Did this trip again a few weeks ago, much the same as the route here.

Foel Goch and Pen yr Ole Wen from Elidir Fawr a few weeks ago

It was a half decent day for once, but it seems that everyone else wanted to be on the hill. There was a fell race on, which meant I was looking over my shoulder all day. It came to me that i always do a similar walk in September, and there’s always scores of runners! It must be the fourth time.

What did strike me though was that all the miserable gits had found their way here. You know the ones. They’ll never say hello and are more commonly found near the summit of Snowdon and along its more popular paths. Never seen so many on the Glyderau though! I think only a handful of people returned the usual hello, and one of those was lost.

Everyone did seem to be out today. Even the paragliders were leaping to their apparent deaths off Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder towards the rocks below. Now i’d left the runners behind, i had paragliders swooping overhead. I’m used to seagulls walking around town, so i’m sure the same fear towards paragliders is unfounded! I’m sure they won’t steal my food and i’m even more certain they’re house trained.

Like most others, i spent a good half hour looking at them swoop high above Cwm Ffynnon until I decided that time was getting short and I had to move on. Finally off Glyder Fach, the crowds were left behind. I think all that was missing was a few jugglers and stilt walkers.

I’d forgotten how boggy the last stretch of the Glyderau can be. Sections needed skirting around, and i was giving them an extra wide berth after nearly falling up to my waist. I’ve never been stood on a bit of bog before where my pole found its way all the way in. Fortunately, it held my weight, and further probing saw i’d been lucky!

Finally arrived at Capel...

Descending to Capel, I found that the path disappeared as i’d gone to far to avoid the bogs, and ended up clambering down some bracken clad slopes.

Just some pics of the walk yesterday, there will be a full route on Walk Eryri in due course.

The conditions were as decent as they’ve been in recent years, though it was only over about 800m that the snow was old enough to be easy to walk on in crampons. Lower than that, it was a bit too mixed.

Bad news is though, that the week ahead looks like it’s going to melt and that it’ll remain mild next week. The snow seems to be deep in drifts, but the summit of Glyder Fawr was pretty wind swept and the rock below was quite visible. I’m writing to Santa at this very moment for some more snow in the New Year!