Dduallt
If you like your hills rough and remote, then follow Nick Livesey on a journey into a little-trodden Welsh wilderness...
When it comes to mountains some of us have a taste for the esoteric, a yearning for solitude and a perverse penchant for difficult ground. These predilections usually manifest themselves after an apprenticeship on the ‘classic’ mountain circuits where hill skills are learnt (often by trial and error), and legs are honed into muscular perambulation machines.
Before long there will come a time when you feel that you know old favourites like the back of your hand, and one fine day whilst scanning the horizon from a much-loved summit your gaze will fall upon a distant lump which captures your imagination and sparks an exploratory urge not felt since those first forays into the high places – terra incognita.
Hebog, the Nantlle Ridge, the Moelwynion and Siabod will be savoured while ardent explorers head off into the Rhinogydd before travelling south to the Arans. Arenig Fawr might be next on the list and by now you will relish the feeling of walking on quiet hills.
There are many more, of course, but the king of them all is Dduallt (the black height), where adventure and strength-sapping terrain ensure a day you definitely won’t forget in a hurry!