Crib Goch to Snowdon
Crib Goch is famed as being the toughest hiking route up to Snowdon, largely down to a whole lot of scrambling and its particularly narrow and exposed ridge.
Still something of a novice at this ridge game at the time (having only previously done CMD Arête and Striding Edge despite plenty of mountain hikes), I really did fancy Crib Goch. In fact, that’s one of the two main ones I’d set out to do a few months prior, but wanted to hike some slightly wider ones first. Most of us venturing out for this have probably read about Crib Goch deaths, injuries, mountain rescue call outs and so forth. None of that is sensationalised. This is a dangerous route and although the scrambling itself isn’t particularly complex, the exposure is such that something as simple as a misplaced foot could result in some very serious consequences.
This was the main reason for me doing wider ridges first. Finally, having reassured myself that my head for heights was ok and that I can keep my cool on ridges, I set out on a sunny day with my cousin to take on Crib Goch, Garnedd Ugain and Snowdon. Here’s how it went.
Hike date | 8th July 2022 |
Weather conditions | Sunny and hot |
Distance hiked | Approx 15.5km |
Walking time | 6.5 hours |
Elevation gain total | 907m |
Terrain | Rocky terrain for the most part |
Hiked with | Cousin |
The Route – Pyg Track, Crib Goch and Miner’s Track
So this is the route we took. Bear in mind that parking at Pen y Pass was already well booked up when we tried to book two days prior, so we started our route from roadside parking bays (£4 for the day) and we hiked just under 2km from there to Pen y Pass and back again. This was a pleasant walk with a dedicated footpath
From Pen y Pass, we took the Pyg Track up to the point at which paths separate and we turned off to the right for Crib Goch.
Almost immediately after this turning, the route turns from footpath into seriously rocky terrain and you’re scrambling.
We scrambled up to the summit of Crib Goch, across the ridge itself (which was just absolutely spectacular) and then across the pinnacles at the end.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s the climbing over though. From there you have another scramble up to day’s second summit, Garnedd Ugain.
Once we summited Garnedd Ugain, the Pyg Track was back in sight. We walked to the Snowdon summit, walked back down and began our descent via the Pyg track. Part way down, there’s a turn off to the right for the (quieter) Miner’s Track. We took this then back down to Pen Y Pass. After a quick coffee stop there, we picked up the same footpath from Pen y Pass back to the roadside parking we’d left the car at.
Honestly, this was a cracking route and we got incredibly fortunate with the weather.
POV Video Footage (GoPro) of Crib Goch
I recorded our Crib Goch crossing using a chest mounted GoPro, so here’s some of the highlights video
Crib Goch Drone Video Footage
Before setting out across the ridge, I took a few minutes to fly my drone around. We had absolutely incredibly conditions for the day with the cloud to the right of the ridge and the blue skies above. Here’s the video footage.