Cader Idris

North Wales at its finest again today! It's a pretty long drive down to Cader, but today it was well worth the early start. The drive there was spectacular in itself, with morning mist hanging in all the valleys and mountains sticking up above the sea of clouds. Not a breath of wind either!

Early starts - Llandudno Sunrise

As usual, there were hardly any other walkers about (compared to Snowdon, on which a friend reckoned there were about 500 people on the summit today!!), so we could enjoy a leisurely ascent in the quiet cool of the morning. We went up the Pony Track on the north side of the mountain, and saw only two other walkers until we reached the summit.

Good Morning Cader Idris!

Summit Ridge Shot

Cader Idris - View from the Summit Trig Point

Cader Idris summit and a change in the weather approaches...

I've been up Cader many times before, but for once, the summit shelter was not needed and we basked in the sun, while enjoying a long lunch, before heading down the scree path down to the lake. I say path, but actually its just a scree slope that can be descended, via a sort of glissading technique, that very quickly (if you are good on such terrain) gets you down the lake, where we cooled our feet off. Incredible to be walking in T-shirts and sun hats at this time of year! - We met the warden on the way down, who commented that it had been hailing yesterday!?!.. From the top we could see all of the Llyen, Bardsey Island, all of Snowdonia and even Anglesy!. All in all a fantastic day day to be in the hills..

Cader Idris

Cader Lake