Summit Camping on Pen yr Ole Wen Video

Wild Camping on Pen yr Ole Wen Summit in Snowdonia

The goal here was to find a camping spot with a view of Tryfan to capture a sunrise timelapse sequence.

I parked up on the A5 in the Ogwen Valley, a short walk from Ogwen Cottage. There’s plenty of free parking there.

The route crosses the waterfall on the Western side of Llyn Ogwen and heads NNE up a steep winding path up into the Carneddau towards the summit.

Pen yr Ole Wen summit sits at 978m above sea level, and the climb from this southwest “corner” is 675m. It felt quite brutal carrying my backpack up there, and my belly.

The name Pen yr Ole Wen translates to “Head of the white slope” in Welsh, I guess due to the flat sloping plateaux of the Carneddau being often covered in snow, and this summit is the first part of it from this side. Either way, I’d suggest that “Head of the bloody big white slope” would be more fitting. This little climb kicked my ass.

I was relieved to reach that 978m summit and rewarded with incredible views. Tryfan mountain was looking stunning above the Ogwen valley. Glyder Fach, Glyder Fawr and Y Garn standing guard over Llyn Idwal and Llyn Bochlwyd. In the distance, Snowdon's summit could be seen in a veil of clouds. Incredible views.

I found a wild camping spot with the view of Tryfan I was after, just off the summit and settled in for the night.

Low clouds rolled in over the Glyderau to give some magical weather conditions. I set up some timelapse cameras, downed a beer and whipped out a steak.

No luck with a night sky on this occasion, that pesky cloud hung around a little bit too much, but I did get that awesome sunrise!!!! Great trip. Tough climb, but what a beautiful mountain. I’ll be back.

Take a look at the YouTube video

The Tryfan sunrise timelapse is available as stock footage

And I have plenty more Snowdonia stock footage available HERE