Capel Curig

Nice sunny day for a change!

Moody skies over the Ogwen Valley.

There are just so many waterfalls to choose from on the Afon Lloer, looking towards Tryfan and Glyder Fawr.

Snowdon in the distance.

Overcast and windy according to the forecast......

The first golden rays of morning sunlight hitting the south ridge of Tryfan, with Pen yr Ole Wen behind. It was a beautiful cold and clear morning, the start of what proved to be an exception day in the mountains. This was taken near the beginning of the climb up to Glyder Fach. Tryfan is a spectacular shark's fin of a mountain, rearing up over the Ogwen valley. A completely different character to the rest of the mountains in this area it lacks bulk and instead it is all ridges and buttresses with so many climbing and scrambling opportunities. It is an absolute gem! Don't be fooled by the gentle sweep of the beautifully built dry stone wall, at the other end of the mountain there is a wall right at the bottom but after a few yards it runs into the climbers playground that is the Milestone Buttress. If they tried to build a wall up that it would very quickly turn into a dry stone pillar....

Balanced. This image is unusual for me in two ways; firstly I don't often stray into B&W and secondly I don't often photograph people. A young couple had been climbing ahead of me up the Bristly Ridge, and we got talking along the way after I had given them a few pointers along the way. The young lady confessed this was her first time on the route but she was clearly a good climber. Having topped out, we walked across the lunar landscape of Glyder Fach, and she could not resist clambering across the gigantic boulders and up onto the famous Cantilever Stone. She did look slightly nervous when she got up there, as it is quite high and exposed. I could not believe my luck when I found she was standing in a streak of light created by a break in the cloud. The 'lightening effect' looked pretty good in the original colour version, but even better in this B&W conversion. Hope you like it. Thanks to every one who visited, and especially those who faved and commented. Best wishes.

One of those moments when the clouds suddenly part to reveal the illusive peak.

An early morning moment of calm at Ardtoe Jetty, looking out across Kentra Bay. A truly beautiful and peaceful place on the north coast of Arndamurchan, hope to get back there one day.

Just made it to this speck in the nick of time!

Here's another from the Ogwen Valley in North Wales, but from last year. Those who have climbed Tryfan by the North Ridge or the Heather Terrace are bound to recognise this ladder stile at the base of the Milestone Buttress. It affords a grand view down the valley to Y Garn and Foel Goch, but it also leads to the rock climbers playground of the buttress itself.

The view from the Gribin ridge looking down the deep glacial valley of Nant Ffrancon, with the mountains of Y Garn on the left, and Pen yr Ole Wen on the right. You can see the Isle of Anglesey in the distance. In the foreground far below is Llyn Idwal, nestling in the heart of Cwm Idwal.

I fear this as close as I will get to the mountains this winter, with Wales going into full lockdown again today. This is the Castell y Gwynt (or Castle of the Winds in English) is one of the most iconic places in Snowdonia. As you see it is a spikey outcrop on the edge of Glyder Fach, perched at the top of the cliffs on the northern side.

Here's another of one of my favourite places in Snowdonia - the Castell y Gwynt (or Castle of the Winds in English). As you see it is a spikey outcrop on the edge of Glyder Fach, perched at the top of the cliffs on the northern side. It does get in the way if you are walking beween Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr (seen in the distance here), but it is good sport scrambling right over the top. It is bigger and steeper than it looks.

A weekend workshop with Alex Nail resulted in us being camped in a beautiful spot (Llyn Caseg-fraith) to the south east of Tryfan, Snowdonia for a gorgeous sunrise to kick off the day.

This was edited from an in-camera HDR jpg, as I had my camera set to save only the merged bracketed images, but I believe it is still a faithful representation of the scene, with perhaps a lightened foreground from what the eye could see and some enhanced reds in the grasses.

Still water on a subsidiary channel to the Idwal outfall stream, provided an opportunity to capture some nice reflections.

Boat house.

I've just got back from a very wet week in the North West of Scotland, where there were no signs of skies like this. I haven't downloaded the images yet, so hope this will do for now. This was another from a fine day out with Brad, Barb and Mark in the Ogwen Valley of North Wales, One location we were keen to try was along the Afon Lloer, looking back across the Ogwen Valley towards Tryfan and the Glyders.

Snowdonia

Here's another from my return to the mountains. This is the view from part way up Bristly Ridge looking back towards Tryfan, with the Carneddau beyond. From this angle Tryfan looks very much like a young child's picture of a mountain - triangular, steep sided and pointy. It is a truly unique mountain, and one that has given me so many memorable days out over the years.

bottle neck at Capel Curig......

Last Sunday marked my return to the mountains for the first time this year, the Welsh border having been closed due to Covid. As it had been so long I just could not bring myself to wander up some grassy lump, I needed to get my hands on some rock! So I choose what has to be one of the best scrambling routes in Wales - up the north ridge of Tryfan, down it's south ridge, then up the Bristly Ridge to Glyder Fach, and then back down the Gribin ridge. The first part of the route more or less follows the skyline of the magnificence that is Tryfan which is centre stage in this picture. Being a bank holiday weekend I had to be there early to beat the crowds, but it did mean I got caught by a rogue snow shower near the top of Tryfan. Dear reader - it was a brilliant day, and I hope this shot, taken from the lower part of the Gribin, conveys at least some of why I love the mountains so much. Best viewed large.

This is The south-east side of Tryfan, taken appromimately an hour after sunrise on a lovely hot day in Snowdonia.

The traffic up to Snowdonia the previous day was a nightmare. One stretch of the M5, south of Birmingham took around one and three quarters of an hour to progress around four miles. In total, the journey from Taunton to Snowdon took seven hours, without any stops!

I was over two hours later than my intended arrival time and Alex and Roger went on ahead to set up camp, as I didnt want them to miss the sunset, due to my late arrival. Some mis-heard directions over a bad phone line, whislt driving through the mountains led me to approach Tryfan from the west rather than the east and I ended up wandering around trying to find the planned camping spot for nearly two hours.

This day was spent climbing up to Tryfan summit, hopping both ways between the 'Jack and Jill' stones at the top, before returning to pack up camp, hike across the Glyder ridge, taking in Castell y Gwynt and doing an obligatory star jump on the cantelliever stone!

The weather had been hot and fine all day, but as evening approached, the clouds closed in, the wind picked up and we decided to make for lower ground to spent the night.

As this turned out, it was a very fortunate decision, as we awoke at around 1am to an almighty thunder storm raging all around us. The lightning strikes were distant as first, but seemed to sweep right over us, with several strikes being within half a mile or so. The thunder physically shook the ground beneath us and one very close strike, we estimated to be within about 200 metres of out tents made us physically shake too! It was like a bomb going off nearby. A fun and exciting initiation to the Glyder ridges, Snowdonia.

Beautiful Snowdonia!