Time taken: 5 hrs
Ascent: 957m
Map: OS Explorer OL23
Start/finish: Minffordd car park GR SH732115
It’s been difficult to get out
in the mountains these last few months for various, unexciting reasons. So I
took full advantage in December and bagged myself Boxing Day on Moel Siabod,
with the promise of Cadair Idris to follow a few days later. Moel Siabod had
done a good job of breaking me back into walking and carrying a bit of weight.
I’ve got to get plenty of Quality Mountain Days in this year, some weekends in
the Lake District hopefully followed by a bimble in the Peaks and if I’m a good
boy some time in the Highlands… all of this mixed in with the usual North Wales
should provide me with a super year!
After the torrential rain, bog
trotting and 60mph winds of Boxing Day I was hoping for a dryer affair for
Cadair Idris. The weather man had given us a 4 hour dry window in the afternoon
so we planned our trip accordingly. A lie in and a leisurely drive later we
finally arrived at Minffordd at about 1145. We had planned to be there a little
earlier but my decision to leave behind the Sat Nav cost us about 30 extra
minutes. Fail… The BBC weather man never fails to disappoint, arriving after it
was supposed to have stopped raining we were greeted with the all too familiar
wet stuff.
My new Salomon Cosmic 4D 2 GTX
boots had failed to arrive for the walk due to my inability to order them in time
for the Christmas post so the old boots would have to do. Prediction? Wet feet
for me…
The first part of the route
followed a well-made path with steeps that climbed steeply through some
forestry, following the swollen river with its impressive waterfalls. The steps
took their toll on my legs for the first 30 minutes as I warmed up but it soon
eased as we rounded a corner at the top of the hill. The rain had ceased by now
but the path however had decided to turn into a stream so the next part of the
walk became a pleasant paddle where my prediction of wet feet was proven
correct. To my relief the stream gave way to path again just before turning
into a bog. Memories of Moel Siabod came flooding back (literally) and we
danced through the bog on our way to Craig Cwm Amarach.
We continued along the
Minffordd path taking time to ‘scramble’ over whatever obstacle we could find.
The wind had picked up considerably and the temperature had begun to drop and I
was forced to keep away from any steep drops as the wind continued to batter us
(pushing me over on a few occasions!). We skipped over greasy rocks, picking
the best route as to avoid a fall until we reached a style.
From here we continued and made
a short climb to Penygadair, the visibility had dropped to about 20 metres but
we knew it wasn’t far. The pull to the summit eventually becomes very rocky
which turned out to be jolly good fun in the end. Picking lines over the larger
rocks made for a more interesting ascent and kept the blood flowing in the old
arms.
The summit was deserted when
we arrived, I clung to the trig point on Penygadair for the obligatory photo as
the wind was gusting at this point and we soon found ourselves running for the
shelter for some respite from the weather. The shelter is quite substantial and
we enjoyed it all to ourselves for about 15 minutes, enjoying a Twix and a cup
of tea.
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| Cold on top |
From here we took a gentle
stroll to Mynydd Moel, the fog lifting about half way which allowed for a short
glimpse back toward the summit of Penygadair before it was consumed again by
the falling fog.
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| Looking back toward Llyn Cau |
We descended from Mynydd Moel
by following the fence line, this descent was quite relentless for a while and
proved strenuous on the knees so we opted for a quick break before crossing the
fence. From here we followed the path back toward a bridge and followed the
path and steps in the darkness back down toward the car. Thankfully the rain
didn’t start again until after we drove off!!
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