Y Gribin ridge, Snowdonia
Seek out a quieter corner of Snowdonia’s most famous resident and you’ll find an outstandingly good yet little known scramble.
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The Miners’ Track on Snowdon is likely to be heaving, but once off this Y Gribin’s true character begins to unfold – off-piste to a gentle warm-up on broken rock, then sustained scrambling with a couple of tricky moves to an unexpectedly abrupt end on a grassy plateau.
While this is an easier scramble, don’t forget that all scrambling can be tricky and if a move becomes impossible it may be even tougher to reverse your position to escape it!
But this route isn’t too hard for the grade scrambling-wise, with lots of lovely handholds and footholds. It’s a quiet route, but well enough used that you should be able to follow the worn rock to find the easiest line. And yes, there are a couple of awkward crux moves on the inescapable section and you will need a head for heights, but that’s part of the challenge of scrambling! It is best done in dry conditions though – if wet, greasy rock would make it a significantly tougher challenge.
The continuation onto Y Lliwedd is much easier and much more optional in terms of how hard you make the scrambling – allowing you to enjoy the fantastic views across to Crib Goch.
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SH647556 Take the Miners’ Track (through iron gates at back of car park) past Llyn Teyrn, then rise up past the hydro pipeline towards Llyn Llydaw.
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SH634545 Fork right (away from a waterworks building) as you approach Lyn Llydaw; the wide track soon crosses a causeway. Head left along the shoreline, passing under the ruins of a once grand processing building, then rise up a pitched path towards the Afon Glaslyn.
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SH623545 Look for two small stone structures off the path on your left; about 40m before the first of these, bear left onto a faint path and contour along. At the second structure, cross a stream then descend beside it to cross the Afon Glaslyn via any convenient stepping rocks. Now rise to the broken rocky ridgeline above.
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SH622544 Pick your line and enjoy the broken outcrops – it makes a fantastic escapable warm-up to the real scramble above. A short tougher outcrop higher up is the one real challenge; but it is short, there’s a choice of lines, and the rock is amazingly grippy.
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SH619544
Above this crag, the scrambling proper begins and gets more committing and inescapable!
The next small outcrop looks intimidating from below, but it’s much easier than it appears, with multiple easy lines. Beyond this a grassy section contours out to the main section of the steeper ridge scramble.
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SH618543 Now follow the smooth, worn and polished rock with occasional crampon-scratches also sometimes guiding the way. At the bottom of the route, stay slightly right of the ridgeline to avoid the vertiginous drop on the left; a little higher you may well pass just left of a quartz layer then right of a small pillar. After this pillar, aim slightly left for a prominent small spike – the first of two crux moves comes here, a large step up left followed by an inelegant step right gets you past the difficulty.
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SH617542 Take the leftmost of three gullies, following worn and polished rock. This trends back towards the central gully for the second crux – you may well need an inelegant knee as you step up and right past this! It then becomes broken and much easier, followed by a series of rocky steps then abruptly emerging just right of the ridgeline below a cairn.
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SH617542 Broken scree/rock and grass now leads up to the real
Snowdon-Y Lliwedd ridgeline. You can drop down to the paralleling Watkin Path here, but it’s a better route to scramble easily enough leftwards on the rocky ridge and crossing an undulating series of minor knolls then a rocky rise towards the summits of Y Lliwedd.
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SH619536 Where the Watkin Path turns right to descend to Bethania, make sure you stay on either the ridgeline or a minor paralleling path
– these two paths eventually join together for the final ascent to the first (higher) top. Then continue easily across a minor col to the second top. Continue past a lower knoll then descend to a cairn.
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SH630535 The path veers left off the ridgeline at the cairn, down towards the causeway end of Llyn Llydaw. It’s rough at first, with a couple of surprisingly awkward and in places scrambly rocky steps. It then becomes an increasingly good pitched path towards the lakeside.
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SH633543 Cross a small bridge, then pass by the small waterworks building to rejoin your outward route. Turn right and follow the Miners’ Path back to the car park.