The Snowdon Horseshoe (Crib Goch)

The Snowdon Horseshoe links Crib Goch, Crib y Ddysgl, the summit of Yr Wyddfa and Y Lliwedd in one circuit from Pen-y-Pass, and it is graded as a scramble rather than a walk. The outward leg follows the lower section of the Pyg Track before turning off onto Crib Goch’s ridge, a narrow arête with steep ground falling away on both sides for a sustained stretch. Hands are needed as well as feet. Beyond the ridge the route continues over the rocky top of Crib y Ddysgl, also known as Garnedd Ugain, to the summit of Yr Wyddfa itself, then drops south-east to cross Y Lliwedd’s twin tops before descending, usually via the Miners’ Track, back to Pen-y-Pass.

Technically Crib Goch is only a Grade 1 scramble, the easiest grade there is, but the exposure is real and sustained rather than a single awkward step, and there is little opportunity to retreat once committed to the ridge. Eryri National Park Authority calls the route extremely dangerous and only for experienced mountain walkers, and its Crib Goch page says accidents are common, many needing Mountain Rescue, and that there have been fatalities. Dogs should not be taken on it under any circumstances.

Allow a full day. Walking Britain puts the full horseshoe at 12.2 kilometres with 1,152 metres of ascent and gives seven hours ten minutes of walking without stops, and parties moving cautiously over the ridge take longer. The Authority calls the Sherpa’r Wyddfa bus one of the most efficient ways of reaching Pen y Pass, and says parking there is very limited. It suits walkers who have scrambled on Grade 1 ground before and want a whole mountain day of it. It is not a route for a first mountain day, for anyone uneasy with heights, or for a group with mixed scrambling experience; for the same summit with no scrambling at all, the Llanberis Path reaches it on a wide, graded track.