Introducing Helen, M6HMK…
Helen has been doing a bit of chasing since she got her licence earlier this month, but this was her first activation.
Yes, we took the cable car. Had to try it once!
The next day it was Helen’s turn to chase me:
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Hi Simon,
Congratulations to Helen on getting her foundation licence and her first activation.
Good report on Craig Cwm Silyn GW/NW-020, I personally would not use your chosen ascent route you mentioned on this report to for this summit as Gerald MW0WML mentioned on his report about climbing over a barbed wire fence very quickly to escape a dangerous dog, glad to hear this did not happen to you. I think it would be great in the future if me and my dad Tom M1EYP could join you to do to a linear walk of this summit and also Trum y Ddysgl GW/NW-024 using the route that you showed to both me and my dad, maybe get Helen M6HMK to give us a lift from the end point to start point in the morning or after we have finished the walk if she is happy to do this.
Jimmy M0HGY
If Helen has got the SOTA bug she’ll probably want to do the walk Jim! Using a bus or even a taxi is perfectly possible though.
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Hi Jimmy & Tom.
Yes, I did hear a quite noisy dog. Just a sheep dog, not anything ferocious I think. I did actually join Gerlad’s route off the road behind the farm, so I didn’t encounter the dog. This was absolutely fine as there was a gate to hop over straight onto the access land - no fence climbing required. This took me to the quad-bike track which I stuck to most of the way up.
Yes, another linear walk would be great. Helen would indeed like to join us but pending full cooperation of the children this might not be allowed!
Video clip added:
Get in there young lady
All ways good to hear a female voice from the summits.
Karl
Hi Helen
I’ve already congratulated you elsewhere but thank you once again for the first contact whilst I was on Foel Offrwm ( http://gw4vpx.blogspot.co.uk/ ) on Thursday last week. It was nice to hear the recording that Simon made of our contact. Also thanks for the contact when I was on Y Llethr on Friday…you’ve got the SOTA bug 
73 Allan GW4VPX
If Helen was to join me, you and Simon for this walk, would it not just make sense to have a car at both ends? I believe there is no bus service from one end of the Nantlle Ridge to the other, but there is a taxi service though.
Jimmy M0HGY
When our walking group did the Nantle Ridge we left a car at Rhyd Ddu and the rest of us drove to 495510 near Glangors. After walking to Rhyd Ddu the drivers were taken back to Glangors and the rest of us went to the pub. A very good day out. (I even made a couple of QSOs with MW0IML who used to live just below.)
One or two bits I think Tom might not like if the cloud isn’t down.
73,
Rod
Simon G4TJC did mention to me and my dad about the first part of the ridge from Rhyd Ddu to Trum y Ddysgl GW/NW-024 being exposed and then the rest of the ridge is fine after that. However Simon did show us an alternative route from Rhyd Ddu to Trum y Ddysgl GW/NW-024 that is not exposed and not as steep either so will probably walk this route to Trum y Ddysgl GW/NW-024 and then walk along the remainder of the ridge which takes in Craig Cwm Silyn GW/NW-020.
Jimmy M0HGY
Different approaches to the game but I would never consider doing the Nantlle ridge without starting with Y Garn and spending a few minutes looking across the pass at Mynydd Mawr and the crags of Craig y Bera, ruinous on a grand scale! The summit ridge of Trum y Ddysgol is somewhat exposed but IIRC there is a “chicken path” on the left for those of a nervous disposition!
There is nothing else exciting until you leave the col between Mynnydd Tal y Mignedd when the climb to Carnedd Silyn starts narrow and rocky. Note that I call it Carnedd Silyn, the local name, and not Craig Cwm Silyn which properly applies to the magnificent array of crags overlooking Llynnau Cwm Silyn. The OS gets this badly wrong - I know because my climbing club used to have a hut near the end of the tarmac road to Llanllyfni that continues as a landrover track to Cwm Silyn. I notice that Simon skirted the cwm and descended the grass slopes beyond Clogwyn y Cysgod, the western end of the array of crags. This is the easiest descent as long as you keep well clear of the crags which extend further than you might think! Personally I would descend the obvious broad scree gully straight towards the lakes, out of sentiment for the number of grand days out that I have spent on and near the impressive Great Slab that you pass on your right, but the scree is the worst sort imaginable and you have to pick your path carefully!
I hope that the access situation in Nantlle has eased, it used to be a real headache. A friend of mine descended from the ridge into the valley to escape a storm and was escorted off a farmer’s property at the point of a shotgun! This was getting on for fifty years ago, I doubt that there would be as cavalier an attitude to firearms now, but you never know!
Brian
I have looked, but perhaps not hard enough as I did not find it. Yes, I enjoy the view from Y Garn too, and anyway this is the fastest way from Rhyd Ddu if you are Ok with the scramble and the exposure. On the other hand going to Bwlch y Ddwy Elor, besides bringing to mind carts laboriously taking coffins over the pass in days of old, gives a chance to admire Mynydd Drws-y-coed from the south, with the forestry experiment all but vanished.
Yes, that does sounds reasonable. I’m not sure I’d agree the OS gets it wrong, as on all the contemporary and historical OS maps they position the name against the crags; I’d say they simply don’t name the summit. But the names are there to guide people and changing our name for it would just confuse matters.
Saw it. Didn’t like the look of what happens at the bottom of it!
Yes, you get a great view down to the lakes and on a windy day such as this a proper “Titanic” moment enjoying a good blast leaning into it!
Well, they are happy enough to let you park there. This takes you just onto the access land.
Yes, that’s the spot.
Just making it “and another and another”, here’s my report on Foel Goch, activated a couple of weeks ago: