#19.Crib Lem Spur and Foel Meirch.10-3-11.

Crib Lem Spur has been on my to-do list for some time after reading a report on the walking forum and seeing the photo's of it.I asked a few friend's if they were available and had a few yes's so Killy(Andy Pierce) came to my house and i drove to the Rhug Estate farm shop where Howie was waiting for us,he jumped in the back and i drove to Gerlan above Bethesda to meet Peakbagger (Mike Cotton) at 9a.m. The weather driving there was very poor,heavy grey skies,raining quite heavily,very windy and low cloud covering the mountain top's.Driving down the A5 Tryfan was the only mountain that was clear of cloud,i said "shall we climb Tryfan instead" but Howie said to stick to our original plan stating the weather would improve,i was unsure but fair play it did stop raining by the time we reached Gerlan and the cloud lifted off the top's.
     It was cold getting our boot's on and very windy so we all put our wet coat's,hat's and gloves on and set off at 9.15a.m. Howie had bought a new coat,the hood being on the large side being able to cover a rock climber's head if he was wearing a helmet,he got some stick during the walk.

Up the lane leaving Gerlan and cross the Afon Llafar the path enter's the field's were we crossed the Afon Cenllusg and got our first view's of the high Carneddau.Below pictured Yr Elen on the left .

Carnedd Dafydd on left side or ridge and Pen Yr Ole Wen.

It was a 2.8 mile walk into Cwm Llafar to reach Llech Ddu,relatively flat following the river and below are a few photo's .

On Moel Siabod a few month's ago Howie lost his mat when the wind caught it and blew it away up into the sky never to be seen again.We came across this one and wondered if it was his.

Lower down the valley and sheltered from the wind i stupidly commented that we may be sheltered from it until we reach the summit.By the time we had crossed the last stile where the path split's for Mynydd Du we were back in the wind,it was roaring up the valley so strong that at one stage it launched me forward and i started running along the grassy track and couldn't stop,propelling me forward for over 100 metres before it subsided.
            Eventually we reached the awesome Llech Ddu at the bottom of the Crib Lem Spur.

The scramble ascend's a ridge above the cliff but a devious approach is needed to get to it.We climbed steeply into Cwmglas Bach using a vague path to the left of this waterfall pictured below.

We were all slightly apprehensive about the scramble with the wind being so strong but decided to crack on saying we could alway's drop back down if it was to dangerous.Here we were at a height of 1,650 feet and with the summit of Carnedd Dafydd being 3,425 feet we knew we were in for a tough climb.Below nearing the top of the waterfall.

Here a vague path goes left to arrive above Llech Ddu,shown below,where the scramble start's.

Below are photo's of the boy's on various stages of the scramble.

In places we just had to crouch low when the wind was gusting as the ridge was quite narrow but we cracked on and after reaching the top of the scramble the terrain get's a lot gentler being a stony grassy slope and we stopped for a drink and some food.It started to hail whilst we had our break.

The last couple of hundred feet to the summit was on a well walked path but we lost the view's as it was quite cloudy.At the summit we chatted to 2 men from Anglesey,the only people we saw all day.The summit of Carnedd Dafydd stand's 3,425 feet,1,044 metres,one of only 5 mountain's in Wales over 1,000 metres.Our intention was to walk over to Carnedd Llewelyn and Yr Elen but as the weather was so poor we decided to drop down through the rock's to Foel Meirch and follow the ridge over Mynydd Du back to Gerlan.The cloud soon dispersed to give us some good view's on the descent.

The Crib Lem ridge from Foel Meirch.

The wind was very strong descending trying to blow us into Cwm Llafar and we had to stay away from the edge.Below Mynydd Du,after crossing it the heaven's opened and we were caught in a heavy rain shower for 10 minute's.

A most enjoyable walk/scrable made interesting by the strong wind in great company.The length of the walk was 7 mile with 2,900 feet of ascent.



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