25.11.23 Esgair Garthen (SN 825 642)
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| Esgair Garthen (SN 825 642) |
Today’s walk was the
culmination of over 19½ years of visiting hills as it was April 2004
when I purposely bagged my first Welsh 500m P15. During the intervening years I’ve written my
ascents of these hills in a bagging journal, the first entry proclaims; ‘Oh no,
another list!!’
In 2004 I’d completed my
basic levelling surveys of the higher Welsh 2,000ft’ers and the obsessional
trait that is within me was looking for another self-imposed challenge. I have been aware of such traits and lived
with them for many years. On occasion I struggle
with them as they become all encompassing, and this latest obsession certainly fitted
this bill as I knew the commitment involved in trying to survey the many
hundreds of marginal candidates that could qualify under the criteria involved,
let alone visiting all qualifying hills would take me many years to complete. However, I’ve also learnt such traits are a
part of me and nowadays I accept this and go with the flow, and this is what I
did with this latest challenge, and I’m thankful I did so as these hills and
the list they are a part of have given me many wonderful days on the hill.
The list that Esgair
Garthen is a part of is now co-authored with Aled Williams, and his involvement
has increased the numerical robustness of the list as well as the place-name
research that has gone in to it. It is
now known as the Welsh Highlands –
Uchafion Cymru and takes in all Welsh hills at and above 500m in height that
have 15m minimum drop. Accompanying the
main list is a P10 sub list, resulting in a comprehensive listing to the Welsh
hills at and above 500m.
During initial
compilation of this list I had decided to keep Esgair Garthen as my last hill,
partly as it’s situated in the Elenydd, which forms the great central belt of
Wales and takes in many of the qualifying hills. It also looked relatively easy to get to with
a large parking area at the start of the walk and a three mile long broad ridge
to its summit, with a dotted line on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps indicating
a path on this ridge.
I contemplated extending
the invite to join this celebratory walk to friends and hill baggers, but as
the year progressed with a number of summit relocations tidied up and the last
few remaining hills visited, it became evident that if completing this year it
would probably be in November. November
can be a beautiful time of year to visit the hills with settled conditions
giving blue skies and frosted mornings, but it can also give seemingly unending
grey days of mist and drizzled conditions, and as Aled had added so much to
this list as well as being my main hill walking companion over recent times, I
wasn’t going to visit this hill within him and with a full time job and young
family a Saturday is the best day of the week for him to be on the hill. This limited our opportunity, and it was only
at 7.00pm the night before the walk that we communicated via email and decided
to go for it. This gave little if any
time to invite others, so there were just the two of us.
We met in Caersŵs
at 6.30am, an early start as Aled had a prior commitment and wanted to get home
by mid to late afternoon. Having left
his car in Caersŵs I then drove south toward the Elan valley and
the minor road that culminates at the dam beside the Claerwen Reservoir. As Aled wanted to visit two P10 subs beyond
Esgair Garthen I dropped him off on the lower road, he then headed up the stream
valley of the Afon Arban, leaving me to drive up on the higher road and park at
the far side of the dam. This enabled me
to take my time on the ridge leading to the summit and for Aled to join me
after he’d visited the two sub hills.
When I got out of my car
it was decidedly chilly, although there wasn’t even a wisp of breeze. I soon had my winter gloves, ear warmer and
balaclava on as well as my winter walking wellies just in case any bog was
encountered.
Leaving the car I had a
sense of anticipation, as 19½ years is a long time for anyone to wait
until completing a list. From the far
side of the dam a gate gave access to a track which according to the map
contoured up and formed a path on the grassland heading all the way to the
summit. Nowadays many of the higher
ridges amongst the Elenydd have quad bike tracks on them, which eases passage
through what would no doubt be rough and energy sapping terrain, and the track
beyond the gate was one of these as it swung up on to the hill and continued
following the broad ridge.
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| A misted scene across the Claerwen Reservoir dam |
As I walked up the
initial part of the ridge early morning mist hugged adjacent hillsides and
meandered across the water in the reservoir.
It gave a welcoming ethereal atmosphere to proceedings, a quietness that
pervaded the hill. As I slowly made my
way up the quad bike track frost predominated with each delicate blade of grass
encrusted in whiteness. It was
incredibly still, with just the occasional movement of sheep as they scurried
across the hillside. Otherwise it was
just me and the hill, a lovely place to find oneself on such a morning.
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| The Claerwen dam can just be seen through the mist in the background |
The eastern ridge of
Esgair Garthen is long by Welsh standards and stretches for three miles from
the dam to its summit. It comprises two
or three small rises before its highest point is reached, with the dips between
forming any bog on the upper hill.
Thankfully this morning any bog was still frozen as I made steady progress
toward my goal.
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| Sunrise |
As I reached the upper
plateau I looked south across the intervening stream valley to see if I could
spot Aled making progress up toward his first sub hill. I never spotted him, although I looked on numerous
occasions.
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| Such a still morning with only the occasional movement of sheep breaking an otherwise tranquil scene |
By now I could see the
summit of Esgair Garthen, still a relatively long distance away. There was a patch of green grass leading up
toward its highest point and thankfully there were signs of the quad bike track
forever continuing through the partly frozen grassland. This track proved a godsend and gave comfort
as the underfoot going on many of the Elenydd hills can be torturous without the
convenience of such things.
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| Looking across toward the summit of Esgair Garthen on the right |
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| Nearing the summit of Esgair Garthen which is on the left of this photo |
Aled had a much longer
route to the summit than me, and prior to him setting off I’d estimated my
arrival between 10.00am – 10.30am. I
took my time over the last mile or so as I suspected I would arrive before him and
I wanted to savour the last few minutes toward the top and keep my energy
levels intact for the descent.
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| Part of the Claerwen Reservoir |
Nearing the top I was
aware that I had begun to smile and savoured the last few steps to the highest
point of the hill. I stood on top and
looked around, in all directions blue sky dominated with wild broad ridged hills
stretching off in all directions. It had
taken a long time to get here, not just this morning’s steady 2½
hour plod to the summit, but all those intervening years and different hills
since first setting out to complete this list.
I soon got the Trimble
out to check the summit grid co-ordinates Aled had produced from LIDAR analysis
against those on the screen of the equipment.
Where I had originally stopped was within a couple of metres of the
LIDAR high point, I rummaged around in the moor grass for what I deemed the highest
solid piece of ground and set the Trimble up on my rucksack, noted the offset
between its internal antenna and the ground at its base, waited for the 0.1m
accuracy level to be attained before data should be logged, and once this
figure appeared on the screen I pressed ‘Log’ and left it quietly beeping away
gathering individual datum points as I continued on the track toward a point
where I looked down on a grassy bank and the connecting bwlch of the hill
beyond. It would be from this direction
that Aled would appear, but even though I scanned the opposing ridge line I
still couldn’t see him.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Esgair Garthen |
Leaving the Trimble to
gather over ten minutes of data I basked in the luxury of completion; standing,
smiling and reminiscing; thinking of all those times on the hill in the company
of good friends whilst investigating these P15s. It proved an excellent decision to compile
the list and start bagging the remainder of hills in it.
By now high cloud had
appeared and this chilled proceedings for 40 minutes or so until it was quickly
replaced by more unadulterated blue sky, what a day to finish on! It was perfect.
45 minutes after I
arrived on the summit Aled appeared, he’d done well considering the route chosen
and the terrain he had gone through. He
congratulated me and we both headed toward the summit. Soon afterward he produced a celebratory
mince pie and started blowing in to what turned out to be a giant green
balloon, which I thought hilarious and then I spent many minutes standing on
the summit, arms outstretched in celebratory mode holding it up to the sky.
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| Aled appearing after his tough route to the top of Esgair Garthen |
We remained on top
together for about 30 minutes with Aled conducting an interview via video
asking me about the list and hills; a thoughtful exercise and one that I will no
doubt gain more appreciation from in future years.
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| Celebrating on the summit of Esgair Garthen, my 630th and final Welsh Highland P15 |
Our route down was easy;
follow the quad bike track all the way back to the dam. On the way down, I occasionally stopped and
looked back, remembering the same view on my ascent. By now the ground had defrosted and that
welcome hardness of early morning meant that the dips between those slight
rises and the bog therein were now to be avoided, but none of it was too bad.
On our way down the hill
a number of quad bikes appeared on the skyline and with the near barking of
dogs it signalled farmers were probably trying to flush out a fox. One of the quad bikes stopped as I jokingly hung
out a thumb for a lift down the hill, we chatted for a few minutes before they
sped off again.
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| Nearing the end of an extremely fulfilling day |
Nearing the car we
realised that we could make the chippie in Rhaeadr Gwy before it closed at
2.00pm. This gave extra incentive to get
down. Rounding the last bend just before
the car I stopped and looked back over the water to the rising bulk of Esgair
Garthen and took a couple of photographs.
It proved a perfect hill to finish on and we made it in time for those
chips, which also proved a good way to end an excellent day.
Survey Result:
Esgair Garthen
Summit Height: 508.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 82531 64276 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 485.35m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 82330 63914 (LIDAR)
Drop: 22.7m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 4.47% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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