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A Wild Welsh Traverse, or the Start of a Long Distance Path (LDP)

by Tish Woulds

A chance remark by Don Anderson, ex president of the AAC(UK), a few years ago sowed the seed. He had said, “I’d like to walk the Cambrian Way sometime” and he went on to mention hills such as the Rhinogydd and Cadair Idris, hills known to me only by being mentioned as visible in the distance from Yr Wyddfa.

I had bought the Cicerone Guide, “Welsh Coast to Coast Walk: Snowdonia to Gower” , and with a week free in February Colin Roberts and I made a snap decision to make a start on this LDP. The path has a reputation for being tough but we use this time to make a start on getting up fitness and stamina for the rest of the year. Another remark from a friend was also to come to my mind during this week. She had asked how often we calculated our speed on the hill in order to estimate the time a route would take. In the case of this week it was very often as with the short daylight hours and walking “linear” we had to achieve our planned destination.

Our plan was to drive one car south, walk north back to the second car, retrieve the first car, camp for the night and repeat this process each day. We had decided to take the “high level” route as much as possible and to start at sea level in Llanfairfechan with a traverse of Snowdonia. We referred to the guide for a suggested route and tried to stick to this. We also considered the suggested timing but this was to prove confusing at times and necessitated us doing our own calculations on many occasions, reminding me of my friend at home. The weather kept us guessing with every day different from the one before and, infuriatingly, very few days with good views.

Our first traverse of the Carneddau had us worried about the exceedingly high winds and ice on the northern slopes of the hills. We were pleased to descend to the Ogwen valley. The day for our ascent of Yr Wyddfa on the Watkin path started fine. In spite of a quick descent in deep snow using crampons, seeing many people struggling up, we were still too late to cross the Glyderau and arrived back again at Ogwen in seven and a half hours. There was an easier day on the Moelwynion before tackling the Rhinogydd. The guide book had warned of steep ridges running from east to west.

These ridges coupled with tall heather and deep bogs made for a very tiring eight hours. We went up from Barmouth on the following day with no visibility to finish off the Rhinogydd. We had to move as fast as possible in order to climb Rhinog Fach at the end of the day in gloomy conditions and fading light - yet another long day. The final day for this trip was a quick romp over Cadair Idris with no views of the sea, just a ”sea” of mist, but good to see this large plateau in the sunshine. The trip gave a total of 72 miles and 6,790 metres of height gain. Some lessons learnt about linear walking: (a) remember to walk with your car keys and (b) leave driving shoes in the car! This route is a good challenge to fitness, stamina and navigation.

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Last updated:    01 October 2009