Crafnant Skyline

Peaks: Crimpiau, Craig Wen, Creigiau Gleision, Gleision North
Area: Carneddau, Eryri
A rare opportunity to observe M outside his natural habitat. This was a scouting weekend to the Alpine-hut style Cornel in Crafnant, so I went along to help and thoroughly enjoyed this lengthy and painfully slow circuit of the skyline hills. I had big plans for M after taking him up Tal y Fan aged nine weeks: but almost 12 years has elapsed since then! A group of six of seven Scouts left Cornel for the gentle, boggy walk up Crimpiau in steady humid drizzle. Not pleasant, but compared to my two festive runs in Snowdonia it felt subtropical. A few complaints, boot stuck in swamps and the like, but eventually Paul and I got them all to the top of Crimpiau. A long descent towards Ogwen and a superb clearance revealed a snowy Carneddau and Tryfan. From here, a very boggy crossing of the Creigiau Gleision ridge (bad memories of John B's hypothermia on this circuit last April!). The boys seemed to be enjoying themselves, albeit not necessarily focused on the matter in hand: they reminded me of a group of young terriers. The rain stopped for the crossing, to be replaced by two snow showers as we descended. Very wet underfoot through the woods. I jogged round the lake to finish, loosening my legs in preparation for a hard 12-miler tomorrow.