First Wild Camp of the Year

Saturday 19th April 2014
#sh

Here's a photo of last night's scenic camp by Loch Enoch in the Galloway Hills. I had a good afternoon walk-in yesterday over the granite hill of Craignaw in the sunshine. Today I'm heading up Mullwharchar and then east to the Rhinns of Kells.

posted from Bloggeroid

An Easter Backpack in the Galloway Hills

This afternoon I will be setting off for a 3-4 day backpack in the sunny Galloway Hills.  The following Social Hiking map shows my planned route (in pink), which should get overlaid with my progress (in orange) assuming that that I have signal and/or my SPOT works properly!  Once I've finished walking, I'll be uploading blog posts for each day at some point in the next few weeks.

See map on Social Hiking site or full size in a new window

Mynydd Graig Goch - My Final Welsh 2000ft Peak!

Sunday 16th March 2014 

A misty day on the western hills of the Nantlle Ridge to climb my last Welsh Nuttall 

Distance: 11km; Ascent: 660m; Misty on the hills; with Colin

See tracked route in new window

After yesterday's two walks in the Arenigs and the Glyders, I now only had one 2000ft peak left in Wales that I hadn't yet climbed: Mynydd Graig Goch in western Snowdonia.  Therefore today we set out to rectify that with a pleasant walk along the western section of the Nantlle Ridge, to visit not only Mynydd Graig Goch, but also two other nearby peaks that Colin had yet to climb.

We set off walking from a small carpark just over half a kilometre NW of Llyn Cwm Dulyn at around quarter to eleven and headed along the access track to the reservoir, before gaining the NW spur of Mynydd Graig Goch and ascending up into the mist.

Approaching Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Heading for the NW spur of Mynydd Craig Goch

Frog (or toad?) spawn

Soon after midday we reached the rocky summit of Mynydd Graig Goch (Nuttall), where we spent a short while identifying by GPS which one of the many rocky outcrops was actually the true summit.  Once we had found it we stopped here for lunch before enjoying a celebratory dram whilst reflecting back on the large number of excellent days hill walking I've had climbing all the Welsh 2000ft peaks since 1997.

Celebrating with a dram on the summit of Mynydd Graig Goch

Summit rocks of Mynydd Graig Goch

After feeling suitably refreshed, we headed east over moorland to eventually descend out of the cloud as we reached Bwlch Cwm Dulyn.  From here we picked up a well worn path for a few hundred metres before concluding it didn't ascend the next hill; therefore instead we headed up the rough ground into the mist to reach the trigpoint and summit cairn of Garnedd-goch (Nuttall).

The cloud cleared as we descended to Bwlch Cwm Dulyn

Summit of Garnedd Goch

From here it was a pleasant, if misty, walk along the ridge to reach our highest point of the day at the summit of Craig Cwm Silyn (Nuttall, Marilyn), where we met the only other walkers we saw all day.  After a short break at the summit we retraced our steps for around three quarters of a kilometre before taking a traversing line westwards around Garnedd Goch towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn.

Descending out of the cloud towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Llyn Cwm Dulyn with Mynydd Craig Goch beyond

We soon dropped out of the cloud as we descended and there we good views down towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn and across to the hills of the Lleyn Peninsula in the distance.  Lower down we picked up a faint path down a bit of a ridge to reach the outflow of Llyn Cwm Dulyn, from where we followed our outward route back down the access track.  We reached the car shortly before half-past three after a pleasant walk, and headed back home along the A55 happy that I had now completed one of my many hill bagging aims :-)

Looking back to Craig Cwm Dulyn

Win Hill at Dusk

Tuesday 8th April 2014

An evening walk up the steep side of Win Hill 

Distance: 5.5km; Ascent: 320m; Dry with a cool breeze; Solo

See tracked route in new window

After last Tuesday's pleasant evening walk up Shining Tor, I decided to head out for another walk this Tuesday evening and settled on Win Hill from Yorkshire Bridge.  I set off walking from the main round shortly before half-past seven and headed downhill to Yorkshire Bridge to begin the ascent up footpath number 408.

Footpath sign at the bottom of Parkin Clough

The climb up through the woods was steep and muddy, but around 30 minutes later I was rewarded with good views from the trigpoint on the summit of Win Hill (HuMP).  There were already three other people on the summit when I arrived, who appeared to have been photographing the sunset (which I unfortuantely was around ten minutes to late to see!).

Ladybower Reservoir from Win Hill

Win Hill at dusk

Win Hill trigpoint at dusk

After a short break on the summit to admire the extensive views in the last light of the day I headed a short distance west along the ridge to pick up a narrow path through the heather, heading NE to the edge of the forest.  By the light of my headtorch I descended muddy paths and tracks through the woods to reach the track along the shore of Ladybower Reservoir, whose dam I then crossed to return to my car shortly after 9pm after another nice evening hill-walk :-)

Footpath sign north of Win Hill

Tryfan, Glyder Fach and Castell y Gwynt

Saturday 15th March 2014 

An afternoon scramble up the north ridge of Tryfan, onto Glyder Fach and down Y Gribin 

Distance: 6.5km; Ascent: 940m; Windy with much low cloud; with Colin

See tracked route in new window

After this morning's short walk we drove around to the Ogwen Valley where we had lunch in the car before setting off to ascend Tryfan.  It had been a while since I'd last scrambled up the north ridge and it was nice to return to ground that I used to be very familiar with ten or so years ago.

Llyn Ogwen

Colin headed off to solo an obscure rock climb whilst I ascended the reasonable path, past the Milestone Buttress, to the start of the scrambling where we met up again. The scrambling was pleasant, and it was nice to be scrambling again for the first time since I was on Skye a couple of years ago.

On Tryfan's North Ridge

Soon we reached the Cannon Stone - I wonder how it got it's name! ;)  We continued on up into the cloud to eventually reach the summit of Tryfan (Marilyn, Nuttall) at around the same time as a large party of climbers who had presumably been climbing one of the classic routes on the east face.

Inspecting the view from the Cannon Stone 

Adam & Eve on the summit of Tryfan

After a short rest on the summit we made our way down the south ridge to reach Bwlch Tryfan, where we dropped below the clouds.  By now it was very windy so we decided against our original plan of scrambling of up Bristly Ridge and instead opted to make our way up the unpleasant scree path to reach the summit rocks of Glyder Fach (Nuttall), just as the cloud was beginning to lift off the summits (although low cloud remained in the cwms).

Looking across Bwlch Tryfan to Bristly Ridge

Cloud lifting off Y Foel Goch

Looking down towards Nant Ffrancon from Glyder Fach

Tryfan from Glyder Fach

Looking NE from Glyder Fach

Pen yr Ole Wen and Tryfan

It was a short walk across the rocky summit plateau to reach the main objective for this afternoon: the impressive spiky rocks of Castell y Gwynt (Nuttall).  A pleasant short scramble took us to the highest rocks of the peak, which was my penultimate 2000ft peak in Wales.

Castell y Gwynt

On the summit of Castell y Gwynt

By now time was getting on so we opted for a reasonably quick descent back down to the valley by way of the pleasant Gribin Ridge down to the outflow of Llyn Bochlwyd.  We then made our way back to the road in fading light, reaching the car shortly after 7pm after a very pleasant afternoon :-)  That evening we headed round to the Llanberis Pass to stay in a nice Climbers' Club hut, where we enjoyed a pasta dinner followed by a couple of drams :-)

Looking down the Gribin Ridge

Last light of the day over the Devil's Kitchen

Foel Boeth & Gallt y Daren

Saturday 15th March 2014 

A short walk up a couple of Nuttalls from the road pass 

Distance: 3km; Ascent: 90m; Sunny and windy; with Colin

See tracked route in new window

Colin and I had originally planned to head up to the highlands this weekend for a spot of Munro bagging.  However the weather forecast for the highlands didn't inspire us to take the long drive north and so instead we hatched a plan to head over to Snowdonia for the weekend with the aim of climbing my final four Welsh 2000ft peaks.

The Rhinogs from the S slopes of Foel Boeth

Heading towards Foel Boeth

We set off walking from the summit of a minor road west of Bala Lake shortly after 10am and headed over the moorland to reach the top of our first hill of the day: Foel Boeth (Nuttall).  It was pleasantly sunny here today, although there was a bitter wind.  Many of the higher hills were covered in cloud, although there were good views towards the Rhinogs.

On the summit of Foel Boeth

Looking E towards Arenig Fawr and Moel Llyfnant

We continued NNW for a few hundred metres to reach the slightly higher summit of Gallt y Daren (Nuttall, HuMP), where it was even more windy!  We didn't linger here long and soon retraced our steps back to the car, where we arrived around an hour after setting off.  It was now time to head round to the Ogwen valley for our second walk of the day...

On the summit of Gallt y Daren

The Rhinogs from the road pass

Shining Tor at Dusk

Tuesday 1st April 2014 

An evening walk up Shining Tor in the western Peak District 

Distance: 6km; Ascent: 280m; Dry with light winds; Solo

See tracked route in new window

Now that the Spring Equinox had passed and the clocks have gone forward, it's now possible to head out for a hill walk in the light evenings after work :-)  Therefore this evening at 7pm I set off walking from beside Errwood Reservoir and ascended westwards past the ruins of Errwood Hall.

Errwood Reservoir

Ruins of Errwood Hall

I've climbed Shining Tor many times before, but today I noticed a route of ascent I hadn't used before and hence set off climbing up a zig-zagging vehicle track through the woods to the west of Errwood Hall.  I gained height quickly, with good views back westwards to the moors on the far side of the reservoirs, and soon reached the end of the vehicle track shortly after leaving the woods.

Looking east towards Combs Edge

Looking N along the ridge to Cats Tor

I followed a path westwards to meet the main slabbed path along the north ridge of Shining Tor, with good views north towards Cats Tor.  I had arrived on the ridge shortly before sunset, so I spent a few minutes taking a few snaps before continuing on to the summit and trigpoint on Shining Tor (Marilyn, Dewey).

Dusk skies from Shining Tor ridge

Sunset from Shining Tor ridge

Sunset from Shining Tor ridge

Shining Tor trigpoint

After a quick break on the summit I headed SE towards Stake Side before following the pleasant ridge NNE down towards Errwood Reservoir in fading light.  Around half way down I resorted to using my head torch as it was now getting quite dark.  I reached the car at around twenty to nine after a pleasant 6km evening hill walk.