I’ve been sitting on a small collection of images from a night of wild camping in Snowdonia late last summer. I hope you enjoy.
I finished work mid morning on the Friday and had made a plan to head to North Wales for a night. After watching the weather all week, it looked I would be in luck for some clear skies and not a huge amount of wind. I had planned on camping near Castell y Gwynt (Castle of the winds) on top of Glyder Fach, the 3rd time up here for me but the first time camping. I parked in one of the many lay-bys in the Ogwen Valley and the route I took started at Gwern Gôf Uchaf campsite. After climbing a few stiles I was on the familiar stone slabs that wind their way up Cwm Tryfan. Finally, out of the shadows it really warmed up! Carrying approx 18kg on my back meant a few stops were in order but I also really wanted to catch sunset and get pitched up before it got dark. I pushed on and made it to Llyn Caseg Fraith, where I’ve camped before. I’m probably just over half way now so i stop and take my bag off for a few minutes. Most of the people I meet are heading down but the odd few I see still heading up are all loaded up with big bags so I get a move on, not wanting to be struggling for somewhere to sleep.
Room with a view.
18,686 steps later I found a perfect spot of flat, soft grass over looking the Snowdon Massif and beyond. I had the chance to make a quick cuppa before the usual mad run around trying to take photos for an hour as the sun was setting. I saw only 1 other person the whole time during sunset & they happened to stand in a perfect place as I was taking a panoramic shot of Tryfan. Thanks, who ever you are! The light faded pretty fast but it was really nice to see how the landscape changed as light and shadows moved and altered everything. After a nearly flat battery, food was my next plan! A boil in the bag pasta followed by a bag of Haribo for dessert was quickly scoffed down. Darkness fell and the stars slowly started to shine. I decided to get into my sleeping bag to warm up for 20 minutes before heading back out again.
Tryfan on the left, random person top right.
Castell y Gwynt.
Now my only source of light is my head torch as the moon isn’t set to rise until 1:30am so its pretty dark. Scrambling over the huge rocks isn’t easy and it’s made even harder as the wind has picked up considerably so I take extra care. I tried a few shots of myself on ‘the cantilever stone’, but failed to even stand upright! I could see a tent near there and wondered how on earth they would managed to get any sleep! I had one shot in mind from the time I planned the whole trip, the Milky way rising behind Snowdon with my tent in the foreground, I waited in my sleeping bag until the the milky way was in position and climbed up the rocks behind my tent to grabbed a few shots. After that, I headed back to the warmth of my tent to finally get some sleep.
A lot of planning & steps were involved to capture this shot. The milky way behind the Snowdon Massif.
Writing this now, I can’t actually remember what time I set my alarm but I think it was about 5:30ish. I had no real plans for sunrise apart from wandering around until I saw something I liked. The wind was pretty fierce above where I had camped so using the tripod wasn’t going to be easy. I met two people who had camped not far from mean had had 2 goats wake them up during the night (that definitely would have scared the shit out of me!). I headed towards Glyder Fawr to get a better view over the Ogwen Valley but the wind was even stronger and taking photos was almost impossible. I managed to find a small bit of shelter to take a panoramic shot of Snowdon just as the sun hits the peaks….this is probably one of my favourite photos I took on this trip.
A 7 shot pano of the Snowdon Massif. Cropped to fit the whole image on page.
A few minutes before sunrise.
I was lucky to have small bit of shelter as I managed to get a few panoramic shots, I even managed to capture one of the goats that had woken up my neighbours during the night. I was pretty happy with my mornings work so as the sun was getting higher in the sky it was time to get the tent packed away and to boil a quick cuppa before I made the long descent back to the van. Throwing the bag over my, now pretty sore, shoulders and drinking the last drop of tea I looked back at the view with thoughts of doing the same trip one winter with some snow on the ground. On the trip back down I still only met a handful of people before I made it back to the van. Tired and hungry, I headed for home as the masses began to arrive, feeling rather smug I’d had the whole mountain practically to myself.
