2/4/11 - Cadair Idris - Fat bloke on a mountain

Distance - 5.5 Mile
Ascent / Descent - 3100 Ft
Walk from - Classic Mountain Walk in numerous guides
Geocaches - 4

Cadair Idris at EveryTrail

Works out Panoramic on Camera

Spent the week looking at the weather forecasts, hoping for clear skies to make the effort worth while.  The prediction was good, but was changing on a hourly basis.  By close of play on Friday, it was cloudy until 1pm, clearing for the afternoon.  Having plotted the route, acquired company for the walk and most importantly, invested in sandwich fillings, the only option was to go ahead with the plan.

Alarm went at 6:30am and we were in the car for 7am.  Car covered in rain and we headed west into increasingly omnious looking black clouds which did clear to leave low lying grey miasma.

Parked up at the Minffordd... first question that Sonia always asks is "do they have toilets". I passed the first test of the day by responding in the positive.

There is a sign to Cadair Idris, which takes you steeply up the side of a waterfall stream. The path soon opens out into a beautiful wooded glen and the going is made better by having steps built in. Bit like walking a giant staircase

I know that we are coming back on this route from Mynydd Moel (go on, get that through the spell checker) - so check out that there is a bridge across the waterfalls before forking left onto the hill proper.

There are no views, and everything is in mist. This is not a bad thing, as although there is no danger, you are gaining heigth at a rapid rate, walking along a sheer cliff drop as you make the way to Penygadair. Sonia would have been pooping it if she could see the drops to Llyn Cau.

Stop off for Malt Loaf (the taste of my youth) and see our next other party. About six blokes of the same age as us who overtake whilst Sonia finds the cream eggs. They say that if we see a fella who looks like Santa, tell him they are on the way up. Seems like they have left the oldest member of the party lagging behind - but they are in radio contact with him.

Not much to say until we reach the top. I am convinced that the clouds will lift but when we first get to the Trig Point, it is a white out.

Cadair Idris Summit

We eat the rest of our excellent packed lunch, I find the second cache of the day and as if God has heard our plaintive cries the clouds are blown away. It is as though a curtain has been moved to show what is behind and the views down to Barmouth Beach and across Snowdonia are incredible. It would have been a real pity not to have had these views - having climbed from 300ft to just short of 3000ft.

Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge...

The clouds disappear.

My new friends

Having taken advantage of the views and the lunch, we have an easy cross to Mynydd Moel before dropping down back to the stream on a descent that seemed to take for ever.  Sonia demonstrated her mountain credentials by leaving me for dead, galloping down like some of soft shelled mountain goat.

I caught up with her at the bottom for more photo opps of the route that we had just taken.  She did not believe that we had just conquered the route that was now completely visible and probably wouldn't have attempted it if she could have seen it.

We did that!

Legs failed to get me back before camera went off

Another rest at the bridge before more descent back to the car park.

Nearly Home

On jelly legs, we returned to the car park and spoke with some other people who we had been following.  They lived in the back of a transit van and are touring the country living off love.  That gives me an idea, with work looming as I write this.

Stop of at the Cross Foxes for a pint, listen to the Albion beat Liverpool and then get home and Ellie has made us our tea. 

Could we have had a better day?  I don't think so.