The narrow, exposed knife-edge ridge on the Snowdon Horseshoe, thrilling in good conditions and genuinely dangerous in bad
Open accesson open access land, where the right to roam applies
Crib Goch is the ridge that turns a walk up Snowdon into a proper mountaineering day. The name means red ridge, after the rusty colour of its rock, and it forms the spectacular first section of the Snowdon Horseshoe. For a stretch near the top the ridge narrows to a true knife-edge, with long drops on both sides, and the only way along is to move carefully over the rock, sometimes using your hands and sometimes straddling the crest.
At 924 metres it is not the highest point on the horseshoe, but it is the one that stops people in their tracks. Beyond it the ridge continues over Crib y Ddysgl towards the summit of Snowdon itself, with the dark lakes of Glaslyn and Llyn Llydaw held in the great bowl below. Most people start from the pass at Pen-y-Pass and climb the Pyg Track before taking the branch up onto the ridge.
This is the part where the warnings matter. Crib Goch is a grade one scramble with serious exposure, people are killed and injured here every year, and it is no place to be in strong wind, wet rock, or winter ice, or if you are not sure of your footing on steep ground. If in any doubt, the lower Pyg and Miners’ tracks reach the summit without the exposure. Save the ridge for a calm, dry, clear day, and check the mountain forecast before you commit.
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