I hadn’t been on a walk in Snowdonia since the summer before, where I failed the Welsh 3000s challenge. It was time to stop sulking about that and return. The plan was to obtain Crib Goch north ridge via Cwm Glas, continue along Crib Goch and Crib-y-Ddysgl as far as the Garnedd Ugain trig, then descend along the Cwm Glas ridge (something that I’ve never done before) back to the car.

I parked in one of the laybys in Llanberis Pass near Cwm Glas, and headed on down the track at Blaen-y-nant. After crossing the bridge, the track bends around to the right and, at that point, a track heads off to the left running parallel to the stream below and to the side of the Cwm Glas ridge on the right. The track continues following the stream through Cwm Glas Mawr and all the way to waterfall higher up. At this point we crossed the stream and headed up the steep zig-zagging path to the left of the waterfall. There is a more interesting grade 1 scramble to the right of the waterfall but as I had some company, I decided to keep it simple until we arrived at Crib Goch.

Once up, the sight of the spectacular Clogwyn y Person Arete greets you. To the right of this is Cwm Glas, with Crib-y-Ddysgl rising high above at the back. On the left of the arete is Cwm Uchaf and a magnificent view of Crib Goch. We navigated our way around Llyn Glas and slowly made our way towards the base of Crib Gochs north ridge. A word of warning – the ground around this area can get extremely saturated after a spell of wet weather. We slowly made our way up the horrible scree slopes at the foot of Crib Goch until we were on the crest, then headed on up the ridge.

Initially, the ridge is fairly easy to walk up. As it gets higher though, the ridge narrows and requires a hands-on appraoch in a few places. This was my walking buddys first time on Crib Goch and she found these initial scrambles quite difficult due to the height as much as the actual climbing. I attempted to motivate her by rolling my eyes and telling her it was easy and to hurry up. Unfortunately the motivational technique didn’t seem to really help much. Eventually we arrived at the end of the main Crib Goch ridge where the north and east ridges meet.

At this point, I promised her that it was easier from now on. She could just drop down the slope a couple of feet and walk along quite happily with little difficulty. Maybe I exaggerated the easiness of it as she slowly made her way along the ridge, one very careful step at a time. I waited very patiently, giving her occasional guidance whilst simultaneously playing online Monopoly on my phone. After completing my seventh game, I was suprised to find we’d made it to the halfway point of the ridge. A group walked by, and after mistaking me for a struggling inexperienced walker, asked if I was OK. I was fuming inside but managed to politely smile, point at my buddy, and blame her for everything. We were also left in the dust by another petrified bloke with shaky legs. It shouldn’t matter really but I have an unhealthy competitive streak in me and hate being overtaken! (I’ve had my fun, I’ll stop teasing her now).

Eventually we arrived at the main pinnacle – I suggested to my buddy that she dropped down a little and passed around the pinnacle on its left. She was only too happy to agree to this. I can’t blame her for that, the pinnacle does look rather imposing from a distance and its rather exposed (although you don’t really feel it once on it). As we were discussing this, a group of lads approached and asked which way to go from here. I told them that the traditional way was up and over the next pinnacle, but they could drop down a little as I had already advised to my buddy, and skirt around it. They sounded like they’d had enough and were eager to take the latter option. I watched as they descended down to the point where they should have began traversing around. They had a little discussion and then continued down, last seen heading towards the Pyg Track. A bit foolish of them considering they had no idea about their route but hopefully they managed OK.

As I left my buddy to her bypass route, I continued up the pinnacle alone. A bit of care needs to be taken with the initial step up onto it but after that, it’s fairly easy scrambling – basically just moving up and right from rock step to rock step. It doesn’t feel like it as you’re climbing but the drop down is massive – and so, no matter how easy it feels, care should always be taken and handholds/footholds always tested. I met up with my buddy again up on top and we continued down the other side of the pinnacle which is a fairly straight-forward descent.

More scrambling was to follow to get up onto the Crib-y-Ddysgl ridge, although this was fairly straight-forward and I think even my walking buddy was getting used to it now! Minor bits of scrambling followed along the ridge (much of which can be bypassed on paths) until we eventually landed on the summit plateau of Garnedd Ugain – one of the very few big summits around here that actually has a trig pillar.

From Garnedd Ugain summit, we headed north along the ridge line, gradually curving north-east as we descended the very scrappy Cwn Glas ridge. It was hard work on the tired knees and I imagine it must be quite a slog ascending this way. It’s actually listed in the Scrambles in Snowdonia guidebook but you won’t really find much in the way of scrambles on here. Maybe one or two minor bits that take up a couple of minutes of your time. It mainly consists of steep scree tracks and lots of grass.

Eventually we arrived at a flatish section much lower down on the ridge and from there dropped down the slopes to the right to take us back into Cwm Glas Mawr. Once on the path, it was an easy walk back to the car. I had a great walk, and managed to actually get some decent photos of Crib Goch for once – and despite my teasing earlier, I have to say that my walking buddy did very well to tackle such unfamiliar and possibly scary terrain, especially considering the 35 – 40mph wind that I neglected to mention earlier!