Читать книгу Ridges of Snowdonia. The best ridge walking онлайн

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If you stand near Ogwen Cottage, facing down the valley towards Bangor and the coast, you have at each hand two very different mountain groups. On your left, the Glyders, rocky and intricate; and on your right, the Carneddau, grassy and huge. Different sides, different days.

Different, but not divorced: later that day, the views from one to the other will emphasize the contrasts and endorse the choice you made – left or right – all those hours ago. As it happens, that daunting view up the south side of Pen yr Ole Wen from Ogwen Cottage has initiated a good many more lefts than rights. This is a pity, because from Glan Dena, at the far end of Llyn Ogwen, and not much more than a mile back, is a much less tortured beginning to a day on the Carneddau.

The route up from Glan Dena is all bubbling brooks and pretty views. There is a classic picture of Y Garn – elegantly raised up beyond Llyn Ogwen, a foreground conveniently filled with well-proportioned farm buildings; and an unusual view of Tryfan, falling behind now, in an especially slender and isolated mood. But pretty views and uphill walking are together as inedible as cream and spinach. Instead the reality is one of thumbs hooked resolutely under rucsac straps while eyes are focused – when at all – quite firmly on the ground.