What’s wrong with me two posts in two days. I’ll need a lie down soon.
The met office weather yesterday for Snowdonia was pretty dry so I was hoping for some good views over the Moelwyn mountains.
I drove over from Shrewsbury to a small cafe car park in Tanygrisau leaving about 7:30 in nice dry weather. Unfortunately within about an hour this turned into drizzle. Not daunted I parked up and put on all my wet weather gear hoping that it would clear a bit later on. You can never tell in the mountains and this has happened to me quite a bit in the past.
As visibility was so poor I decided that high contrast black and white would be order of the day. Within a few minutes I was up in the clouds and visibility dropped severally. At least that made for dramatic photos I suppose.
The Ricoh GR II is a great little camera to take up into the mountains. It weighs very little and you can use it one handed. I keep mine in a waterproof Lowe Alpine bag that fits nicely on my waste belt.
The reason I chose this route via Stwlam Dam is the twisty road up that resembles an alpine Tour de France route, a very mini Alpe Du Huez. Which would have worked well if you could see more than about 20 meters.
I slogged up to the dam keeping an eye on my footing. All of a sudden the impressive dam wall loomed out of the mist. I’ll be honest and say it gave me quite a spook as I wasn’t expecting it. The wall is HUGE.
I then headed up to the top of the wall, where a walkway lead to a building. I really like the images I got here. They wouldn’t be out of place in some dystopian sci-fi move.
From here it was a hard slog up to Moelwyn Mawr at 770m. At this point I decided to alter the route dramatically. I had intended going over to a Cnicht but the going was so hard and the weather so poor I decided to head down to some of the abandoned slate quarries instead.
I was getting hungry at this point , actually hangry, so a good job I was on my own today. I was hoping for a break in the rain but couldn’t wait any longer so had to have lunch hunkered down in one of the day ruined buildings in Croesor Quarry.
My route can be found here if you would like to do it. I think it would be a cracking day out in good weather. One for another day for me.
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