of modern urban life to lonely places. Of late this popularity has greatly increased.

There is an extensive literature dealing with Snowdonia, but it is felt that a gap may be filled by this small volume, intended to help those who delight to wander on its high places. It sets out a detailed account of tested routes up and down every peak in the area that exceeds 2000 feet, with alternatives and variations. There are also a few notes on other excursions, some general information and chapters on the countryside and Welsh place names.

While the main object of this book is to encourage beginners, and especially young ones, to come to these hills for a sport that will give them life-long pleasure, more practised walkers should find some new routes of interest to them. Naturally much is left to the reader’s imagination. He can adapt the excursions to his personal taste, physical ability and time available. The hardboiled rock climber is not catered for. He usually belongs to a Climbing Club and has an extensive library devoted to his more hazardous hobby.

Obviously there are many omissions. These uplands are spacious and it would take a lifetime to explore them completely. As most ramblers like a definite object on their outings, summit cairns are the climax to most of the trips. If the routes described are followed, goals should be reached with less effort and more profit than otherwise. Due apologies are tendered for the inevitable overlapping in the details of some of the excursions.

The average person with a clear head and reasonable strong leg muscles should have no trouble on any of these walks. Here and there the easy scrambling indicated adds a little zest to the outings.

Few sports excel the age old pastime of walking in the countryside. When it is enjoyed amid the finest surroundings in Great Britain, it is at its best. But conditions on the uplands differ some-what from those lower down and therefore a few general remarks for the benefit of newcomers must preface the main part of this book.

Until our National Parks are well established and the legislation relating to footpaths is fully implemented, the proviso printed at the foot of Ordnance Survey maps must hold good here. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be assumed as to the right of way over any of the paths described. In practice it will be found that existing roads, tracks and footpaths can be used and that the farming fraternity will not hinder the wayfarer, but often give valuable help, as long as he observes the three golden rules for ramblers: leave all gates as you find them, avoid all standing crops and repair any accidental damage done to walls, hedges or fences. In the upper reaches there is much freedom.

On the favoured hills—Snowdon and a few others, and on the routes to popular cliff climbs—paths, more or less clear, will be found or small cairns will mark the direct way. Elsewhere one’s own route must be worked out. When this is done successfully the pleasure of the trip is enhanced.

At some lower levels, and even well up, bogs are frequent. Though seldom dangerous, they should be avoided for the sake of dry feet. They can usually be seen from a distance, distinguished by a brownness of the grass or a growth of reeds. If a section must be crossed, nip over quickly by hopping from tuft to tuft. But you must by-pass the few soft and deep morasses, often covered by bright emerald moss.

In the summer time, wading through bracken is toilsome and at all times heather makes for hard slogging. Patches of these can often be avoided, but sometimes sheep tracks lead through them. These tracks can at times be taken for paths, though they seldom go far in the right direction. Do not trust bracken for hand-holds on steep slopes, but live heather will usually support you, owing to its deep roots. Perhaps the worst going is over bracken and heather covering irregular stones, but big scree at a steep angle runs this close.

You should cross with great care and without profanity any of the high stone walls that may bar your progress. They were not built to obstruct the tourist. Some of them date from the time of the Enclosures and many are boundary fences to keep in check the native sheep that, unlike their more placid Southdown relatives, are filled with fierce Celtic blood and can negotiate anything less than a five-foot wall or a five-barred gate with the greatest of ease.

In most cases grass slopes lead through to the top. Even when they are steep they need care only when very wet or very dry. You can often mount at the side of small cliffs that provide steadying handholds. But your hands will seldom be wanted, except on such ascents as Tryfan, the Bristly Ridge and the Crib Goch crest. Test your hand grips well before putting your full weight on them, and do not be afraid of leaning well out from the hill to improve your balance.

On approaching any ascent it is as well to pick out a suitable line of attack from a distance, noting the stretches of grass that lead upwards through heather or bracken and any steep rock faces to be avoided. The straight way up is not always the quickest. Note any landmarks such as trees, walls or rocks near the chosen route, because the actual summit may be lost to sight as you advance. Coming down a strange slope it is not so easy to avoid steep cliffs, so it is well to go slowly, always retaining a line of retreat. Do not jump from ledge to ledge, hoping for the best.

The weather up here has a bad reputation that it does not always deserve. On most days some excursion can be made. Indeed, in showery weather there are often cloud effects of great beauty and the atmosphere has a pellucid clearness when the rain ceases. Should this happen wide distant views open up, unknown in hot, hazy periods. When it does rain, it may be a gentle fall merging into mist above, or a fierce downpour cutting horizontally across the wilds, rendering the stoutest raincoat more of a protest than a protection. The watercourses will sing with a deeper note and the bogs be more spongelike than ever, as they sink under your feet. It does not do much harm to get soaked once in a way and there is some satisfaction in battling with the elements and completing a climb in spite of them. The hotel on Snowdon often has its dripping walkers mingling with those who have ascended dryshod in the train. Both usually have the same negative view.

Greater danger lurks in the mists when they roll up across the heights. Do not press on in unknown or pathless high country when they swirl around; the attempt may land you in for a long period of exposure, with a chance of a sudden drop of a few hundred feet. If, you have noted a few landmarks on the way up, it should not be difficult to retrace your steps, aided by a map and compass. If there is any wind note its direction and always take a compass bearing before the landscape is obscured. Study the map for any streams that may help you down if the contour lines are well spaced, but if the contours are close together you may be landed in a series of waterfalls, with edges too steep to negotiate.

The wind, too, a friend when cooling breezes ease the early slogging up the lower slopes, can be an enemy if it rages across an exposed ridge that you have to tackle. Deal with it by keeping to leeward of the crest, if this is not too steep, or by changing direction to a course that keeps it in your back. Most of the accidents to walkers are due to inexperience or the neglect of obvious precautions.

While these minor troubles are mentioned, they need not loom too heavily and, if any arise, they are soon forgotten in the joys of long days on the heights, the entrancing views, the radiant air that stimulates a noble appetite, and the happy walk homeward in the sunset glow, so often a glorious climax to days in the sun.

The majority of visitors come here in the three summer months and cause not a little congestion in the resorts. It is to be hoped that the staggering of holi-. days will ultimately extend the season, since there is no better time for walking than in the spring and autumn. The weather is usually kinder and the undergrowth less troublesome. The countryside is crowned with beauty, either with the fresh green of promise, or the mellow tints of another year’s achievement.

If you can find a few days in midwinter, a visit to these hills will give you a great reward. Daylight is shorter and plans must conform to this, but the lower temperatures allow of faster progress. Snow is usually found on the heights and sometimes at lower levels. Strange, glistening effects alter familiar landscapes and the hills seem vastly higher under their pure white coating. You leave footprints across untouched drifts, find sheets of ice on the lakes and wander among ghostly peaks in intense solitude. No medico can prescribe a tonic equal to these semi-alpine wanderings.

The gentle cautions already given apply with greater force to winter conditions. The rocks are often ice coated and drifts and cornices of snow add dangers that need extra care. Among crags and on steep slopes an ice axe is essential. It is as well to stick to well-known tracks, to have a companion and to retreat at once should a mist descend or a gale blow up.

To enjoy these walks, go slowly and steadily in the early stages. As a rule they are the stiffest part of the day’s work and you do not want to arrive on the skyline hot and bothered. Leaders of parties must remember the naval axiom that the speed of a fleet is that of the slowest vessel, and not force the pace so as to distress the weaklings. A party should keep well together, especially in bad weather.

As to equipment, there are few absolute necessities, but among them are the one-inch Ordnance Survey map of the area and a pocket compass. All the excursions, with the exception of one of the lower walks in Chapter VII and some outliers described in Chapter VIII, are covered by Sheet No. 107, Snowdon, in the New Popular Edition of the one-inch map, with the National Grid. It may be noted that many of the paths shown on it, particularly in the higher regions, are not always easily traced.

Your feet will do most of the work and must be looked after. Boots should be stout, waterproof, and, above all, comfortable. They should be nailed rather thickly and soft nails hold best on rocks. Socks should be thick and if there is room in your boots for two pairs, so much the better. To prevent blisters, it is a good thing to grease your feet before putting on your socks.

An old tweed coat over a warm pullover and cord slacks should suffice above, while the short gaiters of the Home Guard are useful. Battledress style jackets are hard to beat. Shorts are not good, since your knees may come into action on rocks, and it is usually much cooler higher up. In cold weather a woollen cap or balaclava is comforting and does not depart in a gale, while leather gloves take the chill off wet rocks. Light oilskins are as useful as anything to keep the rain out. When the temperature is low, a stout gaberdine windcheater is handy and saves carrying the oilskins. Shops selling surplus military stores should be searched for useful oddments. Flying jackets or even suits, suitably shortened, light sou’westers, macintoshes, gloves, bush shirts and so forth may save money. Even in summer, always take some spare clothing to put on when resting, In winter this is a vital necessity. The temperature falls one degree for each 300 feet ascended.

Except for short walks a rucksack is needed. The best for the purpose are those of light macintosh cloth (without frames, which add needless weight), that are reasonably waterproof. It should hold the refreshments (not forgetting a reserve in case of unexpected delays), spare clothing,