Home » Snowdonia Walks » Walking Routes up Yr Wyddfa Snowdon » Walk up Yr Wyddfa Snowdon from Snowdon Ranger » Snowdon via Cwm Clogwyn 

Snowdon via Cwm Clogwyn

By Dave Roberts   

Published – September 3, 2011

  5/5 (1)

Posted in Walk up Yr Wyddfa Snowdon from Snowdon Ranger, Walking Routes up Yr Wyddfa Snowdon

Snowdon via Cwm Clogwyn

Further Details

Route Summary:

A pathless route up Snowdon for experienced walkers looking for solitude.

Start and Finish: Snowdon Ranger - Yr Wyddfa

Distance: 8.29 km

Ascent: 957 m

Time: 3.5 hours

Timings are approximate and depend on the individual. Calculate the time using Naismith’s Rule and factor in your own pace.

Before You Walk up Snowdon, ask yourself – Are you equipped? Do you know what you’re doing? Are the conditions safe? If you answer no to any of these, stay safe, don’t go! Check the weather forecast and make sure you know about walking up Snowdon in the Snow. If you lack experience – hire a Snowdon Mountain Guide.

Facilities:

Small portapotty at start and a Youth Hostel.

Public Transport:

Sherpa buses plentiful. Parking and WHR

Traveline for UK Public Transport

Parking: 

Car Park at Ranger – spaces most of the time.

Hazards:

This is an off path route and should only be attempted by experienced hill walkers. It shouldn’t be seen as an alternative route up if the other paths are too busy, and certainly not a route for groups. Navigation is a challenge.

Remember that we cannot outline every single hazard on a walk – it’s up to you to be safe and competent. Read up on Walk up Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon Safely Navigation and the Gear and Equipment you’ll need.

Check the Weather before setting out.

We reccommend  Met Office Snowdonia and MWIS and live conditions on Adventure Smart – live conditions

Snowdon Guidebooks:

Recommended Snowdon Maps: 

Snowdon via Cwm Clogwyn Ordnance Survey Map and GPX File Download

Download file for GPS

Snowdon via Cwm Clogwyn

It seems sometimes like all the walking routes up Snowdon are busy and far too civilised. Looking at the map, there’s been one route up that’s a little contrived, but pathless for a the most part.

It does start off on one of the paths, and ends the route on another path, but somewhere in between you get to explore Snowdon’s least known cwm (probably along with Tregalan) and some beautiful mountain tarns where you can lunch and generally waste some time on the way up.

The route starts off from the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel and follows the Snowdon Ranger path of the same name. This is very straightforward, following the zig-zags at first, before the path gladly levels out. You can see Cwm Clogwyn to your right, below the summit. The blunt Llechog curving up to enclose the cwm and meet the South Ridge at the sharp ridge of Bwlch Main, before the final sweep to the summit.

The lower end of the Llechog ridge rises precipitously from the boggy Cwm Treweunydd and might make a scramble from the base if you feel adventurous. Instead, we’ll be tacking the ridge from Cwm Clogwyn.

To reach Cwm Clogwyn, we’ll need to get off path. Follow the Ranger path until you’re nearly at Bwlch Cwm Brwynog, above Llyn Ffynnon-y-gwas (at around SH588 557). There’s a pretty obvious low ridge that hides the lake, and it is this that you’ll need to aim for. The first section is a little wet, but once you’re on the higher ground it becomes much easier and a faint path leads down to the low dam.

Now you might be tempted to cross directly to the Afon Goch that tumbles from the cwm above, but that course is very wet. Instead, the faint path, if you find it, contours around the flat area centred on SH594 550 along easy ground before making for the fence that follows the Afon Goch steeply up to Cwm Clogwyn. When I did this, we camped on the rim of this boggy area near some boulders – a little gem of a site.

The path is largely lost now, but the river guides us. After slogging up, you can walk directly to Llyn Coch, and then Llyn Glas yet higher up. These aren’t where we’re headed, so just before Llyn Coch you can cross the fence at a stile and see if you can cross the river. We had to descend slightly (to where the map shows the stream braiding) before we could cross, but this didn’t prevent a bootful of ice cold water.

Take a rough bearing across the rough grass towards Llyn Nadroedd and follow its shore to the outlet stream. Take the line to the right of the steeper cliffs (obviously!) and this is where you’ll need to choose your line carefully. If in doubt, you can probably contour around to the Rhyd Ddu path and there was a faint path that seems to do just that. It was pretty steep, but the line was easy enough when we did it. There wasn’t much to see as the clag was down at 500m, the wind was gale force and rain as heavy as it could get.

The climb is only around 100m before flattening out (SH594 539) and suddenly there are a couple of cairns to follow. Your choice, you can continue uphill and keep away from the crowds as much as possible, or continue along the flat area to meet the path in a couple of minutes.

From there you can follow the Rhyd Ddu path up to the summit.

 

 

Please rate this

Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

Related Posts

Live Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon Conditions

Gear You May Need

Subscribe to the Mud and Routes Newsletter

* indicates required



Choose interests

I would like to stay subscribed to this newsletter

Mud and Routes will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. Please let us know all the ways you would like to hear from us:


You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at [email protected]. We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.

Comments are closed.