Cnicht

Character: A walk of contrasts. Unspoilt nature with ravaged quarries and slate inclines. Fierce rocky aretes and convoluted boggy plateaus.

Map: Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure 17, 1:25,000, Snowdonia. Try this link to the map on the Ordnance Survey web site for Cnicht

Cnicht is rightly famous for its gorgeous shape, although "the Matterhorn of Wales" as it is often called does seem to be somewhat over-stating the case.

This walks starts and ends in Croesor. This old village seems to have had some recent development, and I wonder how old it really is? You wonder whether it sprang up with the mines in the upper Cwm Croesor valley, or if it is much older.

From Croesor tourist car park, head NW uphill past the chapel. Follow this track as it turns into a mossy route like something out of The Lord of the Rings. Shortly after this you reach a high point on the road (only about 10 minutes after leaving your car), and here you look for a path to the NE. From memory there are two possibilities here. I think one heads into the lower valley between Yr Arddu and Cnicht. You want the higher one.

It shortly becomes clear that you are on, or just on the north side of Cnichtr's SW ridge. The track widens back out (maybe it just rejoins the lower path which vehicles use?). Certainly, as can be seen from the little web movie (with fell runners for free!), the track is a vehicle one at this stage.

After a kilometre or so after leaving the original NW road, a wooden post indicates it is time to turn right gain the start of the ridge proper. The other fork does definitely lead through the valley floor, and eventually to Nanmor valley.

Initial stages of the ridge are very pleasant, often with soft grass underfoot. The views of Yr Arddu are quite impressive. I wonder what this knolly lump is like to climb! Maybe next time...Shortly into the ridge however, a quite impressive little razor of an arete fences you in from the right, and forces you eventually round the north side of the ridge. There is a little bouldery clambering here, but not at all difficult. Eventually you bypass this obstacle ("Little Tryfan" I so poetically called it!), and the ridge is pretty well kept to the summit henceforth. There are some nice little scrambles to get to the summit, but no real exposure, apart from the occasional glimpse over into Cwm Croesor through craggy buttresses.

The summit I can't even remember. Maybe I didn't get there! Its a long flat ridge with occasional outcrops for 500 metres or so. The route was then on towards (but not quite to) Llyn yr Adar. This route is described well by Terry Marsh. On the OS 1:25:000 map, the point I was heading for was the crossing of the district boundary (also a path - though not much of one!), and the path heading SE from near the southern point of Llyn yr Adar. The ground is kind of knolly. I had had no visibility since crossing the 1200 foot contour. However, I seems to find the track, and my GPS backed this up. I was now heading SE then S towards Llyn Cwm-corsiog. The bizarre thing is the map shows you pass this on your left - I passed a tarn on my right! In retrospect, this must have been the smaller Llynnau Diffwys, and I had actually passed the northern of this pair. I had been on a track the whole time, but maybe this was a sheep track! Indeed, I did have to climb back up to the SE and go cross country until Cwmorthin quarry eventually reared out of the cloud below me. So much for route finding abilities!The ground here is very boggy, as a large irregular bowl some mile across collects water and oozes it down to the quarry and Llyn Cwmorthin beneath it.

I had a good look around the interesting old quarry. There is an information board back down near the car park that tells you they had hydroelectric power up here in 1905! Probably before the valley below and Croesor had electricity! Certainly the buildings were rows of terraced houses, so people actually lived up here. Hope they had better weather than me most of the time, but I doubt it.

Thumbnails from the quarry

The descent route is to the west, . Briefly I followed the disused quarry rail line, (see here for some interesting information about these tramways) but only after a few metres you need to drop off this to your left (south), before the rail line curves around towards the west, then north west. This initial drop is not clear to see off the rail line, but you can see the path continuing, angling in a straight but descending line down Cwm Croesor's southern rampart. I had intended on following this track (which must surely have been the major walking path for miners who did not live in the quarry, to make their way up to it) down to Crosor. However, my left knee is in need of some serious attention, and the direct ascent, though harder, much quicker, down the incline was much more tempting. So indeed, at the point where this track crosses the incline (or in fact vice versa - there is a little tunnel the miners must have used to avoid being run over!), I headed straight dow the grassy incline to the valley floor. Not too bad. From here the path again follows the route the slate took, with one more short incline. The last section is along the sealed road back to Croesor.