Peaks 15 and 14 and a dark descent . . .

What a blinder of a day!!!! - Huge thanks to my walking buddies Mike and Mark today, it's been a proper adventure.

We decided to try out the route up to the final peak in the 15 peaks challenge to assess the route being as we'll be doing it in the dark next July. Our circular route started with clear skies in Abergwyngreyn and ascended up into heavy cloud towards Drum where we stopped for coffee and a bite to eat at 770 metres with low visibility.

By this point the snow was getting deeper and we slowly trudged up the next 150 metres or so towards our main goal, the summit of Foel Fras, with the snow slowly deepening till it was over our knees in places. We reached the 942 metre summit of Foel Fras at around 1pm and as the cloud cleared we were treated to truly stunning views of Ynys Mon, and the Menai Straits to the North and Colwyn Bay to the East. We decided not to hang about, mindful of the daylight and pushed on to the summit of Carnedd Uchaf - the 'extra' peak in the 15 peaks at 926 metres. Once again we had stunning views of both the North and North West Coasts of North Wales and glimpses of the Lleyn Peninsula.


From here it was time to start descending so we set off towards Drosgl. There then followed a certain amount of faffing about over the rocky slopes of the Drosgl summit and then an equally boggy time meandering our way through the snow to our descent point at the top of Afon Garn. We followed the valley of Afon Garn down the hillside in the growing gloom and were grateful to be off the snowy slopes whilst still in daylight. Our final descent came dropping down through the woodland to the car park at Bont Newydd, where we were glad to have packed torches as we picked our way through a very steep and brambley section of forest! We made it back to the car park in time to be greeted by the guy coming to lock up the car park and made a hasty move for Llanfairfechan for a well deserved pint. In spite of all feeling reasonably ok after the climbing and walking there was an audible groan from us all as we tucked into a welcome pint of Abbot Ale (brewed in my home town of Bury St Edmunds and exported to the wilds of North Wales!).

A great start to the 15 peaks training . . . . and we all remarked how incredibly lucky we are to have all that stunning beauty within 40 minutes drive.

Thanks again to Mike and Mark, climbing dudes . . .