Wales Yr Elen

On Thursday last week Lyn Pete and Bella set out from the end of the motor road in Gerlan above Bethesda to climb Yr Elen  962m. This is an outlying top on the W.ridge of Carnedd Llewelyn, though classed as one of the "Welsh Threes"nevertheless. It is more often bagged by doing a "runner" from the reigning peak of Carnedd Llewelyn and we thought this might be a possibility when we climbed Llewelyn earlier in the week, however the weather that day was against us and we left Yr Elen for another day.

From Gerlan above Bethesda we walked along a track and on paths that led alongside the Afon Llafar towards Yr Elen looming large ahead.

Yr Elen from the crossing of the Afon Llafar. In wet weather the area between the river and the ridge in the distance is a formidable bog!

Our guidebook warned of bogs and a difficult river crossing; in the event the ground beyond the Afon Llafer was dry and there were stones in the river that offered a dry though uncertain crossing.


   

Looking SW from the slopes of Yr Elen towards the shapely peak of Carnedd Dafydd with Y Garn in the far distance.

Climbing the W.ridge of Yr Elen was hard work. Here's Lyn plodding upwards towards a rocky turret on the ridge named as Foel Ganol 750m. Bethesda is below and Anglesey in the far distance.





 

From the rocky turret on Foel Ganol the scree and rock slopes guarding the summit of Yr Elen loom above. 

Carnedd Llewelyn from Yr Elen with the ridge joining the two on the right above the tarn of Ffynnon Caseg. 

Summit rocks of Yr Elen with the reigning peak of Carnedd Llewelyn beyond on the horizon.