Snowdon scramble

Peaks: Crib Goch, Garnedd Ugain, Yr Wyddfa
Area: Snowdon, Eryri
A connoisseur's route up Snowdon (AKA my 'alternative horseshoe') from the Dinas Cromlech layby up the tiny path that weaves up below the east flank of Dinas Mot. This gives some decent scrambling up slabby rock, if you look for it, and eventually gains the bottom section of the north ridge of Crib Goch. It all has the distinct advantage of avoiding the crowds and the parking fees. The weather was wonderful (as it had apparently been all last week when I was in Tenerife) but a front was due that afternoon, so it was nice to be able to take advantage by moving quickly first thing in the morning. Perfect views over Cwm Glas and Clogwyn y Person as I climbed, then gained the atmospheric curving north ridge which gains the summit in a great position, looking across to Reade's Route on the main pinnacle. I was last on this ridge in August 2017, descending it on our 3000s run. From the summit, people appear for the first time, despite the day and hour - but the views were perfect, some of the best I've had in dozens of Crib Goch crossings, this is always my favourite time of year. As always, a thoroughly enjoyable crossing, taking the pinnacles direct and running where I could. Over Crib y Ddisgyl by the most direct line - 25 minutes for the entire ridge from Crib Goch (1:20 from the Cromlech car park). I decided to brave the crowds and take in Snowdon, not something I often do outside winter but I thought it would be empty enough on Monday morning. It was packed, so I just touched the trig point and ran flat out to contour the slopes of Garnedd Ugain to the remnants of a cornice at the top of Parsley Fern gully. Here, I relaxed with a snack and took a few luxurious minutes to enjoy the view back across Clogwyn y Person to Crib Goch. I then descended the Cyrn Las ridge - we last came this way after climbing Face Route in incredible conditions at this time of year five or six years ago. It's a nice ridge with a couple of very short scrambling sections - I can remember feeling like we'd 'discovered' it as teenagers in the late 80s, as it didn't feature in any books at that time.