North Wales is one of my favourite places to be , only a few hours drive from the flat lands and I’m actually surrounded by mountains , ok , its not the Alps but for such a small area it has an amazing number of stunning routes , both rock climbing and scrambling. This trip was a chance to catch up with an old friend who I hadn’t seen for a while and walking and scrambling on the classic ridges is a great way to re acquaint.
I’ve climbed these routes so many times but they’re never boring , the familiar holds and places on the ridges are like a comfy pair of slippers that you’ve known for a long time.
Photographing somewhere as popular as N Wales is always going to throw up the usual angles and views that have been photographed hundreds of times before and its hard not to feel like its been photographed to death but the lighting is going to be a bit different from the last time and with a little bit of creative input its possible to just about manage something a little different.
One of my favourite pieces of kit is the Lee ND10 filter for giving long exposures. but you have to make sure there’s nothing hanging from your camera that can catch the wind and cause any movement of the camera and I shield the viewfinder from any strong light source as there can be light leakage during long exposures on the Canon5Diii.
We also had a Ferral goat join us on Bristly Ridge , these are big old beats and look pretty grand in the mountains.
Next day we did , what in my opinion is one of the finest ridge scrambles in N Wales , the Cneifion arete, Alpine in its aspirations but over too quickly, this route always brings a smile to my face. I took my son up this when he was 9 years old , my daughter on the day after she finished primary school 9 years ago and with a multitude of different friends over the years. Steep enough and exposed enough to make you think but no sting in the tail.
I have a gallery at the Idwal cottage youth hostel which has been up for a few years and about time to refresh the images , so you may see some of these up on the wall in the near future.
Thanks for reading.