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Regions - Trip reports, destination advice, recommended routes, etc. => Wales => Topic started by: demislw on 01:16:12, 16/05/19

Title: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: demislw on 01:16:12, 16/05/19
Hi,


I have a photo of my father taken in the late 50s at what we understand to be somewhere in North Wales. I feel like it's probably a shot of him standing in front of Cnicht, but have not been in Snowdonia enough to know for sure.... I'd be really keen to go to this exact spot, for the sake of trying to take the same photo ;) ;)


Where do you guys think this shot was taken? (This seemed like a good forum to ask, based on our assumption of the location..)

(http://robotldn.com/mountain.png)


Thoughts?

Cheers,
Demis



Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: richardh1905 on 11:45:55, 16/05/19

I have a hunch that it might be Crib Goch, end on from the NE, taken from the top of the cliffs on the southern flank of Glyder Fawr.


PS - welcome to the forum from Orkney  :)
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: barewirewalker on 16:19:59, 16/05/19
My guess would be top of Dinas y Gromlech. Taken across the gap made by the Cromlech Stones falling out of the crag, thus making the climbs first put up by Joe Brown and Don Whillans, Cemetary Gates, Cenotaph Corner and Ivy Sepulchre. If my guess is right then your father is standing at the top of a climb called Spectre and the photo is taken from the top of Cemetary gates or thereabouts. The climbs were first climbed around 1956 I think. That was the major turning point in climbing between the prewar and the post war concept of what was possible to free climb.
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: Innominate Man on 16:58:50, 16/05/19
BWW you may be right.
Something to get an idea about this climbing area from this video. Please don't think for one minute that the climbs BWW mentions are mere scrambles, this stuff is pretty full on.
It just happens that Hazel is an extremely good climber (the first woman to climb E9 I think).


Unfortunately you never get a view out, away from the rock face across the valley.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEuNt6xQQ8Q
Nice music too  O0


Wonder if your father was just looking or whether he'd been involved in those early ascents ?
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: richardh1905 on 17:55:48, 16/05/19
Yes, that is where I had in mind, but I forgot the name. A mecca for climbers about that time. I'm positive that it is Crib Goch in the background.

Was your father a climber, demislw?
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: Owen on 19:13:38, 16/05/19
That looks more like the Trinity face of Snowdon in the background, so it must be Crib Goch, not the Cromlich.
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: richardh1905 on 20:39:01, 16/05/19

The prominent mountain in the background is definitely Crib Goch.


Take a look at this shot that I found on the internet - the crags to the top left match exactly.


http://www.olivermentz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dinas-Mot.jpg (http://www.olivermentz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dinas-Mot.jpg)
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: ninthace on 20:59:27, 16/05/19
The prominent mountain in the background is definitely Crib Goch.


Take a look at this shot that I found on the internet - the crags to the top left match exactly.


http://www.olivermentz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dinas-Mot.jpg (http://www.olivermentz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dinas-Mot.jpg)
As does the high ground visible behind the shoulder to the right.
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: Dyffryn Ardudwy on 12:50:05, 18/05/19
Certainly not Cnicht, as there are no mountains behind the Welsh Masterhorn.


It certainly does look like the North Ridge of Crib Goch, with the ridge of the Llanberis route up Snowdon in the background, roughly near Llechog.

I recon this shot was taken on the rocky ridges below Glyder Fawr, more on the Llanberis Pass side as you head down towards Pen Y Pass.

Just look at the gaping chasm below, it looks so similar to the Pont Y Gromlech section of the Llanberis Pass.

The pointy bit to the right hand section of the mountain, almost 100% certain that is the start of the North Ridge of Crib Goch.

Viewed from the Nant Peris side of the Llanberis Pass, its unmistakeable.


Might be wrong, but the more i look at it, the more i see the huge chasm of Cwm Glas to the right of the shot.
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: barewirewalker on 14:37:56, 18/05/19
 A photo of Cenotaph Corner taken 1964.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46958243885_999a1ee4e9_z.jpg) (http://)cenotaph corner (https://flic.kr/p/2exxgUz) by Barewirewalker (https://www.flickr.com/photos/barewirewalker/), on Flickr

I could not afford colour then. If the photo was taken on the promontory formed by the left wall, which, believe was pretty cramped, it may not have allowed for a very level angle. Taken across the void of the corner allows for this fairly level angle, which would put the camera above Dinas Mot, the face is about 200ft below the top of the Cromlech. A line drawn from the top of Dinas y Gromlech to the summit of Crib goch makes this a possibility.
My guess is based on a sense on familiarity with that promontory, though very distant time now, though likely to be a well embedded memory as it was a safe haven after finishing my first Hard Very Severe lead.


Looking at the other possibility of Bryn Ddu, would Dinas Mot be more visible?

Looking at the detail in the foreground and the available light, given the cloud cover, it suggests someone taking some pretty serious equipment up for a colour photo in the 1950's,
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: demislw on 21:46:46, 10/09/19
My apologies to all for the late late reply (I didn't have my notifications switched on!!)


And a huge thanks to all in this thread! :) You guys ROCK. (Only a slight pun intended)


Several of you came back with Crib Goch - having a look around the various 3D maps, I think you might be right there: there's a prominent jagged lump like the one he's standing on situated just above the Cromlech Boulders, such that if you position yourself there with something like Google Maps you essentially get the same view up the mountainside... I'm definitely going to try get to the same spot - will report back!! :)


For those who asked, yes, my father was something of a climber in his younger days - some of the higher peaks around the globe, and around the same time as this photo was involved in geological surveys of previously unmapped (to a high degree) Norwegian Fjords etc. He apparently used to get up to the Snowdonia region about once per month all the way through college with an equally adventurous friend.... so I think he might have picked the Cromlech Boulders as an attractive place to stop (the climbing area is right beside the road - quite a magnet for boulder-loving types). It then also makes a lot of sense to then imagine he and his friend deciding to scramble up to the prominent cluster of rocks directly above the boulders, to catch a better view of the mountains, then snap that shot.


Anyway, thanks again to all who contributed - I'll be sure to post a sequel shot if I manage to find a way up to the same position!! :)


(To be continued.....)


D







Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: richardh1905 on 11:02:32, 11/09/19
I'm 100% certain that it is crib Goch in the background - no doubt about it.
Title: Re: Mountain mystery : where was this photo taken...
Post by: barewirewalker on 11:25:52, 12/09/19
Happy to be of help. If you are going to the Pass to try to locate the position, I am convinced the photo was taken from the top of one of the main crags The Cromlech being the most likely. Something I missed in your photo, that is the worn patch in the rocks, below the boulder left of your father's feet.
That has all the characteristics of a belay point. Position, where the lead climber stands secured to bring up his second. Don't confuse the modern day interpretation of 'bouldering' with the sort of climbing your father may have aspired to. In the 1950's even the 1960's the position at the top of the Cromlech (as we called it then) was very significant. It was the mecca for all aspiring climbers, only gradually being replaced by Cloggy (Clogwyn du'r Arddu).