Carneddau | Yellow Van Mountaineering

A couple of weekend trips in the last few weeks – one to a cottage near Pitlochry to meet family, the other to a bunkhouse near Bethesda to meet friends.

The cottage in Pitlochry was suitably old and drafty but held great views over the the autumn colours in the glen. Forecasts for 50 mph gusts and 50% chance of cloud free summits made the 3 tops of Beinn a’Ghlo the objective for Saturday. With weather worsening in the afternoon, we sped along the ridge to have lunch on the last top, descending the south ridge and enjoying the long tramp back to the car in sunshine. Good views from the first two tops, and occasional glimpses from the last. The wind was also less than expected.

The next day was spent cycling through the autumn colours, which we had forgotten were quite so good in that part of the country. A bit of rain damped things, but better than expected.

A final morning was spent with a quick walk through the woods before heading home.

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Wales the weekend after was a different story. With high winds and continuous rain forecast, we headed up to Carnedd y Filiast, Elider Fawr and onto Foel Goch and Y Garn. It didn’t stop raining and the wind made sure we were thoroughly wet. The wind coming off the NE ridge of Y Garn was enough to blow us over a couple of times. The log fire back in the bunkhouse was well earned and appreciated.

Sunshine tempted us on Sunday to go for another walk, so we headed up around the northern Carneddau, on which it rained for an hour or so. Luckily the sun came out on the way down, and we finally dried off, before finding ourselves deep in farm mud a few metres from the road.

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It recently dawned on us that we hadn’t been to Wales for over a year – which meant we had never taken the van there. Over the first May bank holiday weekend we rectified this with a splendid few days in north and south Snowdonia.

Amphitheatre Buttress on Craig yr Ysfa in the Carneddau has been on our wish list for several years. Described as a “long mountain adventure”, we thought it would be both a gentle reintroduction to rock climbing (another thing we hadn’t done for over a year – incidentally since the last Wales trip), and a good warm-up for the Alps. So this was our main target for the weekend – and it looked like the weather was going to play ball…

Unfortunately MWIS was uncharacteristically optimistic, and when we woke up on Saturday morning to distinctly cold and cloudy skies, we were amused to notice that yesterday’s prediction of “extensive sunshine” had been altered to “almost no sunshine” ten minutes previously. Only slightly daunted, we headed up the mountain anyway. It was a good decision: although we found the rock cold on the first pitch, there were no real weather-related difficulties and being able to hear each other over the refreshing lack of wind made a nice change.

Despite not starting particularly early, we were first on the route. The bottom slabs didn’t look quite gentle enough not to pitch, and in fact we thought these presented some of the toughest moves – but maybe that was just our rustyness. The crux was steeper and nicely exposed but with good holds, and after that we moved together. A few gendarmes and a genuinely knife-edged ridge made for an entertaining penultimate section! Overall, a fantastic route with great views and isolated mountain setting (especially when compared to the crowds on topping out) – easily deserving of its classic status. To finish the day we ran up Carnedd Llewelyn and Pen yr Helgi Du before descending the ridge (and bog, and hopping a wall) to Gwern Gof Isaf.

Over tea and crisps, we decided to head south to join friends on the CUHWC trip to Bryn Golau in Dinas Mawddwy for the remainder of the weekend, and enjoyed a sociable couple of evenings in the bunkhouse (returning to the much more comfortable van to sleep!). On Sunday we walked on the always-pleasant Arans, and managed to fit in a quick ascent of almost-deserted Maesglase (a hill previously admired, but never before climbed) on Monday morning.