involving a fair commitment in terms of time and energy; these may well be rugged walks involving many hours’ walking.
Arduous: covering rough ground, sometimes in remote locations; there may be mild to moderate scrambling. These walks are not necessarily long or time consuming, but they are demanding both of a level of fitness and mountain competency.
Timings
As with grades, timings are also subjective; those given are the times taken by the author (40 years’ experience, and a pensioner, but no slouch – for the present), plus a little extra. It is far better to learn by experience what your own pace is, and then use the distance and height gain information to get an idea of how long it will take you given your personal level of fitness. But be sure to allow for the difficulty of the terrain: for example, the ascent of Tryfan by the North Ridge has a horizontal distance of 1km (just over half a mile), and height gain of 615m (2020ft). This would suggest you could be jumping from Adam to Eve in less than 90 minutes, and indeed some can (I did it myself in 45 minutes, but that was a long, long time ago), but for many walkers, two hours would be nearer the mark because of the nature of the terrain.
Mapping
To aid visualisation, routes are depicted both as line diagrams and as customised HARVEY maps. The former, drawn by author and artist Mark Richards, give an aerial perspective of the walks, while the latter pinpoint the key detail covered in the route description. Harvey maps owe their origins to orienteering, and their bold symbols and distinctive colours make them well suited to outdoor use. Note that key landmarks that feature on the maps and/or diagrams appear in bold in the text to help you plot the route.
Route symbols on Harvey map extracts
Although the guide contains map extracts and diagrams, you are strongly advised always to take with you the relevant sheet map for the route, not only for safety reasons, but also to give a wider picture of the landscapes you are walking through.
At present, HARVEY publish three 1:25,000 Superwalker maps of Snowdonia: Snowdon and the Moelwynion, The Glyderau and the Carneddau and Snowdonia South, covering the Rhinogs, as well as a 1:40,000 British Mountain Map Snowdonia.
Alternatively, the following 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey Explorer maps cover the areas described: OL17 Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa, OL18 Harlech, Porthmadog and Bala and OL23 Cadair Iris and Lyn Tegid.
Welsh place names
The Welsh language (Cymraeg) is an ancient one, emerging in the sixth century from the Brythonic languages, the common ancestor of Welsh, Cumbric, Breton and Cornish. It is a phonetic language, and once the pronunciation of the alphabet has been acquired, a fair stab can be made at the actual words of the language. However, over the years inconsistencies have arisen, most of no great consequence, but sufficient to cause confusion if not explained. Spellings of many Welsh place names have changed over the past 50 years, as use of the proper Welsh language and spelling has gained ground.
For this book, the spelling shown on maps has generally been retained, but not always, especially where it is known to be wrong. (One notable such exception is the spelling of Carnedd Llywelyn. The Lord of Snowdonia was Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, not Llewelyn, as some maps suggest. So Carnedd Llywelyn is used here.) In general correct Welsh has been followed: Cwm y Llan, south of Snowdon, is rendered on maps as Cwm Llan but Cwm y Llan is used in the text. (There is a subtle linguistic difference, but that need not trouble us here.) But this example highlights another issue that crops up throughout the maps of Snowdonia, and varying between OS and Harvey versions. Should it be Cwm y Llan or Cwm-y-llan? Guidance has been taken on these thorny issues from a Welsh-speaker and this accounts for some further variance from the maps for the sake of linguistic accuracy without compromising the clarity of the route descriptions.
Y Garn and Llyn Idwal (Walk 7)
In addition, many names have become Anglicised over the years. In most instances, this book uses what is believed to be the correct Welsh version, departing only rarely in the most widely-accepted cases of Anglicisation, for example the use of Snowdon instead of Yr Wyddfa and Conwy Mountain instead of Mynydd y Dref. Moreover, the author’s local knowledge has led him to name features sometimes not named on the maps at all. Appendix 3 also contains a glossary of Welsh words that you are likely to encounter on your great mountain days in Snowdonia.
Weather to walk?
Mountains everywhere tend to generate their own climate, while remaining subject to whatever is going on nationally. Proximity to the Irish Sea can and does make a difference at times, making conditions change in an instance. So, while out on the hills, you need always to be aware of what is happening to the weather: is the wind changing direction? – are clouds gathering? – is it getting hotter, or colder? Make allowance for the fact that conditions on the tops are generally more severe than in the valleys.
You can get some indication of what might happen by checking the weather forecast both the day before you go and again on the morning you intend to walk. The internet is the best way of checking this, as the websites are regularly updated:
www.metoffice.gov.uk/loutdoor/mountainsafety/snowdonia/snowdonia_latest_pressure.html
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
There are four key mountain rescue services operating in Snowdonia:
Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team (www.llanberismountainrescue.co.uk)
Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team (www.aberglaslyn-mrt.org)
South Snowdonia Search and Rescue Team (www.southsnowdoniamountainrescueteam.co.uk)
Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team (www.ogwen-rescue.org.uk)
The following information is provided by Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, who, as do other teams, produce excellent information on safety in the hills; theirs is available for download from www.llanberismountainrescue.co.uk. This is what to do if you need a mountain rescue team:
Call 999 or 112 and ask for Mountain Rescue.
Tell them where the ‘incident’ has occurred by giving an accurate grid reference, and the nature of the incident. Give them a contact phone number.
The messengers may be required to wait by the phone for further instructions, and may be used to guide the Team to the exact location of the incident, so they should be the fittest group members if possible.
Be
