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Wales - Cader Idris - March 2004

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Pen y Gadair - the summit of Cader Idris

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This is the first of several travelogues featuring visits to Wales, our British alternative to the joys of Texas' Big Bend. In contrast to earlier travel pages, we are not doing thumbnails as most viewers are now on broadband and can load larger images. This means we can generate the pages more quickly.

Cader Idris is located in Central Wales and occupies the southern area of the Snowdonia National Park. Although smaller than Snowdon, Cader Idris is a more impressive mountain beacuse it stands alone, dominating a huge area. Trailheads are actually lower as well, so the trails have greater vertical ranges and are much more "technical" than Snowdon's well worn and over used paths.

We discovered the Tyn y Cornel Hotel last year when we stayed one night after a disastrous experience at another hotel. One night convinced us to return for three more and spend at least one whole day on the mountain. Tyn y Cornel was built in Victorian times to serve early tourists, particularly those who fished for trout. The hotel owns Tal y Llyn, the glacial valley lake that also gives its name to the hamlet that includes two hotels, a church, a vicarage and several farms. Everything about this hotel is charming, efficient and good value. The rooms are large and well appointed with comfortable beds and good bathroom facilities. Ours had a sitting area as well. The restaurant serves excellent food that could be defined as local/global fusion. The staff are really friendly. The wine list is also excellent and the lounge area is ideal for an apperitif as well as after dinner coffee.

In summary, a classic, small, country hotel.

We arrived at the village/lake of Tal y Llyn in bright sunshine and prayed that the good weather would continue. The summits had a light dusting of snow (or was it ice?) but down in the valley the temperature was comfortable for mid-March.

This view is looking from the hotel up the lake toward the northeast. Airforce jets use the valley for training flights which can be most exciting, particularly when up the mountain as the jets fly by below, hugging the contours!

Fishermen use the jetty to launch off into the lake to catch trout. The hotel owns the lake and guests have priority fishing rights.

Geologically, the valley is a recent feature carved out by glaciers but it also follows a very old fault line that was a line of weakness exploited by the ice. The classic "u" shaped valley form is a giveaway. The lake is natural, formed by a dam of glacial material.

There are roads and footpaths all round the lake that make for a pleasant evening stroll in the summer, perfect for summoning up an appetite. Other footpaths strike off up the valley walls and one of these is the Minffordd Trail to the summit of Cader Idris.

Cader is located on the north (left) side of the lake and one of the peaks, Mynydd Moel, is visible in this photograph. The snow on the ridge is a tell tale sign that this part of the mountain is high!

The view from the hotel across the lake reveals little of the enormity of Cader Idris. The "u" shaped valley effectively hides the mass of mountain from view. The center of this photo contains a fragment of the southern ridge of Cader (below there is a view from this ridge looking toward the hotel). The lake is also visible from the flank of Mynydd Moel (hardly visible but actually on the right hand edge of this photo (and there will also be a view from here of the hotel and lake).

The view in bright sunshine is somewhat misleading for Cader Idris can be an angry, unforgiving mountain in bad weather. Mountain Rescue Teams are often seen heading for Cader Idris, a sure sign that many visitors come ill-prepared for a change in the weather conditions.

The Minffordd Trail starts very near to the road junction at the head of the lake, where the B4405 heads down the valley. There is a large car park area with toilets, as well as a small visitor center.

The sketch map at left is drawn from the Ordnance Survey map which should be used on the mountain (the detail is awesome!). The green line traces the paths we took, going in a clockwise direction. Major waypoints are marked. The grid reference for the trail head is SH 7320 1165.

(Note that these references are for the British Ordnance Survey map projection and can be programmed into a compatible GPS unit such as the Garmin eTrex Vista. We do not recommend GPS units as a replacement for map, compass and common sense but they can be very useful should the weather close in.)

The climb starts soon and in earnest as the trail finds an easy-ish route up the shoulder of the "u" shaped valley. The path has been much improved here with good steps and thoughtful drainage gullys. But there are few zig zags to ease the climb. The top of the first stage coincides with the end of tree cover at SH 7276 1209. This is an important trail junction. The Minffordd Path continues up the valley to the west of the stream. An important trail crosses the stream at this point, heading northwest toward Mynydd Moel. The stream crossing is not difficult unless you are very tired! The Ordnance Survey Map shows the Minffordd Path striking off to the left, taking a short cut. This path, however, appears to have been downgraded in favor of the well maintained path that leads on up toward Llyn Cau.

As the path curves around from North to West, the scene within Cader Idris begins to unfold. Cader Idris means Idris' Chair. Idris appears to have been a mythical or near-mythical Celtic Warrior of giant-sized proportions. When he needed to rest, he selected the horseshoe shaped depression now containing a glacial lake on the north side of the mountain. The present morphology of Cader Idris is entirely the result of the recent Ice Age. Huge sheets of ice covered Wales, much like modern day Greenland, and toward the end of the Ice Age the ice sheets receded into glaciers that eroded backwards into the most resistant mountain cores, such as Snowdon and Cader Idris. The erosive power of ice loaded with rocks and boulders is extremely efficient. The huge amphitheater that is now Llyn Cau was formed by one such glacier in a relatively short time period.

Next time I'm going to take the Nikon F5 and 20mm ultra wide angle lens. This is as much as the wide angle end of the Fuji Finepix S7000 can handle and it really doesn't do the place justice. Also I was shooting into the sun and the S7000 has no lens hood so flare is very difficult to avoid.

I also took this shot with my Rolleiflex T so it will be interesting to compare the results. The view is from grid reference SH 7194 1236.

The peak is unnamed on the Ordnance Survey Sheet but has an elevation of 791 meters. The sheer cliffs form the back wall of the glacial cirque. Post-glacial scree has lessened the steepness of this flank of the mountain but it is still formidable.

We took a slight detour from the Minffordd Trail to visit the shore of Llyn Cau. Although cold, we could not help but think about taking a dip on a warm summer afternoon after climbing to the summit. Maybe we're crazy to even think about it, never mind actually do it!

The Minffordd Path begins its second "killer" incline from the lake up to the southern ridge of the horseshoe forming Cader Idris. Between reference points SH 7198 1229 and SH 7196 1209 the trail climbs rapidly on a well constructed straight incline. This is basically the last hiking trail of the ascent for the trail is not well developed along the ridge to the main summit.

The view at left shows April enjoying the sunshine and the first real view of the summit, Pen y Gadair, visible at top right.

The ascent to this point involves two difficult (steep) stages separated by a gentle incline but the path has been good. Things are about to change!

A word about poorly defined trails. Typically, Welsh mountain trails are marked using cairns, or piles of rocks. This is particularly true when there is no path defined, either because there is not enough traffic or because the ground is very rocky. When the clouds roll in, cairns become very useful, essential even.

The position April is standing above is near to the south eastern end of the horseshoe ridge that surrounds Lyn Cau. This can be considered the start of the summit trail that extends round to Mynydd Moel. There are three summits along the summit trail, separated by a deep col and a shallow one. The going is difficult at first and it is easy to lose the trail - stay close to the edge, don't wander down into the valley! The photo right shows a piece of Tal y Llyn and the Tyn y Cornel Hotel.

This view is of Lyn Cau with the scree slope leading up the col south of the main summit (off to the right of the picture). This slope is steep but passable and the trail continues round the lake, making this an optional return route.

Lyn Cau has a beautiful dark blue green coloration that is extremely uniform across the lake. It almost looks like a sheet of glass.

To our delight the clouds that had been blowing across the summit, Pen y Gadair, cleared, allowing a full view of our ultimate target. The dusting of snow somehow completes this, my favorite picture of the day.

As we approached the first summit, more cloud rolled away, showing the ridge running east of Pen y Gadair. The rocks in the foreground are typical of the state of the trail at this point, a hard slog demanding concentration and good balance. A stick or staff is highly recommended!

The view from the first summit (791 meters, SH 7106 1213) is spectacular. On a clear day it is possible to see all of Cardigan Bay, from the Lleyn Peninsula to Pembroke. Pen y Gadair hides Snowdon but the rest of Wales is visible as are parts of England, such as the Long Mynd in Shropshire. This view is looking to the west northwest and the Lleyn Peninsula.

The summit consists of a ridge extending to the west with a near vertical cliff on the east side, facing Lyn Cau. A path runs down the ridge back toward Tal y Llyn and Abergynolwyn.

The summit trail turns north and begins a sharp descent to the col featured above.

But first, an opportunity to take a telephoto shot of the summit presented itself, complete with a solitary figure to mark the highest point. The barren nature of the summit area is very evident and it is important to know that the Minffordd Trail really isn't a trail here but a series of cairns that are hard to tell apart from the rock-strewn terrain from which they have been formed.

An important aside. There is a convention that every hiker should add a stone to each cairn as a way of saying "thank you" and as an insurance policy that the cairn will be there for others in times of need. Not many people follow the convention but it feels good when you do! (Note: modern day thinking is 180º from this and I have received an e-mail from a local guide who says the trails are being eroded as a result of so much traffic and the practice of placing stones on cairns)

The view back towards the 791 meter peak shows the steep eastern face and broad ridge running to the west. April is close to the col path which is shown in the picture to the right.

The path down to Lyn Cau is steep but not as steep as it looks from the other side! There are two groups of hikers climbing the path but they are too small to be seen at this magnification.

The Ashtons on Top of the World (Pen y Gadair)

Grid Reference SH 7109 1304

The ridge from Pen y Gadair to Mynydd Moel is a gentle stroll after all that climbing! But a strong and cold north wind whipped across the path, particularly when the trail followed the rim of a series of steep cliffs that form the northern edge of the mountain. Snow added an extra dimension.

The trail splits into two with one aiming for Mynydd Moel (at 863 meters just less than Pen y Gadair) and one running east southeast. Take this if you are running out of time and cannot include Mynydd Moel in the itinerary. I am happy to say that we had enough time to include Mynydd Moel.

This picture is taken looking back toward Pen y Gadair (which is left of center).

Mynydd Moel (SH 7273 1368) provided yet another pleasant surprise. The north wind, blowing into our faces and whipping up pieces of ice from the cliffs below, was also clearing the clouds. The town of Dolgellau is in the valley below but more significantly, perhaps, the mass of Snowdonia still remains in the clouds. So Cader Idris really was the better mountain to be on, at least on this day!

One final view to the west, showing Pen y Gadair and the Barmouth Estuary.

The way down from Mynydd Moel follows a barbed wire fence and is thus easy to trace even in bad weather. Whatever the weather, however, this descent was very taxing on our knees and the fact that the trail is "under repair" only made things worse. Although very tired, we did stop to admire the view and take a couple of photos, but exhaustion set in by the time we reached the stream and had to make an extra effort of calm "wobbly" knees in order to jump across the swolen torrent.

The view from the trail - when you have the time and inclination to look up - shows Tal y Llyn in all its glory! The white speck at the far end of the lake is Tyn y Cornel.

Links and FAQs

The following links are recommended for those planning to visit Cader Idris

Snowdonia National Park
Tyn y Cornel Hotel
A brief account of the Minffordd Path
Ordnance Survey Explorer Map OL23

What equipment should you take on a Cader Idris hike?

Depending on the time of year, you should prepare for the worst conditions possible, even if there is not a cloud in sight at 6 a.m. and the weather forecast is good. Weather patterns change quickly and in June of 2003 we found ourselves in dense fog on a simple hike on the western flank of Cader - a map and compass became essential during a simple afternoon hike on the hillside.

The obvious items for cold weather include hat, neck gaiter or scarf, several layers including wicking t-shirt, good quality waterproof jacket/anorak, gloves (preferably waterproof), trousers (polartec or similar in cold weather) with waterproofs over (strongly recommend Marmot brand as they breathe), liner socks under thick hiking socks, and finally good quality hiking boots with ankle support. Additional equipment should include map and compass, whistle, additional water and rations for an emergency, as well as a lightweight foil emergency blanket.

Useful equipment should include shades (as much for the wind as the sun), GPS, multi-purpose knife, staff or stick, first aid kit, lip balm, small flashlight and spare batteries

Optional items would include a camera, binoculars and swimsuit (summer only!).

Isn't GPS "cheating"?

Not really, but always think of GPS as a back up, not an essential tool. Batteries fail. Besides you still need a map and compass, even with a GPS unit. Look at it this way, with dense fog and no land marks visible, wouldn't a previously entered waypoint or two be useful in getting you off the mountain?

Any recommendations on food for the trip?

The Tyn y Cornel put together an excellent packed lunch for us, but there are other options for a day on the mountain. Granola bars come in a wide range of tastes and energy levels. "Taste before you take" is a good plan because some high energy bars are downright awful and it is better not to find that out when a long way from anywhere! Chocolate contains energy and tastes good, as do apples. Savory items like cheese crackers are one of our favorites. Water, even in very cold weather, is important as you still sweat a lot even if it is cold. Allow 2 pints per person in winter plus an extra bottle for emergency use. Dehydration impairs decision making and orientation. Sip little and often before you feel thirsty.

What about camping?

Obviously, as we stayed in a hotel we have no first hand experience. However there are several campsites around Cader Idris, some attached to caravan sites, some tents only. We toured the area looking at several for a possible summer camping trip and were disappointed in what we saw. But then we have been spoiled by Texas! The weather is also a major consideration when it comes to camping in Wales. Pray for good weather!

I have also considered the possibility of bivouac camping on the mountain but do not know what the National Park's policy is for this. There is a saying that if you spend a night on Cader you will come down either a madman or a poet!

What do you recommend for a first timer to Cader Idris? What will you do next time?

If you have the energy and fitness, the Minffordd Trail loop (what we did above) is an excellent introduction to Cader Idris. You will climb all three main peaks, see the lakes (there are two more lakes on the northern flank) and experience a wide range of trail conditions (from good to almost non-existent). An alternative is to hike to Pen y Gadair and then return, possibly following the scree slope down to Lyn Cau on the return (I did that one 40 years ago, it looks a lot less formidable today!)

For our next trip we have considered a range of options. One would be to get a taxi to take us to the Pony Path trail head on the north side of Cader Idris and then hike south to the summit, down to the lake and on to Tal y Llyn. If its summer, we will consider taking a dip in Lyn Cau! Another option would be a long distance hike from east to west, first up Mynydd Moel, then Pen y Gadair, then on toward Abergynolwyn.

What about public transport?

The nearest train station is Machynlleth, to the south of Cader Idris. Arriva operate trains to and from Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury using the old Cambrian Railways single track main line to Central Wales.

Arriva also operate the local bus services. These seem to be reasonably frequent and we met a couple last June who had experienced no problems getting around by bus. There is a bus stop outside the Tyn y Cornel Hotel (route 35).

Down the valley from the hotel is the world famous Tal y Llyn Narrow Gauge Railway. Trains run from Abergynolwyn to Tywyn on the coast. The story of the rescue of this interesting line is most interesting.

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