MAY 2024 · ADVENTURE
Devil's Kitchen, Glyder Fawr, Y-Garn hike and camp
Glyderau, Eryri
The plan was to go up, stay overnight, and see what the morning looked like from the ridge. The approach from Ogwen Cottage takes you through the lower valley — forest streams, mossy boulders, the path gaining height steadily — before the terrain opens onto the higher ground.
The Glyderau ridge isn't one thing. It's Devil's Kitchen, then the Glyder Fawr plateau, then Glyder Fach, then the Castle of the Winds, then Y Garn on the descent. Each section changes the ground under your feet. At the bottom: weathered slate-like stone with vertical fracture patterns. Higher: the fractured column field of Glyder Fawr, where upright pinnacles stand in every direction and the Cantilever Stone projects into nothing, horizontal, held by counterbalance. Someone is always standing on it.
A hiker in an orange jacket is visible among the moss-covered rock pinnacles on the upper section. They're climbing rather than walking, one hand on the stone. The scale isn't clear until you see the figure.
Someone is always standing on it.
Glyder Fawr, Glyder Fach and Y Garn — May 2024
The drone went up the following morning. From above, the relationship between ridge and valley becomes readable in a way it isn't from the ground: the cliff face drops sheer to the valley floor, the peaks slot into each other in parallel ridges, and the alpine meadow where the tent sat overnight is a small flat green in the chaos of rock above and below it. The tent is visible in the aerial frame, pitched on a level section of grass between outcrops.
The lakes are visible from the ridge all day but different from above. Llyn Ogwen in the valley, Llyn Idwal in its cwm, the smaller tarns on the plateau — the aerial view shows how they drain toward each other.
Staying overnight means the morning light falls on the same rocks from the opposite direction.
Jagged stone formations on a barren mountain ridge
Hiker in orange jacket climbing among moss-covered rock pinnacles
Steep rocky mountainside with lake and valleys below, Snowdonia
Alpine lake nestled between green mountain slopes and rocky cliffs
Sharp weathered rock formations protruding from mountain plateau
Mossy rock outcrops and stepping stones on rocky mountain terrain
Dramatic valley view from high ridge with lakes and distant mountains
Rock scree slope with moss-covered stones descending into valley
Weathered slate-like stone formations with vertical fracture patterns
Mountain lake from high ridge with grassy valleys and surrounding peaks
Climber descending steep rocky slope with distant valley landscape
Upright stone pinnacles on exposed windswept mountain ridge
Towering jagged rock formations silhouetted against mountain backdrop
Elevated trail through boulder-strewn mountainside with distant peaks
Dramatic vertical rock formations and stone pinnacles on ridge summit
Alpine plateau scattered with jagged stone formations and moss
Weathered rock outcrops on mountain ridge with hikers in distance
Hiker descending through boulder field on mountain slope
Rocky peak with lichen-covered slopes and distant mountain ridges
Expansive aerial view of mountain lakes and valleys with ridges
Mountain slope with exposed rock face and pastoral green fields below
Lake surrounded by mountains with rocky slopes and grassy terrain
Winding mountain path descending to valley with alpine views
Aerial drone view of vertical cliff face and exposed rock formation
Aerial view of mountain ridge with camping tent pitched in alpine meadow
Summit area showing volcanic cone mountain with pastoral valley below