Afon Lloer ,Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen Jan 2nd 2012

My first trip of the year !

  Back into the Ogwen valley in Snowdonia, North wales.  this time i was going to climb the Afon Lloer waterfalls up to the lake Ffynnon Lloer , at a height of 2,225 feet (678 m)   not a very good lake to shoot photos but a good climb with excellent views!

It was fairly dark and gloomy when i left the main road that runs along Llyn Ogwen, here is the first shot of the Ogwen valley with the Devils kitchen in the distance!

and a view of the direction i will be climbing, you can see the waterfalls in the centre top  :)   lol

After a good climb across saturated ground i eventually came to the first set of falls.  Its not normal to shoot "Down" a waterfall ,but i think it works well leading into the scene!

a little bit higher !

Tryfan on the left, with Llyn Ogwen  and the Devils Kitchen on the right!

a portrait view from same spot!

                             Another short climb, getting quite cold now and wind picking up!  

                                                                a view up the waterfall!  
  the uppermost falls in this shot are where the next image was taken, a steep hard climb over extremely wet boggy ground!    who says there hasn't been much rain this winter!!!!    They lied!

A wide angle view of the stunning valley!  over to the right , a third way across you can see Cwm Idwal, the lake beneath the Devils kitchen which was shown in the last Snowdonia Blog from last week!  you can already see i have climbed a lot higher today!  and a long way to go yet!   lol

             Another steep climb up to "the wall "where the falls start to change direction up to the lake!
                                                        about 3/4 the way up now! 
        a heavy hail shower crossing over the Glyders towards Tryfan, it kept going left fortunately :)

      looking up the falls , another very steep climb up to the plateau where the ground levels out a bit

                                                                      almost there now!

From near the top of this section of falls, here is a wide view showing the glorious mountain scenery,  the ground now has quite a few hail stones lying!   Yes its cold up here!!!!!!  you can see "the Wall" in the bottom left corner where i shot the previous but one image!

       The falls level out now leading up to the small lake!  Yes there is a small amount of snow still around from the previous week high up on the high ridge!

And this is where the falls come out of the small non discript lake that was not ever worth taking an image of !   lol

Turning around i moved over to get a high view of the valley , and with hail stones on the ground and  light shafts coming from Tryfan shot this image :)   My favorite of the day with the only decent light!

just to the right of Tryfan you can just about make out the second mountain lake Llyn Bochlywd which is over to the left of Cwn idwal but much higher up!

                                               It really is a stunning view from up here!!!!!!!

I then descended down to the right towards "the Wall " again, where there is a fine view down the valley towards Cwm Idwal in the distance!

                     And a slightly wider view showing the "Ladder" to help climb Tryfan!    Haha :)

                  On the way down just one more shot looking back up the lower part of the falls:)    

The end of a great first adventure of 2012.

all images taken with canon 5d2 and 17-40L