20110812 A wet and windy Cnicht « Carl Sprake MA(Oxon), ICTP, MCT

North Wales is wet. Even in the summer, such as it is this year, North Wales is wet. Wet conditions require kit and strategies to cope with the wetness, and the conditions that give rise to and are associated with the wetness. What am I wittering on about, you may ask? Well, with Denise heading off to the Fairport Convention festival at Cropredy this weekend, I had planned to head up to North Wales. Taking Friday off as holiday gave me some extra time to play with. So, I had planned to get up to Snowdonia early on Friday and head up into the hills Friday afternoon, giving me two nights of wild camping before heading back home on Sunday. The forecast was mixed, low cloud and some showers of rain on Friday, with some rain showers overnight. Saturday would see the cloud lifting and the rain easing to leave a pleasant Saturday afternoon and Sunday. As planned I made it up to Snowdonia for about 4.00pm on Friday, parked the van and set off. I had planned to try out my North Face trousers as walking trousers. However, in my enthusiasm to get going I left <a href="http://www.couponcatch.net/ "><strong>coupon savings </strong></a> my lightweight Rohan Backpackers on and left the North Face trousers in the van. It was raining quite hard as I got ready in the back of the van, so as well as putting on my gaiters I put my waterproof trousers on as well as my waterproof jacket. I skirted Llyn Gwynant before making it to the road, which I followed for about 500m, before heading up the footpath. By this stage it had stopped raining, so I took off the waterproof trousers before heading further up the path. And this is where it started to go wrong really. Heading towards the top of the path, the map clearly shows the footpath heading diagonally across the field to the left of the building. So why did I follow the track into the field and then head up through the tall rushes and grasses? By the time I realised that my trousers were wetting through it was too late. I was halfway across and had no option to keep going. By the time I made it to the ruins my trousers were completely soaked. They are quite thin and dry relatively quickly in a steady breeze, so I kept going hoping they would dry out. I made it through the woods without any real incident and emerged onto the board walks on the far side. My trousers were still very wet when it started to rain steadily. I didn’t have any real choice but to put my waterproof trousers on over the top of my damp trousers. It continued to rain as I left the board walks behind and walked across the field to emerge on the corner of the narrow road. I followed the road for about 500m until I reached the house where paths left the road to the west and the east. I followed the path to the east, down the hill, across the stream and up past the house at Llwynyrhwch. Up to this point the path had been easy to follow and the entrance to open access land was obviously marked. The path up and over the rock was easy to follow but then it all went a bit pear shaped. All the water coming off the hill filled the many stream beds and made all the flat ground marshy. Looking at the map now it is obvious that the path follows the stream up the hill. However, on Friday evening, as the rain was falling and the cloud was pouring across the sky things were not so obvious. I knew I needed to follow the main stream up the hill and so battled my way through waist high ferns. The higher I got the thicker the cloud became and the lower the visibility. I was having to micro nav my way through the mist and across the marshy fields until I found the main stream and followed it up to Llyn Llagi.Crossing the outlet from the Llyn was quite an effort as there was a huge amount of water pouring out. I followed the edge of the Llyn to pick up the wall on the southern edge, passing what looked like a rainfall collection station. I used the wall as a handrail, looking for the footpath near BwlchÂ*y <a href="http://www.couponcatch.net/ "><strong>local coupons </strong></a> Battel. I finally found a stileÂ*crossing the wall and decided that I must be at my destination, even though I could not see the path passing between two steep sided slopes. Even though I had planned to go further on the first day I decided to stop and camp for the night. I managed to find a fairly flat spot that wasn’t likely to flood during the night. Although it was quite exposed I actually wanted the wind blowing through the tent, in an attempt to reduce condensation. I managed to get a reasonably good nights sleep, although I was woken by the wind a few times. I’m glad I packed my bivvi bag as I am sure that it helped keep my down bag dry, given all the moisture that was around, although in the morning the foot of the bag was mysteriously quite damp. I had thought, and hoped, that the cloud would life in the morning but I got up to find that the cloud was as low as it had been the night before. I had a light breakfast and packed my tent away before taking heading off on a bearing that should take me along the desired path. It was only after I had been following this bearing for about 150m that I realised that where I had camped the night before had not been where I thought I was. Lessons learned: Just because there is a stile does not mean there is a footpath. Take everything into account before deciding on location – dont make the map fit the ground or vice versa Cnicht I had planned an ascent via the North Western ridge. In good old ML training style I was looking for the ring contours. However, as I decided that I was where the ascent should start it was chucking it down with rain, blowing a hoolieÂ*and the cloud was so low that at time visibility was down to 50m. It seemed that the sensible thing to do would be to contour around and aim to pick up the main footpath up the Southern ridge. I worked my way around the hillside, stopping often to try andÂ*compare what I could see on the map with what I could see on the ground. Eventually I spotted a path running alongside a stream. After what had seemed ages going across country it was a joy to see a path that promised an easier rate of progress. However, the joy was tinged by the realisation that I was about 250 south west where I thought I was. I followed the path down hill, looking for a way to head to my left and attain the main ridge. However, the farmer had been extra vigilant and all the walls were well made, topped with another 6′ of wire and topped with barbed wire. I had no choice but to follow the path I was on to the junction with the main ridge path, which was well signpostedÂ*to Cnicht. The path is easy to follow with a grass slope, and a few rocky sections, that leads to a wall. Over the wall is an opposing face but once over the wall the obvious path leads to the left and around the obstacle to regain the ridge. More grass slopes and a bit of scramble leads to a level area, with a pinnacle on the left and low cairn in the middle. Was this the summit? Er, no! Just beyond the cairn, a slightly darker grey than the surrounding mist, was the outline of the final leg, a dark grey equilateral triangle of a face. As I got closer it loomed larger, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. I made a number of logical promises to myself; “I won’t climb up anything I can’t climb down”, “If I can’t get <a href="http://rooyee.org/view.php?id=2498"><strong>Watches for sale | RTR Article Directory</strong></a> up here I will retreat and walk up the valley”. As I got closer to the foot of the wall a path became apparent, and rather than leading straight up the wall it led around to the right and then back to the left in an easy to follow, steady ascent that probably wouldn’t event rank as Grade 1, and I soon emerged on to the cloud covered windswept summit ridge. The Descent Coming down seemed easy, just follow the county boundary until I hit the footpath. And indeed the path was easy to follow, even in the mist. However, again, without any visible clues beyond the 100m or so I could see it was impossible to tell if I was where I thought I was. At the first junction with what I thought was a track I decided to push on for a bit to be sure. And then, when I encountered what looked like another junction I thought that the only way to confirm it was to walk 150m on a bearing that should take be to the edge of the Llyn. Which it did, luckily, but straight across more bog. The plan had been to continue east and then north to YsgafellÂ*Wen, and I had hoped that by now (getting on for mid day Saturday) the cloud would have lifted somewhat. However, the cloud seemed to be as thick as ever, I couldn’t see more than 100m at most, my feet were wet, my legs were wet and the map showed a footpath back to Llwynyrhwch, from where I had ascended the day before. So I bailed out and headed back. I tracked round the edge of the Llyn before taking a bearing to ensure I followed the path and not the outpouring from the Llyn. The path down was the path that I should have taken up the hill the day before. Going down it was much clearer than it had been on the way up but there were still places that I had to guess at. I made it back to the van, got changed into some dry clothes and headed home. My planned route is here, while my actual route is here. The few photos I took can be found here. Footnote A while ago I read an article about people not using open access land. There is a reason why most people stick to the paths. Its becauseÂ*going cross country is hard work, especially when its boggy and there is poor visibility. More experience and more practice needed but it should make one if not two more QMDs.