equipped for snow work. One unchecked slip could be your last.
For an alternative approach known as the Sheepwalk (GL8,1), cross the stream issuing from the foot of Twll Du and follow a sketchy path across a grassy ledge leading to the SE slopes coming down from Y Garn. Narrow, exposed in places and with a little unavoidable scrambling, this should only be attempted by experienced scramblers in good weather.
Y Gribin (GL9)
The Glyders are well endowed with challenging scrambles.
Y Gribin, the long serrated spur midway between Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach, is one of the best scrambles in the area. Start from the N tip of Llyn Bochlwyd where a track cavorts away W en route to Llyn Idwal (see GL7). Leave it L at 652594 where black peaty scars indicate the start of a much-used path. The going is easy at first, between soft pillows of heather whose playful innocence give little intimation of the savage gullies away R.
Before long you reach an open plateau of sheep-cropped turf, good enough for a cricket pitch. (You can also reach this by a rough scramble up a subsidiary ridge from Bochlwyd’s SW shoreline at 654591 – GL9,1.) So far the day has been enjoyable without being remarkable – now for the fireworks. Ahead lies an airy tumble of rock and boulders, with occasional exposure L, requiring some easy gymnastics for its conquest. Grist for the mill for experienced hillwalkers, but no place for vertigo sufferers or victims of stiff knees! For them there is an alternative routing R, a badly eroded and crumbly path that avoids the scrambling (and the thrills) in return for a sweaty huff and puff.
The ways unite at the top on a bouldery tongue midway between the two Glyders which is dominated by Castell y Gwynt and the regimented, shattered crags of Glyder Fach. A large cairn at 651582 is the landmark to look out for in mist.
Pen y Pass route (the red route) (GL10)
Glyder Fawr is one of the last peaks you would expect to be able to climb almost all the way on grass, but life is full of surprises!
A fine route, threading attractively through a maze of hollows and humps liberally laced with marsh and islands of rock. It is also a scenic route. Crib Goch and Cwm Glas are the main attractions, but you also get an unusual prospect of Llyn Cwmffynnon and the shapely cliffs that girdle its S shoreline.
The path starts by the Pen y Pass Youth Hostel. A footpath sign directs you across a small garden to a stile over a wall daubed with a red waymark sign. It is wet and soggy at first across a boggy depression and the red blobs on the rocks are not easy to spot. However matters improve after a short sharp climb where the line of attack swings from being parallel to the road to N, and where you begin to tackle Glyder Fawr’s S shoulder. By this time the waymarking is as dependable as any I can recall. It needs to be, because cairns are few and far between and losing the way, though not serious, would certainly be inconvenient. Avoid the route in mist or snow when waymarks would be obscured.
Dinas Cromlech where the Glyders frown down on the Llanberis Pass (GL 12)
If it is a clear day try contouring across to Esgair Felen, an exhilarating eyrie sprouting crags of a fine reddish hue. It rises a daunting 2000ft above the Llanberis Pass and is an ideal spot for viewing Cwm Glas and Snowdon’s N battlements. You can also reach Esgair Felen direct from Glyder Fawr by starting out as if for Llyn y Cwn but then bearing SW down the bare stony finger.
Heather Gully (GL11)
Despite its attractive name this is not an easy route.
This descent entails a lot of uneven, trackless walking similar to GL5. It starts on a S course from the summit cairns, trending L at about 643575, beside a stream, into the gully that gives the route its name. After much hard labour you approach more open terrain surrounding Llyn Cwm Fynnon where the route merges into GL5.
Cwm Las route (GL12)
Walk up the Llanberis Pass from the car park at 607583. When you come to a footpath sign at 614576 with a campsite L and a postbox R, proceed down the stony, walled path which is indicated. After crossing a stile at the second of two white cottages the path momentarily fades and you should trend L to pick it up again near the Afon Las. Thereafter it is never in doubt as it shadows the stream’s true L bank. The first 0.5 mile is attractive, climbing steeply above a shady glen and a succession of tumbling falls. Higher up you cross the bleak spongy saddle beneath the red-tinted screes of Esgair Felen to end by the shores of Llyn y Cwn. Regretfully the hardest work, the treadmill up the gritty screes to Glyder Fawr, is still to come (see GL8).
Nameless Peak
‘Nameless’ had a more romantic ring in the good old days of the 1-inch maps when it was known as pt 2636. However, despite the dark craggy face it shows to Nant yr Ogof, and views which are well up to Glyders’ standards, there is little of interest and this small peak is seldom visited except as a staging post on the long trek from Glyder Fach to Gallt yr Ogof. The best thing about it is the ascent over Braich y Ddeugwm, a breezy, open walk which never fails to engender a ‘good-to-be-alive’ feeling.
Braich y Ddeugwn route (GL13)
No other walk displays Tryfan’s prodigious architecture to better advantage, especially when capped with a powdering of snow or frost.
A stile beside Gwern Gof Isaf Farm gives access to a grassy crest that is too gentle and rounded to be called a ridge. This rises in easy steps and ledges mingled with knuckles of rock until, higher up, a more defined path leads to the marshy shoreline of Llyn y Caseg-fraith. The nameless peak is then but 10min E up bare, featureless slopes.
Those are the facts. What they do not convey is the overpowering presence of Tryfan across the cwm. Towering aloft in splendid isolation, the massive gullies of its E face illuminated by the morning sun, it is the very epitome of mountainly grandeur. Yet, strange to relate, in over 30 years I have never once spied a fellow walker on this lovely route.
Miners’ Track N or S (GL14/15)
You can also reach Llyn y Caseg-fraith by following the miners’ track as described in either GL1 or GL6, thus giving two more routes to the nameless peak – GL14 from Ogwen, GL15 from Pen y Gwryd.
Gallt yr Ogof
We live in a world that is all about coming first; runners up are all but forgotten. Who came second in the Derby? That is exactly Gallt yr Ogof’s problem. It may be the second most charismatic peak along the A5 from Capel Curig but, rising in the shadow of Tryfan, what chance has it got? So, sadly, despite a lumbering elephantine sprawl that completely dominates until you round a bend and Tryfan comes into view, it is virtually neglected. Neglected, that is, except by connoisseurs who revel in solitude and the unspoilt freshness of a cairn surrounded by heathery dips and hollows which know nothing of the black peaty scars of fame!
As befits this most E outpost of the mighty Glyders, the view on a clear day is a memorable one. Carneddau, a glimpse of the sea and the countless ranges Siabod, you would expect. However, the scene is now beyond enriched by Llyn Cowlyn and a peep at the Vale of Conway; by Llynnau Mymbyr and the tree-clad hills surrounding Betws-y-coed. Glancing back reveals the splendour of the Glyders heartland and the long tramp to far-off Carnedd y Filiast, the starting point for those hardy souls who attempt all ten tops in a single day.
Direct but trackless approaches are possible