Volume Ii Part 3 (1/2)
From Penygwrhyd you mount behind the inn, crossing the bog as you best can towards a wall which goes straight up the hill. When the direction of the wall changes you make a compromise midway between the old and the new, and very soon come on to a line of cairns which continues right on to the boggy tableland above. Tryfaen top now appears over the hill, and as soon as it is fairly lifted you bear to the left and up a stony slope to the cairn. From Capel Curig it is a simple matter to follow the ridge of Cefn y Capel, but quicker to keep along the highroad past the Llynian Mymbyr, and then strike up a gra.s.s slope to the right. As often as not both Glyders are ascended in one expedition; the dip between the two is only 300 ft., the distance is under a mile, and stones are the only obstacles.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SUMMIT OF GLYDER FACH]
_Climbs._--The north face of this mountain is remarkably fine and contains all the climbing there is. At the east end is the bristly ridge leading down to Bwlch Tryfaen. This is stimulating, but not difficult.
In the centre of the face there is a large gully, ascended in November 1894 by J. M. A. T., H. H., and H. E. They did not find it necessary to use the rope. The lofty pitch at the foot of the eastern gully is decidedly hard. (J. M. A. T.) In May 1888 W. E. C., A. E., E. B., and E.
K. found and ascended a gully close under the west side of Castell Gwynt, and add that they reached Penygwrhyd by way of Cwm Graianog. The last statement is very mysterious. About the Castell itself (the rugged pile of rocks between the two Glyders, marked by its slender outstanding 'sentinel'), and about the summit of the Fach, there are some good scrambles on a small scale.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CASTELL GWYNT AND GLYDER FAWR]
Directly under the top stone is the minimum thermometer, which has been kept there for some years.[10] The most interesting thing on the whole mountain is undoubtedly the pile of stones on the top. According to the bard Taliesin it is the burial-place of a mighty warrior, one Ebediw. If a kind of Stonehenge was erected there to his memory and afterwards got upset by an earthquake it might account for present appearances. Edward Lhwyd, the great antiquary, was particularly struck by them 200 years ago, and his description and remarks are equally applicable to-day.
[10] See the _Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society_ for April 1893, xix. No. 86, for a summary of the temperatures thus recorded.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ROCKS ON GLYDER FACH]
'On the utmost top of the Glyder,' he says, 'I observed prodigious heaps of stones, many of them of the largeness of those of Stonehenge, but of all the irregular shapes imaginable, and all lying in such confusion as the ruins of any building can be supposed to do.... Had they been in a valley I had concluded they had fallen from the neighbouring rocks ...
but, being on the highest part of the hill, they seemed to me much more remarkable.' He goes on to remark upon a precipice which has not been identified (see _Esgair Felen_). 'On the west side of the same hill there is, amongst many others, one naked precipice (near or one of the Trigfylchau, but distinguished by no particular name), as steep as any I have seen, but so adorned with numerous equidistant pillars, and these again slightly crossed at certain joints. 'Twas evident that the gullies or interstices were occasioned by a continued dropping of water down this cliff.' Trigfylchau, by the way (i.e. 'Twisting Gaps'), is a name which does not seem to be known at the present day.
Lhwyd's description fired the curiosity of the travellers who explored Wales nearly a century later, and the amusing part of it is that they could not find this wonderful mountain, or even hear of it from the intelligent natives.
Cradock (1770) found an aged man, who told him that the mountain was 'now called the Wythwar (Wyddfa),' which stands 'a few miles south of the parish of Clynog;' and H. P. Wyndham went further by identifying it with 'the mountain called Ryvil in Speed's map' (i.e. Yr Eifl). It shows how little the natives knew about their mountains until the travellers came and taught them. Pennant made the ascent, and gives a picture of the summit. Bingley also went up, and gives a good description.
Kingsley's fine description, in _Two Years Ago_, of Elsley's ascent really applies mainly to Glyder Fach, though he only mentions the Fawr.
Elsley's descent, by the way, was apparently into Bochllwyd by way of Castell Gwynt.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GLYDER FAWR, NORTH FACE]
=Glyder Fawr= (3,279 ft.).--The meaning of the name is a mystery. One Welsh scholar gravely tells us that the real name is Clydar, which at once yields the obviously suitable meaning of a 'well-shaded ploughed ground.' Either of these epithets would be quite as appropriate to the Sahara itself, for the two Glyders are among the barest and rockiest mountains in all Wales. The two roads which lead from Capel Curig, one over the Pa.s.s of Llanberis and the other through Nant Ffrancon to Bangor, enclose between them the whole of the Glyder group, forming a singular figure, which recalls Menenius Agrippa's description of the Second Citizen as 'the great toe of this a.s.sembly.' The toe is slightly bent; Penygwrhyd is the knuckle, Capel Curig the tip of the nail, and Benglog (the head of Nant Ffrancon) is just in the inside bend. The highest point of the group lies practically in a straight line with Snowdon and Carnedd Llewelyn, and, roughly speaking, midway between them. Of Snowdon it commands a profoundly impressive view, and is in turn itself best seen from the Carnedds.
Both Glyders are very frequently ascended from Penygwrhyd, Llanberis, Capel Curig, and Ogwen.
The simplest way up is from the top of the Llanberis Pa.s.s, from which a ridge leads to the summit. This is, perhaps, the best way if the start be made from any place not on the north side, though from Penygwrhyd the route may be boggily abbreviated by making up the little valley to the north-west. From Ogwen the usual ascent pa.s.ses near Twll Du, though the ridge separating the Idwal and Bochllwyd lakelets is sometimes chosen, and certainly affords a greater variety of fine views.
Climbing on this mountain is practically confined to its northern face, and even there very little has been done. There are also a few rocks on the west side. The climbing-book at Penygwrhyd contains very few references to it. At Easter in 1884 H. and C. S. mention that they enjoyed fine glissades down the snow slopes on the north-west side to Llyn y Cwn, but the first real climb recorded therein is that of the big gully in the north face, made on November 25, 1894, by J. M. A. T., H.
H., and H. E. From the far end of Llyn Idwal a long scree leads up to the mouth of the gully, which may be identified from a distance by the pitch which blocks it about half-way up and a broad strip of gra.s.s outside it on the west. The point to make for is the head of a wall which runs up from the extreme south end of the llyn to the corner of a huge ma.s.s of bare smooth rock. If the traveller reaches this point without being engulfed in the boggy ground which fringes the llyn he will now continue in the same general direction as the wall, and soon sees the gully just before him. A kind of trough, probably produced by weathering of the rock, is now seen on the left, and this, as it appeared more interesting than the steep gra.s.s of the central part of the gully, was followed at first by the above-mentioned party. The trough is very easy at the foot, and has good holds, which higher up incline outwards, and become less and less prominent until at last progress becomes a question of delicacy and circ.u.mspection. Before the trough came entirely to an end the party traversed into the gully, but even there found the ascent to the pitch far from easy. Utilising the full length of their 80-ft. rope, and moving only one at a time, they reached the cave under the big pitch. Here it appeared hopeless to climb out on either side, and recourse had to be taken to engineering of the same kind which was successfully put in practice some years ago on Dow Crags, in Lancas.h.i.+re, by a very scientific band of brothers. Similar success crowned the efforts of this party, and brilliant gymnastics on the part of the leader landed them safely at the top of this difficulty.
From this point the remainder of the climb has a deceptively easy appearance. Some 80 ft. higher up the difficulties begin again, and continue up to a small pitch just below the top. On one stretch it was found necessary to adopt a compromise between the wisdom of the serpent and the aimlessness of the crab, advancing by lateral jerks in a semi-rec.u.mbent att.i.tude. Possibly these extreme measures would not have been necessary but for the fact that on this occasion the conclusion of a spell of three weeks of incessant rain was chosen as a suitable opportunity for attacking this face of the Glyder. It was the opinion of the party that the climb--at any rate in its then condition--is incontestably more difficult than that of the western b.u.t.tress of Lliwedd. The time taken was 4 hours, including a short halt for luncheon.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WESTERN GULLY IN NORTH FACE OF GLYDER FAWR]
This gully is the more westerly of two. The other one was climbed in May 1895 by J. M. A. T., H. H., and W. E. One of the party says of it, 'We soon came to some rather difficult rocks; we climbed them close under the right-hand wall--a really stiff little bit. The gully here is still quite broad, and on the left side of it we saw another way, which looked much easier. We found no special difficulty in the jammed stone which looks from below such a formidable obstacle. Two of us climbed it on the right; the third man circ.u.mvented it on the left. From this point to the summit is excellent throughout, the rocks being steep, the holds strong, well defined, and most conveniently distributed. In my opinion it is the best thing on the Glyders, and it can be done by a single man.' Still further east a narrow crack gives a very steep but easy rock staircase, while west of the gully first described is another with two pitches, of which the lower is harder and the upper easier than they look. The 60 ft. just above the latter are climbed by means of slight rugosities in the left-hand wall. It is somewhat curious that when, in February 1873, Glyder Fawr was crossed from Ogwen by way of Twll Du, with John Roberts as guide, it was recorded in the _Alpine Journal_[11]
as something of a feat and something of an eccentricity. Twenty years have made a great change, and now, about Christmas or Easter, the snow on these hills is marked by tracks in many directions.
[11] Vol. vi. p. 195.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LLYN IDWAL
_a_, The gullies of Glyder Fawr.
_b_, Descent to the foot of Twll Du.