Weekend trip to North Wales – the initial idea was to traverse the Rhinogs, but the weather forecast leading up to the weekend wasn’t good. Add to this the boulder strewn ground of the Rhinogs may have been somewhat unsuitable, so a change of plan was needed. A trip to the Arans was decided upon.

I picked my friend up very early on Saturday morning and drove through increasingly worsening weather – arriving in the car park just before eight, with rain bouncing of the car which was gently rocking in the wind! We quickly put full waterproofs on and started off, the going was tough as we approched the start of the ridge.

After about an hour of hard going in the wind and rain, the weather began to improve and just before the steepening of the slope the visibility became very good, we then had good views as we reached the summit of Aran Benllyn.

The wind was still very strong as we walked across to the foot of Aran Fawddwy, where the weather began to deteriorate. The view became restricted to just a few metres after beginning the upward slog, we reached the summit which was very windy and wet – the views had now gone.

We stopped for a quick photo and some food, then began our descent. The slope followed a fence line and continued along the ridge to a memorial cairn, and then continued further along to the summit of  Drysgol, again the weather was not great.

After a brief stop and quick ponder about which was the best way down the slope, we went down to the Llaethnant river and up the other side to the Llyn. The discussion about whether we would be camping was very short, as spray being  blown off the Llyn was slamming into us – we retreated.

We made are way down Cwm Llwydd and back to the car at Llanuwchllyn along the valley, all in all a wet and windy day!