Chasing Nuttalls in Snowdonia: A Perfect Winter’s Day
With spring in the air, I couldn’t resist a quick trip to the hills at the weekend. There are still plenty of Nuttalls on my to-do list, so it would have been rude not to bag a few while the sun was shining.
Having tried to summit a few at the beginning of December, only to be beaten back by winter conditions, I once again headed to Blaenau Ffestiniog for a second attempt. Last time I barely made it on to the hill before deciding it wasn’t sensible to be out there. Heavy snow, a freezing cold wind and icy conditions underfoot weren’t the best of conditions for exploring unknown mountains. The lack of visibility only made it worse, so I gave up not long after leaving the car. This time, things couldn’t have been more different.
The sun was shining, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, there was no wind and I could see for miles. It was still cold, with temperatures below freezing, as I parked up on the Crimea Pass. The cold was actually a blessing as it meant the usually boggy ground was frozen solid. Walking in these conditions was easy as the frozen ground crunched and gave way slightly under my footsteps but not enough for me to get wet feet. The path was easy to follow without a covering of snow and with such good visibility, paths weren’t really needed anyway. I could see exactly where I wanted to get to and the best route to get there as well. Navigating wasn’t really a thing. I was just strolling in the hills.
The first summit of the day was Iwerddon. At 582 metres it doesn’t class as a Nuttall but it still afforded glorious views out across Northern Snowdownia and down to the quarries of Blaneau Ffestiniog and beyond that to the south, Llyn Trawsfynydd and its ominous looking power station.
From here the route followed a ridge up towards the high point of the day at Allt Fawr (698 m). This was the first Nuttall of the day and provided amazing views of what felt like the whole of Snowdonia. Snowdow itself could be seen, along with the Glyders, Tryfan was just poking out behind them and then the Carneddau with a small amount of snow covering their tops could be seen beyond that.
My route for the day was also clear to see as it undulated across a plateau dotted with perfect looking lakes to a few more summits.
I explored around the lakes a little and found some gorgeous looking camp spots. The next few summits all followed easily in quick succession with just a little scrambling at the top of each one. Moel Druman (676 m), Ysgafell Wen (672 m), Ysgafell Wen North Top (669 m) and Ysgafell Wen Far North Top (659 m) were soon bagged. All are Nuttalls, taking my tally of Welsh Nuttalls up to 82. I had some nice views down to the coast at Porthmadog at one point too. In fact everywhere you looked the views were stunning!
From the top of the last summit I started taking the most direct route back, across country away from any paths. The day had warmed up a little now and I was descending quickly to warmer elevations so things did start to get a little boggy – nothing unusual in North Wales, and not a problem. I stopped for a while overlooking a wide valley and ate my lunch. After chilling for a while I continued on my way, crossing the Afon Ledr without getting wet feet and then took a detour down to some mines and a well-surfaced track. Instead of going over the hill, I followed the track around it. I’m not sure which was the better option—going over would have added another summit and been quicker, but the track offered nice views of the surrounding hills and pools full of frogspawn.
I was soon back at the car with 5 Nuttalls, nearly 8 miles of hiking and almost 700 metres of climbing under my belt. Nothing too epic, but a glorious day in the hills.
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[…] bagged a few peaks in the Moelwyns to the northwest of Blaenau Ffestiniog on my last outing, it made sense to tick off some more in that area. I parked up in a little car park on the track to […]