Paddy Buckley 2022
By Rob Brooks
I made an unsucessful attempt at a Paddy Buckley Round bak in 2018 (see write up https://robbrooks.run/running/paddybuckly2018/) and it’s been on my radar to have another go ever since but for a number of reasons I’ve never had the chance to go back.
A free long weekend in April presented the opportunity to fastpack the route over 3 days - the forecast was dry and relatively warm but windy. Katherine was wanting to do some big miles in preparation for her upcoming Bob Graham Round (which she stormed round in 21 hours 42 mins) so I asked her if she wanted tto come along. She thought about it for about 2 seconds and jumped at the chance.
Similarily to the Bob Graham, the Paddy is naturally split up into 5 legs so the plan was to do the longest one on the first day and then double up the legs on days 2 and 3. It would be a long weekend but I reckoned that it was doable without having to so any in the dark.
Day 1 Capel Curig to Nantmoor
An early drive down allowed a 11:30 from the Plas-Y-Brenin mountain centre in Capel Curig, leaving the car in a nearby layby. A quick weigh of our packs (8kg each) and we were off.
The long climb up Moel Siabod was ticked off and as we gained ground the wind became stronger - a feature that would last the duration of the trip.
Due to the recent spell of warm weather the usually boggy ground on this section was remarkably dry and we made decent progress. When sheltered from the wind it was pretty warm, however when exposed on the tops and ridges we struggled to stay on our feet at times battling gusts of up to 60mph. The views made up for it however.
After Siabod the terrain is undulating without any big climbs until we reached the quarries at Rhosyyd. This leads into the Molewyns, a large section of big grassy hills with some nice runnable terrain.
We took the echance to leave our packs in a sheepfold for the out and back to Molewyn Back before tackling some particularly ferocious winds on Molewyn Bach and returning to the quarry.
The next climb up Cnicht (the Welsh Matterhorn) is the hardest of the leg but we found a good line to the top and were rewarded with some spectacular views. Once thing I have noticed in the 4 years since I attempted the round is the appearance of trods which didn’t exist previously. I guess the increase in popularity of the round and the fact that the Dragons Back covers some of the same terrain has leg to this - it’s certainly not as pronounced as some of the Bob Graham trods but definately noticeable.
Day 2 Nantmoor Llanberis
Day 3 Llanberis to Capel Curig
