Llech Ddu

For the third day running the forecast was wrong, thank fully. ‘Rain much of the day with a 10-20% chance of a cloud free summit’ was actually dry bar a little mizzle towards the end. The rock was dry and beautifully grippy and we knew we were on for another great scramble: the Lech Ddu Spur aka Crib Lem.

Setting out from Gerlan, Bethesda, in tee shirts in sunshine, we followed Afon Llafar to an awesome Cwm below staggering jagged cliffs, where we saw some beautiful wild ponies (extra). This would make a stunning wild camping spot above the river, although care should be taken not to drop helmet, flask and jacket into it!!!!! No names mentioned ;-)

From there we followed the scree filled gully upwards, then contoured a shoulder to the start of the Lech Ddu scramble, by a huge quartz band as shown on the main blip. From there we climbed the ridge which was spectacular both in the spikey shards of rock that were its composition and in the views afforded from it. Apart from the ravens circling above and a Ring Ouzel calling incessantly for a mate we had the ridge to ourselves. Second extra is the side profile of a stoney ram.

To say I enjoyed the first 3/4 is an understatement - it was totally fab. After that it was more challenging and my left quad was complaining loudly, whilst the consequences of a slip seems evermore severe. The adrenaline pumped and the heart beat faster! A minor slip on my part scared me a lot, but a pause for refuelling (with excellent cake from Betwsy baker), gathering the nerves and some coaching from Itth got me to the top and up into swirling mist on Carnedd Dafydd at 1044m.

We came down the Cwm Llafar Ridge from where I took this blip and then along Mynydd Du, to finish an absolutely awesome day.