Borders Thinking

The Glyders

Walking with T, we took the classic route from Idwal Cottage near Llyn Ogwen, passing up the same path we had taken on the Y Garn walk in October but this time it was dry and we had good view of the walk ahead. We almost missed the turn off toward the Glyders but after that navigation was straightforward as we climbed the path up to the ridge with good views of the Glyders, Tryfan and back to the Carneddau. A steady pace took us to Bwlch Tryfan where we intersected the rugged path between Tryfan and the Glyders. Here we had the option to take the Bristly Ridge scramble to the summit of Glyder Fach – but this was never more than a theoretical option this time. Instead we took the easy path through the pass to the ridge running up to the summit of Glyder Fach.

There was a fair bit of patchy snow still lying on the top and a fair number of people, with a small queue waiting to be photographed on the famous Cantilever Stone. The views from the summit itself were excellent, with Snowdon and Glyder Fawr clearly visible behind the eerie rock formation of Castell y Gwynt.

From Glyder Fach we scrambled over the rocks of Castell y Gwynt and then had a lovely walk in late afternoon sun along the rock strewn ridge to Glyder Fawr. At 999m this the fifth highest peak in Wales (after the Carneddau and Snowdon), and there were more marvellous views from the rocky outcrops that form the summit. We then began the tricky walk down the scree path to Llyn y Cŵn, which lies in the bwlch between the Glyders and Y Garn. The light was just starting to fade as we reached the top of Devil’s Kitchen. We had enough light to negotiate the rocky path down but by the time we reached the lake we needed our headtorches but it was an easy path back and a nice finale to a wonderful day’s walking.