We took a week off and headed to Snowdonia. Not somewhere I have spent much time. The view from the cabin was of the Rhinogs and Rhinog Fawr looked like the biggest one. I wanted to go up from the same side of the mountain we were staying, as opposed to driving round for 40 minutes and going up the more usual route. I found a gps track online, it called the walk “difficult”. We decided to head up the next day.
We parked at Graigddu-isaf and headed up the trail which soon turned into woodlands and followed a stream. There was a waterfall further up. As we came out of the woods we could see how steep and rocky the climb ahead was. There was probably going to be some scrambling involved too.
It started simple enough and easy to follow but as we got into the rougher and less travelled sections, it was easy to miss a turning (because not many people had turned!). We doubled back and got back on track. The going got steep and we were glad it was a dry, sunny day. It would have been a lot more complicated in the wet.
Eventually we got to Llyn Du. A small lake perched up high, with a great view of the valley below. After that it was back to scrambling. We noticed wild goats looking down at up from the cliffs above. The path would flatten off for a bit, then get steep, then very steep. It would be no good for those scared of drops. There was no easy way back out. Eventually we reached the summit. The perfect spot for lunch.
The route circled round the summit then rejoined the same route we came up at Llyn Du. From there on out it was much quicker without the route finding. A great day out! The route was not that long, but took quite a while for the distance due to the steep, technical terrain and harder to follow paths.
