– and mountain roads are not the fastest, especially at peak holiday periods. So it pays to pick a base which will allow you to explore a given area, rather than trying to cover the whole park in a single trip. Fortunately most places are supplied with a variety of accommodation, from basic campsites and bunkhouses, to youth hostels, B&Bs, pubs and hotels.
For the Ogwen Valley, Bethesda and Capel Curig offer plenty of options with a youth hostel and camping at Ogwen itself. Betws-y-Coed is also an attractive option with plenty of hotels, B&Bs and campsites for those who prefer a greater choice and a more picturesque setting. For Snowdon and the Glyders the youth hostel at Pen-y-Pass could not be better placed, on a high col between the two ranges, though some may find it a little isolated on its high perch. Llanberis at the foot of the eponymous pass is a popular though less picturesque option.
Beddgelert is another attractive village, well placed for walking and with plenty of accommodation options. Visitors to the southern part of the national park may want to consider Bala or Dolgellau, while out west the coastal towns and villages around Harlech and Abermaw/Barmouth and the idyllic Mawddach Estuary have bags of appeal, especially if a walking trip is being combined with a family beach holiday.
Tal-y-Lyn
When to go
There’s no getting away from the fact that Snowdonia can be a bit moist. In fact it is officially one of the wettest places in the UK, which will come a no surprise to regular visitors, boasting – if that’s the right word – more than 4.4m (15ft) of rainfall in some years on Crib Goch. That’s a lot of rain in anyone’s book, but there are plenty of fine days too.
Llyn y Cwn and Tryfan (Walk 12)
Like all mountains, Snowdonia’s tend to make their own weather, and conditions can vary widely across the park. It is possible to stand on one massif in bright sunshine while looking across at Snowdon and the Glyderau swaddled in cloud. The proximity of the sea only complicates matters for the forecasters, but if the cloud on Snowdon is down to your ankles it is sometimes possible to rescue a day by heading south to the lower hills or out to the west to the Lleyn Peninsula, itself an area of outstanding beauty where conditions can be better.
In general, spring and early summer, from April through to June or July, often offer the driest weather. September and October also give some spectacular days, but August, by contrast, can be disappointing. During the coldest months the closeness of the sea can take the edge off winter temperatures, making them higher than might be expected on such high ground – much to the annoyance of ice climbers. However there are still plenty of days when temperatures at high levels are below freezing, which make conditions treacherous and demand ice axes and crampons. As with many UK mountains their most predictable feature is their sheer unpredictability.
Not surprisingly weekends and school holidays are the busiest times. On the weekends around the longest day in late June people attempting the Three Peaks Challenge – summiting Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon within 24 hours – only add to the crowds, and you may well find yourself queueing along Crib Goch, while the popular PyG Track from the Pen-y-Pass car park to Snowdon’s summit can be a crowded trudge.
Equipment
Clothing will vary with the time of year and from person to person but remember that conditions in the valley may bear little resemblance to those on the tops, where temperatures can be much lower and wind speeds much higher. Make sure your rucksack contains adequate spare clothing and waterproofs, no matter how blue the morning sky may be. Also carry extra food and drink in case of emergencies, or if the day turns out to be longer than expected.
The rucksack should also contain a first aid kit, torch with spare batteries and bulbs if necessary.
Always carry a compass and map. Do not rely solely on the maps in this book, which, to keep things to a manageable size, are mostly based on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale, although for clarity some of the shorter routes (Routes 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 20 and 30) are shown at 1:25,000. All show only the immediate area of each walk, so that should you inadvertently walk ‘off the edge’ you will be lost. Hence it is also recommended that you carry the larger-scale 1:25,000 OS Outdoor Leisure or Explorer maps, as detailed at the beginning of each route, which not only include more detail but will allow you to identify surrounding tops and other features. Harvey Superwalker 1:25,000 maps cover the area, as do the Harvey British Mountain Maps at 1:40,000. Maps should be carried even if you prefer to use a GPS handset to navigate. Paper maps may be scornfully dismissed by some as ‘dead tree technology’ but at least they never run out of battery at the crucial moment and they still work after being dropped off an outcrop.
Mountain rescue
Snowdonia is covered by several mountain rescue teams, all made up of volunteers who give their valuable time unpaid. Please do not abuse their goodwill by making frivolous calls.
If you do need the team dial 999 and ask for the police, who will alert the appropriate team which will then call you back. Having made the call, keep the line clear. It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you have no signal at the site of an accident it may be easier to find one by gaining rather than losing height, as masts work on line of sight.
To help them get to you quickly make sure you have:
the grid reference of the incident
the nature of the incident
the number of people involved
age and medical information on the casualty
an alternative phone number if possible.
Using this guide
Distances are given in kilometres and miles, heights in metres and feet. Because of the nature of the terrain some of the walks demand a greater degree of mountaincraft than others. Some of the routes, including popular rounds like the Snowdon Horseshoe, ascents of Tryfan and parts of the Glyderau also involve scrambles which call for a certain degree of agility and a head for heights. Please heed the warnings in the text and pick your routes accordingly, using variations where they are given if you are unsure of your ability or if the weather or conditions are against you. Remember the sobering words of the mountaineer Don Whillans, who was no shrinking violet: ‘It’ll be there next year. The trick is to make sure you are.’
Weekend crowds on Crib Goch
Timings are as walked by me, a bus pass holder with high mileage knees, and are inevitably subjective. They should be treated as a rough guide only until you have walked a few of the routes and had a chance to compare our respective paces and you have got the measure of my timings, which do not allow for stops.
Likewise the grade of difficulty is as I personally found it. Easy routes are fairly gentle strolls. Moderate walks demand more effort and may involve rough going. Strenuous routes are demanding days, often with steep climbs. The scrambles are about Grade 1 but may be exposed. Although they are well used some do call for a little route finding ability.
Place names
So far as place names are concerned I have tried to use the Welsh wherever practicable while also falling in with general usage. These days most visitors seem happy to use the Carneddau for what used to be called the Carnedds and the Glyderau is also gaining currency over the anglicised Glyders. Snowdon, however, is so far resisting all attempts to re-brand it Yr Wyddfa in the popular consciousness, and the National Park remains resolutely Snowdonia rather than Barc Cenedlaethol Eryri.
Despite my family roots in the Principality I am definitely no Welsh scholar, so where there is a dispute over spelling, such as Cadair/Cader, in the interests of consistency and avoiding confusion with the mapping I have appointed the Ordnance Survey the arbiter of correctness.