Ogwen Alpine Trekking

Decided to go on a proper 'local' mission, on foot from the front door. With a bit of effort and an earlyish start, we decided that Carnedd Daffydd, was within reach. It felt like an alpine trek as we followed the dry dusty footpath through the woods, in the cool (22 degrees) of the early morning.

After a bit of off-piste traversing (which would have been impassable due to the usual boggy ground), we arrived at one of my favorite footpaths, which leads up into some spectacular terrain.

The moorland and hillsides are awash with colour at the moment. Plenty to stop and look at along the way.

After a couple of hours, we arrived at the plunge pool where we took a refreshing dip. The deep pool was really beautiful and we carried on feeling completely refreshed. It was as if we'd only just started hiking - a complete reset from the sweaty state we'd arrived in.

We took our time to explore a few of the lesser frequented cwms and hidden valleys.

Even some of the crags felt like I'd barely noticed them before.

We chose to ascend the classic Crib Lem Spur, which gives some good scrambling terrain and fabulous views.

The ridge pretty much terminates on the summit of Carnedd Daffydd - one of the highest peaks in Wales at 1044m. It was suddenly really windy and we both temporarily lost our sun hats during our summit selfie attempt!

Unsurprisingly, there was no one else around on the tops, so we lay out on the summit and soaked up the views for a good amount of time. The air clarity was incredible. We could see almost every peak in Snowdonia, all of Anglesey, the Isle of Man and even the Lake District on the distant horizon. We could also pretty much see The Cottage and it looked a long way off!

We descended as another team arrived at the top and went down towards Pen yr Ole Wen, before descending the grassy slopes back north towards home.

By this point, the heat was incredible and all we could think of was getting down to the valley and into the river!

My feet were pretty much on fire by the time we got down. We went directly to the river and found a good spot to dive in to. Pure bliss. Rather than hang around after, we put our clothes back on and hiked the final few kilometres back to The Cottage, where we'd pre-stashed some celebratory ice creams! We crashed out on the blanket in the shade, feeling super pleased with ourselves. Nearly 18km hiked with 1km of height gain.