Climbing Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach in Winter. I love winter hikes and scrambles, and this day provided both. We had highs and lows, but it was great to get in some winter mountaineering after a while.
We started the day driving 2 hours from Manchester, arriving in Ogwen Valley, and parking up at the layby (the first) after passing the visitors centre. We arrived a bit later than we wanted. The plan was to come at sunrise, so we turned up about 30 minutes late.
Start as early as possible in the winter to ensure you have as much daylight as possible. I did assume we would still have enough time to get around in enough time. Find out if we did or not.
Glyder Fach
Going up to Glyder Fach was the most extended section for distance and time. We started at the first layby car park and passed the visitor’s centre. We then walked back up to the left of the visitor’s centre, where snow was already on the ground. We went up and round the Llyn Idwal towards devil’s kitchen.
Scrambling up Devil’s Kitchen was a fun intro to what would come. We could also still see, which was nice, but we didn’t have long before we were in the clouds. We got to the top of Devil’s Kitchen, went over the style, and had a little break for something to drink and remove some layers as we were both quite warm, considering it was -4 ish.
Glyder Fawr
Walking over to the summit of Glyder Fawr proved to be a bit of a challenge (navigation-wise). As we were in a whiteout, I had to get out my map and follow what I already knew. We got to the foot of Castle-Y-Gwent and decided to traverse around it as my girlfriend was not as confident to scramble in winter yet.
Going around is usually relatively easy to follow, but we veered off slightly, and I had the challenging task of navigating across the rocks without any slips or falls. Joanna and I took this slowly, checking the stones to ensure we wouldn’t get our legs caught in a crevasse. We stayed upright quite well, and our approach to this section ensured we were safe.
We finally made it back to the main path we wanted to follow. We then walked to the top of the Y Gribbin ridge and turned right towards Glyder Fawr. There was still a field of rocks we needed to climb over. I didn’t tell Joanna this as she was already pissed off with me for the last one. Luckily there aren’t as many to get to the top of Glyder Fawr and the cantilever stone. I walked up it, but Joanna didn’t want to walk straight to the top, so she returned and got some photos of me, which I’ll add as they look cool (in my opinion).
Scree Slope Descent
Getting from the summit of Glyder Fawr to the start of the descent is a simple couple-minute walk. Luckily as we got to the descent, the clouds started to lift slightly, and we got some great views and more photos with an excellent background (we had to get some good shots for the gram).
Now we’ll get into the descent. If you’ve done it before, you’ll know that you can screen surf and get to the bottom quickly. However, when it’s deep snow, you don’t have that option, so you have to walk down (or slide down, as Joanna did). This is a steep section, so I had to be careful with foot placements, so I don’t fall. Luckily with crampons on, I felt stable the whole way down. This was good to help with my confidence with my crampons along.
We got to the bottom of the slope and had a fantastic view of Ogwen Valley and Tryfan. We even chatted with some guy with loads of gear to have a wild winter camp. I bet it was a good one; the next day’s weather looked terrific.
Final stretch
Coming to the final stretch, we started our walk back from the plateau between Tryfan and the Glyders. If you’ve done Tryfan, you will have been down this path before as we follow it back to the visitor centre. The terrain is easy, but watch out as it’s not a basic path, as you do need to work your way across a little stream. We ended up in complete darkness, so the head torches had to come out.
Overview
This was a great day, but it was tough—full winter conditions and in the mountains for 9 hours. We had our work cut out for it. Wales is stunning for its mountains and even better in the winter; I recommend this to anyone with the right gear, experience and confidence.
I also want to add that I am proud of Joanna for doing it in relatively harsh conditions. This hike was 15.77km and took us over 9 hours to complete, with 6 of them spent moving and 872m elevation gain peaking at 1001m above sea level.
My Ratings:
- Difficulty 3/5
- Enjoyment 3.5/5
- Views 5/5
- Overall 4/5
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