Penmaenbach Arete

Scrambling on the Penmaenbach Arete, at the northern edge of Snowdonia where the Carneddau run into the sea. A short ridge, done in a morning, and nothing like as serious as the hills behind it.

Penmaen-bach, 245 m / Penmaenbach Arete

Grade 1+ (Scrambles in Snowdonia; widely felt as a low grade 2) / micro-diorite / ~10 min approach, 1–1.5 h car to car

The arete rises straight off the coast road at Dwygyfylchi and runs up to the 245 m top of Penmaen-bach, at the very northern end of the Carneddau. Steve Ashton’s Scrambles in Snowdonia gives it 1+; most people who write about it call it a low grade 2, and it is usually soloed — the rock is compact, so gear is awkward where you might want it, and the last stretch to the summit is loose.

It is a small thing next to anything in the Carneddau proper, but it is honest scrambling: exposed on the left almost from the start, blocky, and with the sea underneath you the whole way. Being on the coast, it also dries fast and often stays out of the weather sitting on the hills inland.