A Welsh man walking.: Aber Falls,Northern Carneddau Circuit. 6-1-11

Had a lovely walk in the Northern Carneddau with Glyno,starting at Aber Fall's and following the Afon Rhaeadr-Fawr to the base of the fall's.

After taking a few photo's we took the path that climbs up to the stile by the forest,it then turns away from the tree's and crosses the scree to reach the rock's near the top of the fall's.

Great care is needed on the scree and a head for height's as the path is quite narrow and the angle of the slope is steep.On reaching the rocky section an easy scramble to the left of the Afon Goch bring's you out on a lovely grassy path with view's up to a snowy Bera Mawr,ahead right,and the flank's off Llwytmor to your left and you then pass a large sheep enclosure on the walk up the valley.

It started to get cloudy and it soon covered Bera Mawr and as we gained some height we were soon in it and lost our view's for the next 2 hour's.We crossed a tributary of the Afon Goch and made for the summit of Llwtmor,our progress hindered as we had now reached the snow line,and the more height we gained the deeper it got.This side of Llwytmor is unforgiving,relentlessly steep and seem's to go on for ever.From the base of the fall's to Llwytmor's summit you climb over 2,000 feet in 2 mile.Eventually we reached the summit (2,785 feet),the rock's covered in snow and ice.

We didn't hang around as it was very cold and made for Foel Fras.The ground between these 2 summit's can be very boggy but not today as the ground was frozen solid.The climb up to the summit of Foel Fras was tricky with there being some massive patches of ice on this side of the mountain,much zig-zagging entailed before we reached the icy summit,our high point for the day,3,091 feet.

It had now started to hail/sleet and with it being very windy it was blowing horizontal into our faces,as it was blowing west to east we decided to go behind the wall to have a bite to eat,drink and don our crampon's.the snow had drifted up the wall and made for crossing the stile easier.

The walk to Drum was fun,lot's of ice on the path,the crampon's making it a lot easier.As we got lower the condition's got better,the hail stopped and we were virtually out of the snow,so on the summit of Drum (2,526) we got into the ancient cairn of Carnedd Penydorth-goch and took our crampon's off.

From here it is was short walk to our 4th Nuttall,Carnedd y Ddelw (2,257).It,s summit has an ancient cairn that was excavated in the 18th century and a small golden figure was found.

Now we were getting some great view's,to the East we could see the Great Orme,panning west Puffin Island,Penmon Lighthouse,the Menai Straits,Bangor and it's Pier and even Holyhead Mountain in the distance.The next part of the walk involved walking over 4 minor summit's,namely Drosgl,Pen y Bryn Du,Orsedd and Foel Ganol pictured.