07.10.23 Pt. 576.0m (SH 559 475)
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| Pt. 576.0m (SH 559 475) (Photo: Aled Williams) |
I am fortunate to be in
a position that I can choose which day to head to the hills, and therefore rarely
venture out when conditions are not favourable, especially when it is misty and
raining. However, with only three hills
remaining to complete the listing of the Welsh
Highlands – Uchafion Cymru, even unfavourable conditions can get the better
of one’s mentality and drag you out to the hill.
By 7.00am I was parked
on Aled’s drive in Porthmadog and transferring my gear in to his car. Overhead the hills were blanketed in low
cloud and mist, with flecks of wind-blown drizzle adding bleakness to the
prospect of venturing out on any hill.
Twenty minutes later and we were at the end of Cwm Pennant having found a
convenient parking place just off the minor road close to the last farm in the
valley.
As I stood beside the
car I was not enthusiastic to head up in to the murk and suggested we could go back
to Aled’s for a cuppa and chat, all he had to do was smile and agree and the
day on the hill would have been postponed.
But, having driven up the valley he was enthusiastic for us to continue,
and after a bit of internal grumbling I agreed.
The hill we were heading
for is positioned between Moel Hebog and Moel yr Ogof. I had passed its summit on numerous occasions
but until today never visited. It is
spectacularly positioned above a natural cleft in rock, and overlooks a large
pool that constitutes the bwlch connecting with Moel yr Ogof and has excellent
distant views up to its higher immediate neighbours and across to Yr
Wyddfa. Today I’m afraid none of this
was on show.
Leaving the car we
headed toward the first stile of the day and followed a path forever heading up
toward Bwlch Meillionen. We were soon in
the murk, with the morning’s drizzle intermittent. Usually keeping to a path is easy in the mist
as there is little else to visually concentrate on, however Aled wanted to
examine some of the rock outcrops higher up, therefore we kept the Afon
Cwm-llefrith close at hand on our right and ventured away from what is a good
quad bike track that we followed after the summit adventure on our descent back
out of the gloom.
When high on the hill we
spent about 30 minutes pottering around rocky ground investigating various
outcrops before joining a sheep path that took us toward the bwlch on the Moel
Hebog side of it. It was now decidedly
blowie with the wind picking up the higher we ventured. Even though the visibility was limited it
felt good to be back here after so many years, and even though we were only
going to be on the section between the higher 2,000ft peaks for a short time
and not visit their summits, it was still thrilling to be so high. We now headed left and walked down to the bwlch
and then steeply up toward the cleft in the rock that gives passage toward the
summit of Moel yr Ogof.
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| Heading up toward the cleft in the rock |
At the top of the cleft
we headed left, clambered over a stone wall and gained steepening runnels of
grass interspersed amongst rock that took us up toward the summit of the one
hill of the day. I waited on grass as
Aled headed over to the high point, hunkering down as he neared the summit as
the wind was whipping across the hill.
When he arrived back at my position he advised me to be careful and
suggested I leave my rucksack on the grass before heading up to stand on the
summit. Rather foolishly I did not adhere
to his advice and headed up on the rock.
The next few minutes are
a bit of a blur. The rock was wet and
very greasy. I remember being ever so
careful with each foot placement, making sure that each step was on relatively
flat rock and wriggling my foot on it to make sure of a firm placement before
transferring my weight and gaining further progress. The summit of this hill comprises a small
rocky ridge with a sheer drop on its northern side down in to the depths of the
cleft of rock that we had just walked up.
Its opposing side comprised slanting rock forever falling away down on its
southern side. It reminded me of a small
Knight’s Peak in the Cuillin on Skye.
I was now within about
2ft of its high point and about 4 inches below it and the next thing I can
remember is seeing rock shooting past my eyes as I slithered down the southern
side of the hill. I have no memory of
slipping, just a feeling of near rock and wanting to stop my fall. I suspect in such circumstances survival
instinct kicks in and I remember clinging on to rock with my right hand and
trying to wedge me feet in to any flat ground below my body. At the very moment I stopped, Aled had jumped
from his position on the grass, grabbing me as he did so.
The next five minutes I
stood on the grass recovering as Aled kindly put a plaster on my right little
finger which was bloodied. I had grazed
and scraped my left lower leg and left buttock, bruised my right upper thigh
and my back behind my right shoulder.
Thankfully I did not slither very far, as even on this southern side the
continuation down the rock was not welcoming.
I didn’t talk for a number of minutes as I suspect the shock of the
situation had kicked in. After partly
recovering I headed back up, this time keeping below the small ridge, touching
its high point with my hand and then hooking my right leg up so my foot at
least also touched the high point, and then slowly made my way down to re-join
Aled who waited on the safety of the small patch of grass.
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| At the summit, just after slipping down it! (Photo: Aled Williams) |
I was still aware that I
was not saying much as we clambered back over the wall. I then headed down the steep ground and
waited in the cleft between the rock walls out of the wind as Aled headed over
to visit an adjoining sub. By the time
he arrived back at the cleft I was in chatty mode. I had also had time to examine my various
grazes and what no doubt will be impressive bruising in a day of two.
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| As suspected, my right thigh came out in a good bruise a couple of days later |
Standing there on my own waiting for Aled
also gave me time to ponder how fortunate I had been as I was standing on a
narrow ridge of rock in wind, with underfoot conditions particularly slippery
and the thought of what would have happened if I had fallen on the northern
side of the ridge is not very comforting as I would have gone over a sheer drop
down in to the cleft. The thought of
this kept me awake for the following night as I closed my eyes and had horrible
images of dropping in to mist enshrouded oblivion. Thankfully I survived to see another day, and
my thanks to Aled for grabbing me just as I had halted and being attentive
after the event.
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| Out of the murk heading toward the relative safety of the valley below |
The onward journey was
not as exciting as the summit adventure, but was much safer as we followed the
quad bike track down from the bwlch through a series of gates and over stiles. The underfoot conditions were particularly wet,
but the path gave passage toward the safely of the car in the valley below. Third to last hill survived, just another two
to go.
Survey Result:
Pt.
576.0m
Summit Height: 576.0m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 55928 47521 (LIDAR)
Bwlch Height: 560.4m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 55885 47595 (LIDAR)
Drop: 15.6m (LIDAR) (Welsh Highland Sub addition)
(Welsh Highland Sub reclassified to Welsh Highland P15)
Dominance: 2.70% (LIDAR)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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