Northern Carneddau

A solo trip to the northern Carneddau yesterday. Set off in running gear from Aber, reaching the top of the falls in 15 minutes. But as soon as I got through the entrance to the Cwm Afon Goch an immediate violent pummelling from a ferocious southerly wind meant I had to change plans and cast around for an alternative to the route up Llewellyn. The wind was so fierce that I was being knocked backwards from time to time: running impossible! Instead, I secreted myself in a shallow gully leading to the Bera Mawr plateau. This was steep but relatively sheltered: a cunning solution to the prevailing conditions. On the plateau, the cloud base shifted in and out after lunch on Bera Mawr. I took a bearing across the plateau, but the mist soon cleared. The gale stayed fierce but was now at my back, so I ploughed up Drosgl in four minutes from Bera Bach, then a few minutes over th Gyrn Wigau (last visited as the 'sting in the tail' at the end of the Carneddau fell race in June). I watched the weather coming in over the main Carneddau peaks whilst lying down behind the summit rocks out of the wind. Finished by running over Moel Wnion and back to Aber full-pelt into the teeth of the gale, then down the Afon Gam and the falls. Managed eight miles or so on the roads this morning.