Crib Goch is described as a "knife-edged"
arête in the
Snowdonia
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951.
Name and extent
It was a commonly held belief that the na ...
National Park
A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...
in
Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...
, Wales. The name means "red ridge" in the
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...
.
The highest point on the
arête is above sea level. All routes which tackle Crib Goch are considered mountaineering routes in winter or
scrambles
''Scrambles'' is the fifth studio album by Bomb the Music Industry!, released digitally and physically on February 15th, 2009. The album was released a year and a half after Get Warmer, making it the longest gap between the release of two chrono ...
in summer—meaning that they must cross "graded territory" as defined in Steve Ashton's ''Scrambles in Snowdonia''.
[Steve Ashton, Scrambles in Snowdonia, (Cicerone Press, 1992)] The easiest of these lines (the ‘bad step’ part of the route) is given a scrambling grade of Grade 1 (the most difficult being Grade 3—routes more difficult than Grade 3 are considered
rock climbs).
Route
The classic traverse of Crib Goch from East to West leads up from the
Pyg track to a ‘bad step’, where hands and feet are both needed briefly. It is followed by ascent to the arête, before tackling three rock-pinnacles to a grassy
col at Bwlch Coch. This first part of the ridge is exposed with
precipices below, having resulted in several fatalities, even of experienced mountaineers; the
Snowdonia National Park Authority describes it as ‘not a mountain for the inexperienced’. It is also possible to ascend Crib Goch's North Ridge, which adjoins the main ridge. The route is far more difficult in high winds or frozen ground, and so it's recommended that walkers check the weather forecast beforehand.
It is possible to ascend Crib Goch from Bwlch y Moch SH663552 or from
Nant Peris, an ascent via Cwm Beudu Mawr.
From the col the ridge rises again, joining the main
Snowdon ridge via the sister peak
Garnedd Ugain in the west. Here the path meets the Pyg Track (which descends to
Pen-y-Pass) at Bwlch Glas (marked by a large standing stone), before the final climb to
Snowdon summit. To the south of the arête lie the lakes of
Glaslyn and
Llyn Llydaw. To the north is the
Llanberis Pass. Crib Goch is classed as a
Welsh 3000er and is also often climbed as the first part of the
Snowdon Horseshoe, which goes on over Garnedd Ugain, Snowdon and
Y Lliwedd, before returning to
Pen-y-Pass.
Crib Goch is one of the
wettest spots in the United Kingdom, with an average of
rainfall
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
a year over the past 30 years.
References
External links
Crib Goch Visit Wales Video
Climbing Crib Goch video*
*
*
ttps://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2797493 www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Crib Gochbr>
www.walkupsnowdon.co.uk : Details of the Scrambling Route and map{{Welsh3000
Hewitts of Wales
Mountains and hills of Snowdonia
Nuttalls
Ridges of Wales
Furths
Beddgelert
Llanberis
Mountains and hills of Gwynedd