Area: Maesglase, Eryri
Classic bank holiday crowd avoidance strategy, always very satisfying. This was particularly the case today in bracing sunshine on Easter Saturday, as I started from the busy car park above Tal y Llyn after dropping my gravel bike off in Dinas Mawddwy. It is years since I have been up on this ridge, almost certainly 1994 en route to Rheidol where I was working at the time. It is obscure, but as a point-to-point it gives a brilliant outing of around 14k. You start high, but tussocks and bog make the going awkward until gaining the path below Ceiswyn. This is a minor summit with great views over Cader. Then the going becomes delightful, not too boggy on a defined little path over to Waun Oer, marked by a large cairn with great views over Rhinog and Aran. I saw a lone walker here, the only person I encountered all day despite the hordes elsewhere in Eryri. A very steep descent and short climb leads up Cribin Fawr after which I think I was breaking new ground, remarkably enough. I certainly have no memory of the rest of the ridge, including Maesglase. It was all excellent, especially the cwms and ridge leading to Maesglase, and from the dominant peak I took the very steep descent down to the minor summit and continuation ridge that leads all the way down to the road and then Dinas Mawddwy. A drink and crisps in the cafe, then it was all the way back to the car on the bike. If anything this was harder than the ridge, as my gravel bike is far too heavy for climbs like Bwlch yr Oerdrws, which leads back to the Cross Foxes. The next climb up Tal y Llyn wasn't much fun either, really hard going, painfully slow, and unpleasantly busy roads too.
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