Distance: 7 miles

Suggested hiking time: 5hrs

Start / finish: Ogwen Cottage, Gwynedd, Wales

 

This is a deceptively hard day but well worth it for the photo opportunities!

Leave your car at Ogwen Cottage and head behind the buildings and around the east side of Llyn Idwal.   Take a break to watch the climbers on the slabs before tackling the steep climb up Devil’s Kitchen.  This section will take your breath away but take the excuse to stop and turn around to see views of the lake, and perhaps the RAF jets and helicopters as they sometimes train in this area.

Keep climbing up the scree and you’ll be at the top of the highest summit of the day at 1001m.  From here you head to The Castle of the Winds rock formation and then onto the boulder collection that makes up the Glyder Fach summit.  It could be breezy up here, so be prepared to put another layer on.

Just ahead on the plateau is the iconic Cantilever stone – a must for the photo collection.

(Photo credit: Alexa Whitten)

We suggest avoiding the Bristly Ridge descent, and instead take the right turning down to meet the Miner’s Track and along to Bwlch Tryfan.

From here you could follow the miners track back to Ogwen but with Tryfan looking tantalisingly close, we recommend (if you have the energy in your legs) continuing on to the summit for another photo classic – the Adam and Eve twin monoliths – before retracing your steps to Bwlch Tryfan and down to Ogwen.

Your Instagram account won’t know what’s hit it!

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