Sunday, April 22, 2007

The Glyders

Or Biting Off More Than You Can Chew.

We spent the weekend in North Wales and yesterday went for a rather long walk over the Glyders, about 13.5 miles with approximately1800m of ascent (give or take as our gps went a bit wonky in the middle) taking in three of the Welsh 3000'ers. We climbed up to start just after the quarry at Carnedd y Filiast (821m) and walked along the ridge over Mynedd Perfedd (812m), Foel goch (831m), Y Garn (947m), Glyder Fawr (999m) and Glyder Fach (we skirted around the back over Castel y Gwynt at 950m) then Y Foel Goch (805m) dropping down to Cefn y Capel (441m) to finish in Capel Curig. Ridge walks are fabulous, as once you are up there, there are always amazing views and relatively little up and down to worry about. Of course, on walks where there are 3000'ers there is always going to be some uphill (and there most certainly was!) but it was all worth it. I think. I should probably apologise to all non-British people who ever read my blog (if, in fact, there are any) because of the way that I casually change between feet, metres, miles, etc. There are fifteen 3000'ers in Wales and they are called thus because they are higher than 3000ft, but because the OS maps are printed with the heights in metres, these are the ones I tend to use here. 999m is 3279 feet.

From Y Garn, looking over Llyn Clyd & Llyn Idwal towards Tryfan

At the summit of Glyder Fach with Snowdon in the distance

Looking towards Glyder Fawr

Coming down off Cefn y Capel

Sheepses and lambses at Gelli

Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach means 'big mound of stones' and 'little mound of stones' in English, which is very appropriate. We have had great fun while I have been putting up this post trying to work out all the Welsh pronounciations for all the places, probably getting it all terribly wrong. I can speak about 10 words in Welsh, none of them of any use in any situation, and I am determined to learn a few more useful ones, as we do go to Wales quite often and have a week's holiday booked in the Black Mountains this year.

One of the reasons that we chose to go to Wales this weekend was because of the smoking ban that has just been introduced, which is a Good Thing. But as it was, we were so long out our walk that it was too late to go to the pub by the time we got back and we ended up with tinned chilli and easy cook rice at the campsite with bottles of beer, which went down very well.

I am a little bit achey in the legs today, but not as bad as I feared I would be and all in all and despite some route uncertainty at the beginning and severe knackeredness at the end (!)
a good day was had by all.

13 comments:

Auntie Noo said...

WOW! That looks awesome (and v.tiring!) Respect to you!!!!!! :lol:

Kai said...

it looks stunning and it sounds like a really, really long hike!!

glad you had a good time.. :)

acrylik said...

Wow - those views are absolutely stunning! Sounds like a perfect weekend. Glad to hear you had a great time.

Artis-Anne said...

What great photos of the Glyders :) I always think you post such fab piccies .
My DH has done all the 3000'ers in his time before he met me !! I used to be able to do these sort of walks but alas no more :(
The Black Mountain area is also very beautiful & I am sure you will enjoy your hols there .

Seahorse said...

What a fabulous weekend that sounds! Stunning pics!

artyfartykat said...

I was tired just reading about your hike!
It looks fab, the views are stunning. Enjoy the rest of the holiday.

belaybunny said...

wow, lovely photos. You weren't all that far from me this weekend then ;) I've done that walk, but in the winter, so it's nice to see summer photos for a change!! Am trying to guess which campsite you were at?? capel or one of the two in ogwen - or am I totally wrong ;)

Hawkesley said...

Stunning photos! It sounds like you had a fab weekend in Wales. I'd love to try that walk but I think it looks too high for my legs to cope :-)

belaybunny said...

oh well, guessed the wrong campsite!!! Have you done Tryfan, cos I love that, especially the north ridge scramble and up bristly ridge?

Ang said...

Wonderful pics of the Glyders, a beautiful part of Wales.

Hope you're having a great time.

Iechyd Da it ti!

Modelwidow said...

What fantastic pictures, I know what you mean about ridge walks, but it`s the getting up there in the first place :-)

TutleyMutley said...

I wanna do it! I'm so jealous! Fantastic pics. I had to learn welsh in school ( spent half my life in Laugharne, carmarthenshire) - welsh is phonetic and really easy to work out pronunciations. I'm probably teaching grandma to suck eggs here so I'll shut up.
hwyl fawr!

Kath said...

Lovely to see such beautiful pictures of what I still think of as my homeland even though I've been over the border now longer than I've lived in Wales which is a sad thought (No offence meant). Glad to hear you had a great time! Can't wait to see your Black Mountains photos!