"Day 3 - Found this one quite a slog after the previous 2 days in 29c-31c heat. Rhinog Fach is a seriously steep climb. I went at this one like a bull in a china shop! It was a cloudy day and 24c, but that horrible muggy kind of heat. I didn't mess around, this is supposed to be the most wild mountain range in Wales. So when I pulled up in the forest car park and saw 2 cars, I had a little sigh. But whilst putting my boots on, another 3 cars came down the gated road. I wasn't in the mood for 'people' today. So did my best to march off at silly pace to put some distance between me and 'them'! At the base of Rhinog Fach I was taking in the scale of last month's wildfire on Rhinog Fawr and taking some pictures. I then heard a mans voice shouting after his dog..........here we go I thought, hoping they were going up Rhinog Fawr and not Fach. I have never sweated so much; it's a crazy steep, loose ascent. I kept hearing voices on the way up, but then it was quiet, so I thought they must have gone up the other mountain. I sat on the summit, ate a whole host of goodies, and replied to a few emails; must have been idle a good 20mins. Then I hear a dog being shouted at............." — adventure-stricken • Aug 14, 2026

"I hadn't properly planned this one, and just assumed, at worst my usual off trail mayhem would suffice if required. Forecast was 25c max at the base. When I pulled up my car was showing 30c. The start of the ascent through the woods, beside the waterfalls, was quite pleasant. Once above the woods I could see the cliffs around the North East side of the mountain. At this point, it was a simple left or right choice - I picked right. Flanking the mountain around the North and going anti-clockwise so I could ascend up a trail that went through the woods in the shade. Once out of the woods, it was apparent, my intended 'visual' route from below wasn't possible. A farmhouse and private land along with some difficult forest, forced me onto a logging gravel track. Looking at the map, there was a trail further up the track, the start of which was signposted, but it quickly got very 'wild' and difficult to trace. Someone had put some yellow tape around the top of the odd pine tree, but that soon disappeared and I found myself looking directly at the summit, with lots of ups, downs, thick heather, bracken and a fair few rocks to conquer. To cut the story short, if it was cooler, it ..." — adventure-stricken • Aug 13, 2026

"Just gone 5am! The smoke from the wildfire on Rhinog Fawr was filling up the surrounding valleys and drifting towards us. The plan was to climb the Nuttall, Y Garn - not to be confused with the bigger Y Garn in the 'Glyders'. I could see the summit was also in the smoke, so I decided against climbing it that day and went elsewhere." — adventure-stricken • Jul 17, 2026

"With topping two Welsh Marilyns 'off trail' just before this, not to mention the heat, lugging a heavy rucksack up here was quite a chore - who'd have thought just 2 miles and 400m of ascent would feel so hard? Think I was empty before I started! By the time I had started pitching the tent, I'd consumed around 4.5 litres of water for the day, and wasn't feeling that impressed with my decisions for the day ;-) In any case, the pics speak for themselves! No effort..........no reward!" — adventure-stricken • May 24, 2026

"All was going well till the wind started getting worse as the afternoon progressed, so I backed out of my attempt to walk the Black Hill ridgeline and walked up the central valley instead." — skippermonkey • Apr 4, 2026