Foel Goch scramble - beat the crowds!!

Ben Mellor
Feb 6, 2022
5 min read

Updated: Mar 8, 2022

While I was out in the hills during the Covid pandemic, it was great to see the amount of people that started to partake in mountain walking & scrambling. My friend Jay and I spent a gorgeous summers day in 2021 on the shoreline of Llynn Bochlwyd (West side of Tryfan) with so many people enjoying the scenic wild swimming Snowdonia has to offer. More people than I’ve ever seen in the decade I’ve been walking this area.

There are are the days however that I crave for, which are rugged, isolated And wild. with The uplift in footfall in Snowdonia it has made me think of route a little bit out of the way to get the adventure feeling back, which in hindsight is a good thing! Places I never really considered before, and I’m quite ashamed to say that during the last 10 years I haven’t ventured across the whole welsh 3000ers. What kind of mountaineer am I!

So..... Foel Goch was the aim for the day. I put together a route over the Xmas break with the help of the classic welsh scramble book, finished off with a quick leg south to summit Ygarn, then descending down devils staircase into the picturesque Cwm Idwal. What more could you wish for from a day out in the Glyderau.

During the drive the drive through bets-y-coed I was suprised by the weather. It had forecast low cloud in the morning, however, I was met with majority blue skies with a touch of cloud over the summit of Moel Siabod. With the morning light glancing off the eastern side and catching the lingering cloud it really was something magical to look at and made the 4:30 start a little more bearable.

The volume of car car parking spaces at the side of Llyn Ogwen was a pleasant surprise, I lingered around taking in the sunrise glow and taking a few pictures. A sense of calm enveloped me during this time, so much so I was considering just taking a trip around cwm Idwal with the camera and have a gentle stroll. That Idea soon vanished. I haven’t just spent £40 on fuel for a picnic!

A short walk down to Ogwen cottage and past the cattle grid seen me onto the southern flanks of foel goch. The views from this point back down the Ogwen valley are something spectacular, one of the best in the snowdonia in my opinion. I sat down by a small stream, made a brew & some porridge & read up about the route I was on. I scope out my routes quite well but with a terrible memory, it does pay off to get some thing warm inside you and a refresh before the scrambling is upon you. And what better setting to have breakfast than by a cascading river.

a 20 min strenuous walk around the mushroom garden seen me to the base of the south arête. I came to the base of the craggy arête, it looked dark & menacing. A sharp feeling of excitement came across me which was soon replace with worry. I noticed the cloud base had dropped & I couldn’t make out the arete line to the top in its entirety.

This did worry me to a degree; there’s two neighbouring scrambles here, the south arête (grade 1) & the needles eye arête (grade 3s) I seriously didn’t fancy tackling a grade 3S with no one else present and protection if needed. Some rational thinking was required here. I planned to stay as far left as possible at every opportunity whilst maintaining the arête system in order to guarantee I was on the correct line. 5 mins into the route it became clear that I was on the correct line with the needles eye becoming apparent with its menacing appearance across the way.

So so time to relax into the scrambling, and what a delight it was! Steep buttresses not too high to scare the shit out of me followed one after another. A tricky exposed part left my legs with a bit of a tremble and got the blood pumping pretty hard!

This is it! This was raw, isolated, cold and dramatic mountaineering. I couldn’t stop grinning a ploughing through the buttresses at a decent pace.

I grew a little weary, with good timing as the ridge line petered out to the summit plateau. Not blanketed in cloud I took a quick glance at the GPS and got on my way. Boom, the summit appeared! A very underwhelming summit with the smallest cairn to mark its top.

I tucked into a couple of sandwiches then followed the path in the direction of Ygarn. After 5 minutes of walking down the hill I noticed that there was nothing of a noticeable path and the cloud left the view very disorientating. I pulled out the map, compass and Gathered my bearing and direction before a double check of the GPS and off I shot towards the next summit. Before long I was back onto the path with a sigh of relief. I always doubt my map reading skills. It’s one matter practising locally around Cannock Chase then another matter altogether when you’re relying on your direction of travel to get you off a mountain, the Dread of having to tell people close to me that I’ve called mountain rescue to come and collect me when I’m lost looms heavily when I’m navigating.

Onto the second push of the day up the North flank of Ygarn. A 30min trudge up a gentle hill. There is a hazard along these slopes during the winter. The gullies on the north side of Ygarn tend to form cornices by the side of the path which form false ledges. As tempting as it is to look over, you could end up having the fastest descent record by falling through the edge into the steep gulley below. stay away at all costs no matter how curious they look.

I was due to meet a friend back were I live to celebrate his birthday so I motored upto Ygarn summit. I made a mistake, I didn’t take off my down jacket while I was maxing out my heart rate in the prospect of downing a beer as soon as possible. On the summit it dawned on me that I was not only drenched in sweat, but my down jacked was soaked through which left it like a soggy pillow, not only disgusting but more worryingly, no longer holding in heat. With this in mind I didn’t stick around on the summit to get cold. Mistakes like this can be dangerous. the temperature was past sub zero on the summit and I could feel the heat leaving me every second and I knew the descent isn't as strenuous and wouldn't warm me up. So I flew down the south side of the mountain, out of the snowy ground and into devils kitchen Where I changed out of my soggy jackets And took in the surroundings.

At this point I’ve descended down into devils kitchen And Llyn Idwal. this area is the amphitheatre of trad and winter ice climbing. I’ve spent many days in this area exploring the slab faces & lines it has to offer. I felt slightly disappointed to be skirting through it just get hold of some flat lager down my local. A quick couple of snaps and I got on my way.

so that was it! The end of my exploration! Back down at Ogwen cottage and along the roadside, extremely content and also a little weary. Until the next time Ogden valley, keep the good views on ice 😘.

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