The one and only Tryfan
No trip to the Ogwen Valley would be complete without a rocky scramble up Tryfan’s North Ridge. Especially when the autumn weather has been as glorious as this week.
We (Jenny, Alan and I) were staying at Gwern Gof Isaf campsite so had a nice easy 2km walk in from there and skirted the bottom of Tryfan to go up the classic way just left of Milestone Buttress off the A5. The route is well worn and quite easy to follow but this is Tryfan and no two outings are the same on it. However if you keep to the well worn path you will not go far wrong. I must make it clear that this is a classic grade 1 scramble and one of the best in the UK. The scrambling is of a consistent grade 1 standard but it is easy to digress onto grade 2/3 territory. In addition be careful in wet weather when the rock is wet. In addition in winter snow/ice conditions the route becomes a different beast.
Anyway, follow the path as much as you can and have fun. By the end of the first hour you should end up at SH 665 597 where a photo opportunity beckons you at the cannon stone. This is a superb piece of rock jutting out into thin air where you can stand on for a glorious Ogwen Valley backdrop selfie.
Onwards from there the line takes you on a zig zag course up the ridge and eventually you loop round to the right and back over to the left where you pass North Gully with its large obvious chockstone. A short while later the summit comes unexpectedly upon you and you are staring at the two monoliths that are Adam and Eve. Did I say that the views are pretty spectacular? No, well they are pretty much all the way to the top!
The down route, well there are many but we wanted an easy day so we headed off roughly South West towards the South Peak. Here again you have some good scrambling but over a pretty defined trail over worn rock. You will drop down into a small col with a stone wall and a style. Go over the wall and the path below you drops away sharply (SE) to join a steadier gentler path that runs downhill (North) to pass by Tryfan Bach before rejoining your ingress route. Once there head back to the campsite.
Parking: At Gwern Gof Isaf camp site. £2 per day or £8 per person stay.
Route Summary: Sustained grade 1 scramble with exposure in places. We’ll marked/worn mountain trails. Glorious views.
Route Statistics: 8.2km, 375m height gain in a taking the scenery in to the full 5hrs 45mins.
GPX files: For gpx files go to the Peakbagger website by following these links and go to the bottom right hand of the page and click ‘Download this GPS track as a GPX file.’
Ascent Entry on Peakbagger: Tryfan
Os Overview using ViewRanger.
The scenery up this classic North Wales scramble was simply superb.