Having read last week in the press about a young man helicoptered off Snowdon with hypothermia, I thought a bit of info about windchill would not go amiss. Just follow the Windchill information link on the left under ‘Pages’ to see the charts etc. The young man concerned was wearing jeans, pumps and a short leather jacket.
Mulled wine and mince pies at Swn y Nant
Seemed very odd to be walking out of The Oak carpark to start a walk, but it worked. Ten of us had a scamper round the hills and lanes of Guilsfield finishing at Swn y Nant for mulled wine and mince pies. Welcome to Anne and Ian who joined us for the first time.
We crossed diagonally across Cae Felin field and headed to the western end of the woods then turned sharply up hill and along the ridge. Much evidence of new forest tracks and timber extraction following the February Gales – must have been a bit noisy with that lot coming down. We scrambled down the end over and under trees and back to the footbridge then along the Brook to Sarn Bridge – very wet through here. More climbing now: up Gwreiddyn Lane and up to the Summit of Gaer Fawr to rest at the Pig. Down the other side and out at the quarry, turning right and on very icy lanes to Pump House. Turned left after this and on to Trawscoed Farm, and following Len’s fine suggestion we headed across to Trawscoed-hen Farm and on down splashy tracks back to Sarn Bridge. Then returned to Swn y Nant where Jean was waiting to welcome us with glasses of mulled wine and mince pies. a good end to a good walk and a good year. Lets do another good year in 2015. Pics in the gallery and programme for 2015 on the left.
Thanks to all who came and to Jean for great tuck. 
Report by Annie and pics by Annie.
Brian led us on a good local walk on a day that didn’t hold much promise, but ‘turned out nice again’ as the morning wore on. Welcome back to Jamie and Peter and Moira – long time no see – and thanks to Jamie for the pictures. (Left my camera in the van AGAIN!)
We started with a good pull up to the summit of Roundton in improving weather and saw much of the area opening up with good views across to Corndon and the famous Bromlow Callow. Thanks to Julie and her electronic gizzmo we found that Callow could refer to ‘bald’ – maybe it was a bald hill before the trees were planted. (Link here)
Then across the gap and up to the summit of Corndon. Bit of history etc here. We came down the steep fence by the edge of the now cleared plantation, which used to be an eycatching feature, and made the lane that headed north to Mitchell’s Fold. We stopped here and sat on the stones for elevenses/lunch. One or two kites about and a raven or two but that was about all.
It was then lanes and tracks back to the cars at The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trusts’ nature reserve car park. (Link here) Thanks to Brian for leading and all who came and all who drove. Pics in the gallery. 
The Christmas DETOX walk will be on
SUNDAY 28th DECEMBER @ 9.30 from The Oak
not Monday 29th December
Sorry for this – a bit of diary dither on my part.
NEXT WALK
Sunday 23rd November – Brian Flowers – Local Walk – Corndon Hill circuit to include Mitchells Fold standing stones and Roundton Hill.
Seven miles max and easy/moderate with a few steepish bits.
Depart from The Oak 08.30
I did the recce earlier in the week in very low cloud so missed everything that was revealed when we had the perfect weather on Sunday 31st August.
Six of us travelled up to the Llyn Crafnant carpark – which is free and has super loos – to set out into this new area of exploration for the Hill Walkers. It was warm work walking up from the valley through the forestry emerging on the open hillside to be greeted by the wonderful scent of heather in full bloom. I have over-used the phrase – stunning views – a bit of late, but as Sunday dished them up in spades, Graham suggested that I use the phrase – extraordinary panoramas – instead. The ground under foot was a bit sloppy in places but the opening extraordinary panoramas made it worthwhile. I was continually saying ” Wow – I didn’t see that on Tuesday!” The biggest WOW was coming over the top of the ridge to look down into Llyn Cowlyd, across to the Carneddau, Tryfan just over to our left and Moel Siabod further round. (See pic left.) The view from the Creigiau Glession summits must be one of the best in Snowdonia.
Creigiau Glession has two, or according to some folk, three summits: North, Middle and South. (Wiki Link) We chose to have our lunch on the middle summit after crossing a heathery, bouldery and wet depression between the North and the Middle. We just sat and marvelled at what we could see, especially to the north: Llandudno Pier and the Great Orme were clear, as was the cable-car cafe etc. on the top.
We were loathe to leave but we headed back down, retracing our footsteps for a while, then heading off due south into the forestry above Llyn Crafnant, it was downhill all the way and very sloppy in places. We came out onto the forestry road and headed east to pick up the Crafnant circuit track and followed this back to the cars. Some pics in the gallery, and as Wallace once said “A grand day out Gromit.”
Thanks to all who came and all who drove.
Welcome to two new walkers, namely Izzy and Jessica who along with six “regulars” set out at 7.30a.m. with no great hope of staying dry. Ex hurricane Bertha, the subject of dire warnings from the Met Office promised a real soaking. The rain stopped as we drove past Llanidloes and amazingly blue skies showed over Plynlimon, no-one could quite believe it.
Starting point for the walk was near the ruined Cistercian Abbey of Strata Florida, burial place of Welsh Princes and the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. A steady climb along a well marked track overlooking the Nant Egnant Gorge, a look back to view Cors Caron (Tregaron Bog) before fording the stream and continuing our climb to Llyn Egnant. Time for coffee and chat at the Dam. Ten minutes and the rain arrived to remind us that Bertha had a sting in her tail, short steep heather clad detour to the noted fishing lake of Llyn Bach with views over Graig Wen. On to metalled access track alongside Llyn Egnant with a steady pull up to the Ffair Rhos road. Just half a mile of road with superb views to the south over Llyn Hir and Graig Felen. Now, downhill to Llyn Teifi by another metalled track. Rain now rather heavy but undaunted, a short westerly diversion to a small unnamed lake that would on a better day provide a superb view towards Cwm Rhydol. Round the base of the dam for a yomp on blanket bog to view Llyn y Gorlan, from what should have been a magnificent viewpoint but still raining heavily. At this point, we turned for home cross country, a poorly marked walk on saturated ground down to Frongoch before traversing the bracken slope of Coed Troed y Rhiew. Back to cars , an enjoyable seven miles or so despite the weather.
Thanks to all who ventured out and all who drove.
Report by Len – who not only planned, recced (twice), led and drove. Above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks Len.
A small group, a clear day, a dry day and a rough tough mountain make for something special. And Brian led a special day in my favourite mountains – The Rhinog. Today it was Rhinog Fach, but a day on which I left my camera in the van – again! So the pics in the gallery are all stolen from the WWW.
Five of us squeezed into Brian’s BM and headed up to the car park in the woods at Graigddu-isaf; off the Bronaber straight north of Dolgellau. Welcome to Dave from the village for his first outing with us – a good walk to start with – look forward to you coming again.
This is always a good way to start a walk and get you going – a couple of miles through the plantation on forestry tracks, but it stops dead about 10m from the fence over which you climb and jump the stream into the rough tussock grass on the other side. From here the route follows a substantial wall nearly all the way to the top but it gets steeper and rockier the higher you go. Good patches of sundew, common spotted orchid and bog asphodel showing well. We learnt from Dave that livestock are poisoned by eating bog asphodel.
We breasted the ridge and the whole of the North Wales coast spread out before us – from Harlech right rount to Bardsey and beyond – stunning, and not a pedalo in sight. A quick lunch and then down the rocky end of Rhinog Fach, past the tiny Llyn Cwmhosan and then we dropped down into Bwlch Drws-Ardudwy, which was not its usual sloppy boggy self, but dry. We followed the track up to the cairn and over the top to look down on the wide land that stretches up to Trawsfynydd and picked our route back to the cars through the now partly felled forestry.
Thanks to Brian for a good day, not only did he lead the walk but he also drove – thanks Brian.
We picked up Yvonne at the Little Chef and the four of us went on to the car park at Rhyd Ddu: a 7.30 start paid dividends as it was virtually empty on our arrival. A ‘ just right’ day temperature wise, not too hot and not too cold but with a breeze – more of which later. The early start meant that we were nearly the only ones on the Rhyd Ddu path. This, in my opinion, is the best way up Snowdon, and easy start, a bit of a grind up the zig-zags, some exposure across Bwlch Main and an easy final approach to the summit. And if you have clear weather, as we did, some extensive views of coast and mountain. The butterwort was in bloom and looking great.
Just after the gate in the top wall we came across a struggling family – determined Dad and son out in front, a very unsure Mum pulling reluctant stout son in the rear and the wind now in buffetting mode. Got talking and this was their first ever mountain and they had done nothing at all before. They came from Ipswich and mountains are not thick on the ground in Suffolk. The wind increased and we even considered not going to the top but just turning sharply back along the South Ridge and down through the quarry. We suggested to Mum and Dad that turning back was probably wise – NO WAY – Dad was going to the top. So we decided to act as escorts to see them safely up. Mum went across the narrow bit with her hands over her eyes being led by Annie. Stout son was pulled across and all gained the summit. I queued with them for the trig point and took a few family snaps for them – they were going down by train and back to Rhyd Ddu by taxi! Bit of an expensive day out – but safely up and down.
Down the South Ridge with more stunning views and into the quarry with a long walk out to the carpark. Thanks to all who came and all who drove. The 100,000 mile bit was the excitement on the way home. Just coming into Llanfair by Dick the Milk’s place the van’s milometer topped the 100K. Pics in the gallery.