TWO Photography Forum

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

DEW — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:56:05 GMT

Super waterfall, must try to get to that bit of Berwyns sometime

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

kerrijane — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:03:19 GMT

Wow fantastic pics there.

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

Dizzy Daff — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:49:22 GMT

What wonderful photos and a great account of your trek.

Daff

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

RobN — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:41:29 GMT

Great views. Spectacular waterfall. An area I have yet to visit. Glad to to hear you have got your boots back on James and I'm looking forward to more of your pictorial reports.

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

beaufort — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:54:41 GMT

Lovely set of images James, glad to see you back posting and hope you're making a full recovery.

Looks a wonderful part of the country.

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

jenni — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:44:07 GMT

Beautiful pictures James

Glad that you are back to full health.

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

Bren — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:26:32 GMT

Great photos James Despite living relatively close to them as I grew up, I've never been over the Berwyns! I may take a trip that way next weekend as I'm home. Your photos have been inspiration

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

James T — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:54:32 GMT

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Marigold - didn't know you could change the forum to wide view. I have just done that the images show properly. The condensed view takes off right hand edge. It was getting a bit frustrating when looking at others' photos all these months!

Andy - your forecast for the day was spot on! I'd not been to the Berwyns until this year. They certainly have more in common with the Brecon Beacons, especially the Black Mountain, than the mountains in Snowdonia. I quite liked them, particularly the valleys, which resemble the Lake District in many ways.

James

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

P+ve Giant — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:40:00 GMT

Lovely pics James Glad to see you out and about again We are looking forward to our week in Wales in a couple of months time

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

Rob S — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:44:03 GMT

Smashing pics, James - you really do get an idea of the force of the water in the first pics

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

Essan — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:37:34 GMT

Hi James - good to see you're back out in the hills

Great pictures there! Close ups of the waterfall are especially good Still not been to the Berwyns myself ....

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

Marigold — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:24:50 GMT

Glad you're out and about properly again James - because you go to lovely places and take great pictures I love number 3, it's a really beautiful image. Looks like you had excellent weather

There's nothing shaved off here - have you resized them or is it because I've got the site options on 'wide'?

Re: Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

James T — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:10:04 GMT

Seems to have shaved off the right hand edge of all the photos. There doesn't appear to be much missing though.

James

Berwyn Mountains - 9th Feb 2008

James T — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:06:21 GMT

Hey all. Bit late with posting these photos. They are of my first trip back to the mountains since the heart op. Decided to tackle the Berwyn's as they didn't involve such a long drive in one day, were a bit easier than our usual trips as I didn't know how well I would cope back in the hills, and, the weather was going to be better than in the heart of Snowdonia. This was back in the days on the February inversion. Still cool below 300m, but once above the inversion the temp was much higher - it certainly didn't feel like the first half February. High cloud was clearing away to the north allowing the sun to come through by midday, although even in the morning there was sunny spells and generally bright.

We parked at the Tan-y-pistyll car park, too early to pay so we paid on return, which is just at the foot of Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall - one of the seven wonders of Wales. Our route north up the valley to Llyn Luncaws. In the past this has been a bit of sorry excuse for a mountain tarn, being covered in weeds. It wasn't the case on our trip though. Whether it is the time of year or it is generally clear now I don't know. From the tarn at 600m we followed faint tracks up on the 'east ridge' of Cadair Berwyn, called Moel yr Ewig. The wind was quite strong on the ridge, and the final few metres involved some simple scrambling on shattered rock outcrops. The ridges ends directly at Cadair Berwyn south top, at 830m. The main top, at 827m, is a few hundred metres to the north, topped by a stone shelter. This was very useful as the wind was strong and the views superb. The shelter was used to steady the camera. To the west the views of Snowdonia were excellent, from Cadair Idris in the south to the Carneddau in the north. It was interesting to see familiar peaks from an unfamiliar viewpoint. In other directions the Pennines, the Wrekin and Brecon Beacons were visible, all the summits above the hazy inversion. Our route then took us north again to Cadair Bronwen, 780m. The path is extremely boggy in places - made easier by the dry weather at the time, and the worst sections replaced by a boardwalk. We then doubled back on ourselves, skirted around the summit of Cadair Berwyn and continued south to Moel Sych, 827m. From here were carried on south down the ridge, in lovely warm sunshine, to the top of Pistyll Rhaeadr. A steep descent down the side of the waterfall saw us back at the car. Car thermometer was reading 13C in this shady spot, but once on the sunny south facing slopes on the way home we hit 16C.

Onto the photos:

Pistyll Rhaeadr.

Pistyll Rhaeadr

Pistyll Rhaeadr as a backdrop.

The top of Pistyll Rhaeadr.

A wider view of the waterfall.

The view north as we climbed the valley towards Cadair Berwyn.

The view south.

Onto the ridge and the next valley of Cwm Maen Gwynedd comes into view.

After reaching the summit ridge the views west open up. Here are the Glyders, Tryfan and the Carneddau.

The southern top of Cadair Berwyn, higher and more shapely than the main top. The valley we used in ascent is visible below.

Cwm Maen Gwynedd

For the snow fans reading!

The Aran mountains - what a view!

Half way between Cadair Berwyn and Cadair Bronwen, looking south to Cadair Berwyn.

Same again, but from closer the steep eastern edge.

View from Moel Sych towards the main Berwyn ridge. Cadair Bronwen in the north, and the tops of Cadair Berwyn closer.

Looking towards the mountains of Snowdonia.

Cadair Berwyn, and the east ridge we used to ascend from the ridge south in descent. Llyn Lluncaws is just out of site below the summit.

Hope you enjoyed viewing them - sorry there were quite a few! I hope the next round of photos from the mountains wont be too far away!

James