Filiast scrambles/Glyderau run

Peaks/Crag: Carnedd y Filiast, Mynydd Perfedd, Foel Goch, Y Garn
Routes: Solo Slab (D:sol), Underlap (VD:sol), Little One (M:sol), Undulation (M:sol), The Waved Slab/Seagull (D:sol)
Area: Glyderau, Eryri
A small weather window in an unstable week, and an even smaller two hour window for me to squeeze some scrambling and running into a family day out. Kate dropped me off on the A5 at Ty'n y Maes and I ran flat out down the old road to Tai Newyddion. The usual tough steep slog along the wall into Cwm Graeanog and straight up to the Red Slab. All the routes here are in the same vein, easy slabs and excellent friction: a perfect spot for solo wandering. I climbed the left side of Solo Slab up a quartz crack, then did Underlap on the main slab. This is a fine companion to Central Route (see May 2010) and takes a sort of tubular groove curving rightwards up the slab. Lovely simple movement, leading to a ledge and dirty corner. I went up this to the block, but it was very vegetated so I descended the corner and nipped up the slab of Little One before traversing across to the scree and slogging up to the waved slab. After all the recent rain, I was not surprised to find wet black moss across the lower 20m of this. The solution was obvious, however: I took the clean narrow rib of Undulation in the left-hand gully, pleasant scrambling which eases quickly, then traversed right to the Waved Slab a little higher up. This is unique: a dried-up seabed which gives an unusual slabby scramble moving from 'wave' to wave. Wet in places, rather insecure higher up with more moss and vegetation, and surprisingly lengthy (at least 150m). I took the left-hand edge of the slab for the most part, which is actually the VD line of Seagull. At the top, it deteriorates into heather shelves so I moved left into the gully. Fine running over the summit of Filiast then along the ridge to Perfedd. Clouds clearing Snowdon, some watery sunshine through the high cloud. Ran all the way up the steep zigzags to Foel Goch, then up Y Garn before running down Banana Ridge to meet Kate in Ogwen cottage. Exactly two hours in total.