Pen yr Ole Wen - 5.6 miles Snowdonia

The Ogwen valley has to be one of my favourite places in all of Snowdonia. There's mountains in every direction and breathtaking views 360º. We had to pick what days we were aiming to do mountain walks when we camped up in North Wales because the weather had been pretty inclement. Luckily, it was forecast to be dry and sunny most of the morning and afternoon on the day we decided to climb Pen yr Ole Wen.

Tim had pointed us in the direction of this walk (our North Walian friend, well he's English, not North Walian, but lives in Rhyl - general expert mountain climber, walker and font of knowledge on all things Snowdonia). He had showed us on the map that we could aim from the same starting point as Tryfan to head up to Pen yr Ole Wen and then on to the Carneddau. They weren't a mountain range we had done or heard of before and they are definitely less populated than the swathes of people who flock to Snowdon so it seemed like a good shout.

Heading up the road at the start.

We parked in the free car park just down from Ogwen cottage and set off down the road hiking east along Llyn Ogwen. A little further down, you turn left and go over a small stone bridge and head up towards a farmhouse. There are wooden posts to indicate where to follow the footpath, which winds up the hill to Ffynnon Lloer. It was a really warm sunny day and there were great views behind of Tryfan - it was nice to look back on the route we'd done earlier in the week from a completely different perspective.

Turning into the farm.

Following the path winding up the hill next to the farmhouse.

Looking back over towards Tryfan as we climbed the hill.

This path winds up for about 1 mile from the road. It's a continuous climb but not too steep. The path can be less obvious in places and you cross a few streams but is generally fairly easy to follow. Further up you go over a stile (or it may have been a gate, my memory has failed me here one month on from completing the walk!) When we got to the top, we weren't really sure which way to go to get to the ridge of Pen yr Ole Wen as there's no clear footpath documented on OS maps. Two other walkers were ahead of us so we thought we'd head to the lake at Ffynnon Lloer as that'd be a nice place to stop for a snack and a drink. Turns out the path in to the lake was quite a bit longer than we expected and over quite a few rocks and some harder terrain, so we stopped a bit short of the lake and sat on some big rocks to get our bearings. We went back out the same way we had come in and headed west in the direction of the ridge following the other walkers.

Gracie looking majestic!

So the two other walkers were gents in their 70s (or 60s, maybe I'm being a bit harsh). They looked pretty fit but were basically sat on some rocks right in the middle of the path and seemed to be a bit stuck. As we weren't really sure what way we were going and it had been a bit of a scramble to get to that point, we decided to head around and see if we could go another way.

We scrambled up a bit more and I stayed with the dogs while Mark disappeared exploring to see if there was an alternative way over. He was gone for quite a while and I started to worry he might have plummeted off the edge to his death. I was wondering what the appropriate length of time is before you should go looking or raise the alarm? Fortunately, he appeared unscathed but reported back that it was almost certainly too steep for us to climb or pass, with or without the dogs! So we retraced our steps to where the guys were stopped and asked them if this was the way to Pen yr Ole Wen - they said it was.

The endless scramble to the ridge!

It was definitely a scramble, but it felt a bit more like a rock climb as it was more vertical and difficult to manoeuvre with the dogs. I went up first boosting Dex, then waiting to be passed Gracie, then waiting for Mark. Doing this kind of thing with dogs is quite precarious and takes twice as long! Once over the first really high steep bit, we scrambled up a bit further and came back out on an indistinct path. We were much higher up now (about 850m) and we stopped to admire the view of Tryfan and the Ogwen and Idwal Valley to the south.

Dex enjoying the scenery.

This path started to feel neverending but we eventually arrived at a cairn signalling the top of Pen yr Ole Wen! It was ridiculously windy as is often the case high up in the mountains.

Looking over to Llyn Bochlwyd.

We ducked down to find some cover from the wind and had lunch enjoying the views over to the Carneddau. As we were eating, one of the walkers who had been stuck appeared at the summit. There was no sign of his friend so it seemed like he just abandoned him to carry on the walk - bit harsh! By this point, it was about 2 o'clock and it was forecast rain from 3 o'clock onwards. We decided that although our original plan was to head up to Carnedd Dafydd, that we probably wouldn't make it given the weather and time left and that we weren't sure what path to take down, what the terrain would be like or how long it would take us (this would prove wise given what happened next).

The view North over to the Carneddau.

The Carneddau have a really distinct look, different to the other mountain walks we've done in Snowdonia and elsewhere. I'm not sure how long it would have taken us to get to the summit of Carnedd Dafydd but it looked a pretty long way away, although the path looked well worn and clear, which is always a bonus!

We headed down in the rough direction where OS maps was showing a path back south towards the road. In my experience, looking like you are near the path on GPS and actually being ON the path were two completely different things, confirmed by what transpired next. We certainly started out down the hill on what looked like a path...and as was my previous experience, that path then petered out until it no longer existed and we were left just facing a really steep descent, mostly large rocks like when we got stuck on the Glyders and Gracie was too scared to continue after she fell down in between one. In amongst all this, there was a load of bushes which looked pretty prickly.

Awesome views over to the Idwal valley.

We've done some pretty treacherous walks that we didn't expect to be treacherous previously although I think Pen yr Ole Wen now tops that list as a really epic and kind of dangerous scramble down which left us broken. Or certainly me broken! So it took FOREVER to descend and involved a huge amount of climbing, sliding down on our bums and trying to carry the dog whilst doing this so as not to injure them and minimise the drops. I must have fallen over about 5 times. One of them was a pretty nasty fall and I was sure I'd broken my wrist but although I am really clumsy, I also seem to be really resilient and hardy, so although I had some severe pain for 10 minutes, it soon passed off and I was back to normal, soldiering on down the side of the hill.

This is a shot I took from over halfway down that really doesn't do justice to how steep and impassable the terrain was!

After potentially breaking my wrist, I felt invincible and wasn't expecting any more injuries. I jumped down one steep part and felt my toes slam into the end of my boot. It was really painful and my knees were twinging and Gracie was getting tired. We must've been about 70% of the way down and I still couldn't see a path or a way out. As often happens in these situations, I started to think we'd never get back to the car and that we'd just be stuck on the side of this mountain forever until somebody prised my cold dead body from the undergrowth. Another steep jump saw my toes slam really hard into the front of my boot again and I told Mark it was really painful and I thought I'd lost a toenail.

We eventually made it down and managed to cross up next to a river, hop a wall back onto the road and finish the last part of the loop by heading past Ogwen cottage and down to where the car was parked. Mark accidentally stepped in a huge pile of peat bog that went over his boot and up to his shin, which was hilarious, although he looked so confused at the time! He headed off to try and wash his boots in the lake and I gave him my socks as his were ruined. I come prepared and had a spare change of socks and shoes in the car - seasoned hiker or what!

After I took my sock off, I felt a searing pain as about 60% of my big toenail ripped off with it. It was kind of hanging half on, half off and my foot was throbbing by this point. Ignorance is bliss, I wish I'd left my boots on! It started raining as we drove back through Llanberis and at the campsite, I had some wine and just decided to rip the whole toenail off and be done with it. It was less painful than expected, although it's still growing back a month later but at least looking a bit more normal now.

Hiking is great and all but I feel like between bruised toenails and losing toenails and falls, it's a miracle I haven't broken anything yet! It can be dangerous! It was a great walk. I'm sure there was probably an actual path but by the time we had descended, we had no time or morale to scale the side of the mountain on the offchance we were missing an easy route. Maybe next time we will ascend that way and discover an easier route. Heading off the beaten path is always fun though - burns more calories, gives you a bigger sense of adventure and adrenaline rush and makes for some fun stories and memories afterwards!

Cwm Ogwen and Cwm Idwal. Can't beat the views here!