Climbing Snowdon: The Watkin Path

The Watkin Path is the toughest of the standard routes up Snowdon. There may be other routes known to climbers considered more challenging, such as the haul up Crib Goch, but of those normal routes straight to the top, the Watkin is the one. It also has the greatest ascent from start to finish: 3,330 feet.
The walk start at the ‘back of the mountain’ on the south side in the valley of the Nant Gwynant, at Bethania, between the two long lakes of the valley. A short walk in leads first through lovely woodland, then it begins to mean business as you walk up a dry valley carved into the mountainside, where Snowdon was heavily quarried for slate.

The Watkin Path is the toughest of the standard routes up Snowdon.  There may be other routes known to climbers considered more challenging, such as the haul up Crib Goch, but of those normal routes straight to the top, the Watkin is the one.  It also has the greatest ascent from start to finish:  3,330 feet, or 1,015 m in French.

It has been several years since I climbed the Watkin, so I have no photographs of my own for this own.  I had it easy:  my wife climbed with me in spite of a bout of flu, but we wanted to climb it before moving on and so we did.

The walk start at the ‘back of the mountain’ on the south side in the valley of the Nant Gwynant, at Bethania, between the two long lakes of the valley.  There is a convenient car park (with few cars when we were there, but if it were full I cannot think where else you might stop).  A short walk in leads first through lovely woodland, then it begins to mean business as you walk up a dry valley carved into the mountainside; here a theme of the walk appears as this is a side of Snowdon heavily quarried for slate.  There is a large monument here marking a speech by Gladstone:  what days they were when people would travel to a remote valley to hear a political speech, unless he just spoke to quarrymen off their shift.

The incline of a slate tramway crosses the path, while the path itself winds first beside the Cwm Llan river, then splits from a path across the flank of the mountain (which goes to Rhyd Ddu as it happens), crosses the stream and begins to climb in earnest, and when the path begins to climb, it does not stop.

The path has a haul up to the craggy ridge of Y Lliwedd (though not to its summit) before following the ridge north-west directly toward Snowdon’s summit.

One high section of this climb I distinctly; remember clambering with my hands and finding the foothold for us both on a narrow, very steep section, with the slate breaking away as we trod on it or held.  The weather was closing in too at that point.  Somehow in spite of weather and influenza we reached the ridge and the climb was still not over as we worked our way up to the summit.

I am told that this upper section has since had work done to it to make it less of s death-trap.

It was late in the season and late in the day for a climb and for once, I think the only time, the summit was empty.

Waterfall on the Cwm Llan River

We were unable to go back the same way after that break-away section and my wife’s state of health but we found instead an easier downward route, along Bwlch Main – a ridge on the other side of the quarried valley, down to the flank track from Rhyd Ddu, whence back to the Cwm Llan, and a feeling of a job well done.

I may have to revisit, this time with a camera, to see what has been done to the route.  It was fascinating as a side of the mountain not so frequently seen, and to encounter just one other walker, and that on the Bwlch Main path, is unique in my experience of Snowdon.

Maps

The best maps for Snowdon are of course the Ordnance Survey maps; the ‘Explorer’ at 1:25 000 and the ‘Landranger’ at 1:50 000:

Route map

Please donate to the Stroke Association: click here.

Snowdon by the Rhyd Ddu Path

The Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger Paths snake up Snowdon’s western slope.  These are routes less taken but are rewarding ways up.  The paths are both three and a half miles long, and reckoned at 3 hours’ walking, if you are fit:  always allow for more.

Rhyd Ddu, the starting point for this eponymous path, is just south of Snowdon Ranger and like it is a tiny hamlet in the valley beneath the western slope of Snowdon.  Its name means “Black Ford”, and like its twin it is clustered about a station on the exquisite Welsh Highland Railway (about which separately).  The railway then provides an access.  (You can just pay to park in the station car park and walk, but it is a good excuse for a ride on a beautiful steam-hauled, narrow-gauge line.)

What I most remember about Rhyd Ddu is the torrential rain, and being barely able to expose a map or any paper to the open without its dissolving.  The path is signposted at least, and the destination clear above – except that it was not that day as I could not see more than a hundred yards ahead.

Descending the Rhyd Ddu Path
Descending the Rhyd Ddu Path

There is more to Rhyd Ddu than a station and the way up Snowdon, not much more in terms of the village itself, but it can be used as a spot to visit other heights and sites.  Rhyd Ddu stands at the head of the pass, the Colwyn flowing south and the Gwyrfai north.  Westward is the Nantlle Ridge, marking the end of Snowdonia, and the Nantlle Valley, to the north Llyn Cwellyn, and to the east the towering presence of Snowdon.

To Snowdon then.  The Rhyd Ddu path is a straightforward route at the start, ascending across fields and wood, on a good track through the Cwm Caregog and up to the crags.  The promise of a sudden incline looms ahead.  The path becomes less one of meadow and bog and more rock and slate.

The path heads up Bwlch Main (‘Narrow Pass’), which is a strenuous section, and as it grows steeper those strong calf muscles will be needed.  It climbs to the edge of the cliffs which form a corrie dropping away northwards, then round the cliffs up the bwlch straight to the summit.

This last section makes the Rhyd Ddu path, which begins so gently, one of the toughest of the main Snowdon routes.

Maps

The best maps for Snowdon are of course the Ordnance Survey maps; the ‘Explorer’ at 1:25 000 and the ‘Landranger’ at 1:50 000:

Route map

Please donate to the Stroke Association: click here.

Snowdon by the Miners’ Track and the Pyg Track

The Miners’ Track and the Pyg Track are two parallel tracks up Snowdon from Pen-y-Pass; the head of the mountain pass, the Pass of Llanberis, on the east side of the mountain.

These paths are each 3½ miles long and while not the most challenging of the routes to the summit are very punishing in stretches and make for a good challenge for those with strong thighs.

As a confession, I have never climbed by either path yet, and only a couple of pictures here are mine, so thanks to Geograph.org.uk for the others.  I am though familiar with Pen-y-Pass, and I have several times looked down on the Miners’ Track meaning to tackle it next.

The Miner’s Track begins – and a Caernarfonshire county flag!

Each path begins at Pen-y-Pass; it is a busy spot with a large car park and a café.  From here, the track splits.

The Miners’ Track begins at a gate leads gently up and round, with only a gentle climb to a small tarn named Llyn Teryn and westward to the end of .  The lake has an odd name: “Brittany Lake”, but the name might be coincidental and unconnected with ‘Little Britain Beyond the Sea’.  I am quite sure it used to take stepping stones over the lake, but there is a causeway now.

From the crossing of the lake, the track is a gentle walk beside the lake shore for a short way: then it climbs steeply to Llyn Glaslyn (source of the river of the same name, the one that has a string of lakes south of Snowdon before prettifying Beddgelert).  From here the track becomes much steeper as it zigzigs scaling up the crags below Crib Goch.  Amongst these crags the Miners’ Track meets the Pyg Track, which has come the high route, below Garnedd Ugain.

The two then march together the short way to the summit.

From the summit the path of the Miners’ Track across the lake is clear and inviting, until you follow it to the precipitous climb.

The Pyg Track heads upwards earlier.  It is considered the toughest of the standard routes to the summit after the Watkin Path (which I have walked, but that is another article). There are competing theories about why it is called ‘Pyg’; some say it is named after the black tar, or ‘pyg’ carried up the copper workings on this track; others that walkers named it from the Pen y Gwryd Hotel (which is why the name is often written in capitals as if an abbreviation), and others that the pass here was named ‘Bwlch y Moch’ (‘Pig Pass’).  Whatever the origin, this a well known and popular route, but not for the fainthearted and not for bad weather.

This is perhaps the shortest route to the summit, as a direct one, and the views of the mountain this way are unequalled.  It can be busy.

This track diverges at once at Pen-y-Pass, heading west.  It climbs the flank of Crib Goch, not to the summit ridge (that is another route, but not one of the classic ones).  It is somewhat rocky and paved with large stones.  The most spectacular section is a long climb up a rock staircase built into the side of the mountain (which by all accounts is ‘interesting’ in the rain).

The track continues upward beneath the crags of Crib Goch then Crib y Ddysgl, and is eventually joined by the Miners’ Track, climbing from Glaslyn, with the 3.494-foot summit of y Garnedd Ugain (‘Peak of Twenty’) looming above.  About half a mile one from here the tracks meet the ridge that carries the Llanberis Path to the summit.

Here at the summit it wild beauty and isolation to be found, if you can ignore a hundred other visitors and the café in Hafod Eyri just below the summit itself.  You can look back down the whole course of the walk, with Llyn Llydaw beneath and reflect on a job well done.

Maps for the walk:

The best maps for Snowdon are of course the Ordnance Survey maps; the ‘Explorer’ at 1:25 000 and the ‘Landranger’ at 1:50 000:

See main article:

Please donate to the Stroke Association: click here.

Snowdon by the Llanberis Path

The Llanberis Path is the classic path up Snowdon, and by far the most popular. It is the gentlest route and consequently the longest of the paths to the summit, though no route up the mountain is easy.

I first walked the Llanberis Path in my school days, as a family walk, and it is popular with individual walkers and with families in season, if they are families of a rugged persuasion. Even so, it should not be underestimated and particularly in poor weather in its topmost section it has deadly hazards.

The path begins at Llanberis at the foot of the northern slope of Snowdon. There are capacious car parks here and the compulsory visitor centre and attractions: as Llanberis is also the base station of the Snowdon Mountain Railway it attracts more visitors than it would were it just catering for fell walkers. It is pretty village to visit in any case.

The path is some 4½ miles long, with an ascent of 3,100 feet. Guidebooks estimate that it will take 3-4 hours, though this may be an underestimate, depending on your fitness and tendency to stop for photographs.  It climbs at a fairly even gradient up the south slope of the mountain (pursued doggedly by the mountain railway).

Following the path from the hotel, it runs south-west above the River Arddu close to a little waterfall on the river, and follows the road for just a short while before heading south up onto the rough pasture.  Then it is a long haul up what is effectively a broad ridge.

Approaching the summit (Llanberis Path)
Approaching the summit (Llanberis Path)

Below Garnedd Ugain (‘the Peak of the Twenty’; no, don’t ask me but I do not follow the romantic frame of mind among of those who claim it was named after the Legio XX whose fort was at Segontium where Caernarfon now stands) – here the path runs over the narrow between crags and becomes much steeper until the final push to the summit.

Here at the summit it wild beauty and isolation to be found, if you can ignore a hundred other visitors and the café in Hafod Eyri just below the summit itself.

Maps for the walk:

The best maps for Snowdon are of course the Ordnance Survey maps; the ‘Explorer’ at 1:25 000 and the ‘Landranger’ at 1:50 000:

See main article: