Yesterday saw myself and Dave (my daughters partner) travelling down the A487 in Gwynedd, to take on the might that is Cadair Idris. Our chosen route for the day was to ascend to the summit of Penygadair via the infamous Minffordd Path.
This route was to take us up past the waterfalls at Dol y Cae, which I have to say looked quite superb today in spate and then on into the spectacular Cwm Cau. We felt at this point, that after negotiating the staircase all the way up to here that we should take a quick refreshment break before we continued up onto the Craig Lwyd ridge that was to take us up to the summit of Craig Cwm Amarch at 791m. From the summit we unfortunately had to descend into Craig Cau, losing approx 80m of height in the process, before we commenced our final push up to the summit of Penygadair at 893m. From the summit we decided to continue on and to complete the full ridge east to Gau Graig at 683m, taking in the impressive top of Mynydd Moel at 863m en route.
Pease note: For anyone contemplating taking on our chosen route themselves, please be warned, that the descent off Gau Graig is very steep in places, often requiring the need to scramble down. In fact I occasionally found the need to use of my bum at times simply to complete this descent.
The weather though dry for the best part of the day, turned out to be somewhat dull and overcast. However, with a relatively high cloud base, all the tops of Snowdonia, with the exception of Yr Wyddfa were clearly visible to us, which again made a pleasant change.
I personally found the ascent quite tough going in places, though the workout was welcome and very worth while, as I continue to improve my fitness level in preparation for a four day trip next month up to Scotland.
Dave thoroughly enjoyed his first visit to the area too, but with him being a relatively newcomer to hill walking and unable to get out on a regular basis, he found the whole experience quite physically challenging. He will know doubt be suffering in work today.
Below is a printout of the actual route (plus profile) we took, it calculated, courtesy of MemoryMap to 13.1k (8.13 miles), with a total ascent of 991m. It worked out to be quite a long day too at 7 hours, which simply indicates just how tough this route really is.
Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs I’ve managed to take and post here, I unfortunately left my camera at home and had to make do on the day with my mobile phone. Hope you enjoy them none the less.
Looking up to Craig Cwm Amarch and Penygadair, from the Craig Lwyd ridge.
And looking back.
Peeping over the edge whilst at the summit of Craig Cwm Amarch, down to the waters of Llyn Cau.
Looking back to Craig Cwm Amarch from our ascent of Penygadair.
Dave apparently suffering and deciding to take a minute.
Dave at the trig point on Penygadair.
My turn next.
Looking east along the Cadair Idris ridge towards Mynydd Moel.
Cheers for viewing.
Robbo.