Jared Forte

The Corris Round is a route devised by 11 year old at the time Tom and his dad, both locals to the village of Corris in Wales. The route is about 60km (37 miles) and 3,500m climb (11,500ft), and takes in the Tarren range, Cadair Idris and Maesglase. It was made as a local equivalent to bigger rounds such as the Bob Graham or Paddy Buckley, and one which was local to them so they could do it during lockdown.

I had always wanted to give it a go myself, and after reading an article by Jade Phillips on UKClimbing, I decided to do it during the winter.

Preparation

In terms of preparation for the day out, I had done some recces of parts of the route I was not too familiar with. A month or so prior, with an icy and snowy forecast, I did a run out on the Cadair range testing out my microspikes, and looking at the pathless climb up Craig-y-llyn. A few parts of the route had quite wild sections that were pathless, which required careful footwork and navigation.

Two weeks prior I had also done the Tour de Helvellyn, an event ran by Nav4 that I seriously recommend as Joe's events are always brilliant. Despite not being fresh, I knew that I had the fitness to tackle the day out.

In terms of route planning and the danger of it being in the middle of winter and not having support, I decided also to study the map and look at bailout routes, in case the weather turned or I got injured.

The run

With a good forecast, during the week I booked an Airbnb close by to Corris, with plenty of options being the first week of January. The impromptu choice of selecting the weekend meant I did not have much time to sort logistics out, but it did mean I was less stressed about the run itself. However, as it got closer to the run date the forecast deteriorated for later on in the day, with an amber weather warning for snow. With this in mind, I decided to get up at 3am and be out running by 4am.

I soon started under artificial light, slowly making my way out of the village. Soon, the first of obstacles came, the path soon became not clear and I spent about 5 minutes frustrated not being able to find it. I would then eventually find it, but then there was a load of collapsed trees from Storm Darragh, which I had to duck and dive under. This was not very fun in the dark, but it was intermittently broken up with firetracks, and after about an hour or so I got onto the hillside, where I was able to do a nice slow jog up to Tarren-y-gesail, and I admired the backdrop of the dark hills with an inversion. It was amazing to have the conditions cold but clear.

I then dropped steeply off Tarren-y-gesail, crossing over to Tarrenhendre. My torch batteries started playing up so after a few minutes of faffing out of the wind, I was plodding along again. I do not mind running at the dark, it is very peaceful but I do not like that the footwork is more difficult especially when running in the mountains. I rolled my bad ankle a few times, and then got over my second summit of the day, Tarrenhendre.

It was then a long descent towards the end of leg 1, firstly there is a steep rocky gully you go down that I believe the fell race Ras Tarrenhendre goes up, but after you are treated to more firetrack. I was able to make good pace on this but then as I got lower there was more storm damage that I had to navigate.

By the time I had passed through Abergynolwyn it was becoming daylight, and I had a a fair bit of road to travel up where I made more good ground, that eventually turns into a track. You then reach a sharp bend, which from reccying I knew that this is where I would make my beeline up to Craig-y-llyn, my first summit of the Cadair range. After filling my bottles at the stream next to it, one with some hydration powder, I slowly plodded up, looking for the stile to cross up and over.



Eventually I reached the summit, and from there on it was a case of running along the ridge, with it being a clear day I had a lovely view of the Mawddach Estuary as I headed on to Tyrrau Mawr and Cyfrwy. Despite the forecast being -10 Celsius windchill, I felt pretty warm as the sun came out, and there was not much wind. In fact, I had to make sure I was drinking plenty as this section felt good but I was working hard.

I then reached Cyfrwy, where I then took a "racing" line to avoid climbing Cadair Idris itself twice to Craig Cwm Amarch, much to the bemusement of hikers doing Cadair, and after explaining that I had to hit certain summits and had to find the optimal route, I made my way up Cadair Idris, where I had a quick break in the hut. I felt really good at this point, I considered Cadair Idris to be halfway for the round, and after a bit of food I headed down towards Mynydd Moel, Gau Graig and eventually the A487.

I knew the descent off Gau Graig down to the A487 was a toughie, in the previous summer I climbed it during the Leventon's Line, and it really took the wheels off of me. This time though, going downwards was the challenge, and with it being in icy in places I had to be very careful and climb down in places. Once I was off the steep bit, I soon got to the road crossing where I had another short break. At this point, I started to feel pretty knackered and with food supplies running low I knew it would be a few more hours before I was finished.

The last section was a slog, the climb up towards Waun-oer was not too bad, but once I was on top the boggy ground was frozen solid and made the going underfoot pretty uncomfortable. I remember at this point feeling pretty worn out and just having to walk long sections. Eventually, I did reach Maesglase, where I got a slight boost of energy, and once I got to Craig Portas there was a lovely run off down the ridge, where the ground became much softer. However, there would be one last hurdle with navigational difficulties including a fence crossing to meet a path that gets to the road.

Once reaching the road, I soon started trying to push out a pace, wanting to get back now. This part was very tough, and one memory that sticks out was seeing the village of Aberllefenni and thinking that was Corris, not knowing that Corris was in fact another 2 miles away!

I clambered into town, and with the tradition knocked the community centre door, only to get a bemused person answering. I soon explained the run and the tradition and then set back to the car, a short bit of respite before the drive home.

Lessons learnt

I was glad to get around in 11 hours and 40 minutes. However, in retrospect I would maybe do it on more fresh legs next time, and also maybe carry some more food to not feel so worn. The difficulty was packing enough layers to be safe and also enough provisions to get around. Maybe this would be better dealt with a slightly bigger bag.

I would also prefer to have spent more time with familiarisation of the route, the route is not well trodden so it is navigationally quite a challenge, and there are different options that could make a big difference on the day.