UKC

I'm in Snowdonia this weekend with the family and planning a mountain walk Sunday with Mrs BattyMilk, my BIL and my 16yr old nephew.

Other than being dragged up Slieve Donard in the rain my wife has no hill walking experience and my BIL less than that. They're both fit though. Newphew has been climbing with me a bit and does long and multi day walks in the Purbecks on his weekends with his friends.

Newphew wants to go up Snowdon but I'm guessing it's going to be rammed on the main routes with the Easter weekend and forecasted weather.

What would you recommend? Would like nice views, away from the crowds, easy to park on a busy weekend, up to 6/7hrs and not too spicy. A bit of scrambing would be OK but I'd rather not take them on a "scramble".

Cheers

Park in the FREE car park in Creosor village. Walk up Cnicht. (Short section of grade 1 scramble in final section). Come back down the same way or.. continue as per Cnicht circular walk if people are keen and progress/weather is good.

https://www.mudandroutes.com/routes/croesor-to-cnicht-circuit/

Look in at Oriel caffi Creosor (weekends 12:00 to 18:00) for a cup of tea and slice of cake

It's always worth checking our Route Cards on UKH for ideas.

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/find.php

Two obvious answers:

Cnicht https://www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/?i=127

Moel Siabod via Daear Ddu ridge https://www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/?i=119

I was going to suggest Cnicht too, but from the Nanmor side. Start from Gelli Iago, possibly taking in Llynnau Gerrig y Myllt and descending via Llyn yr Adar and Llyn Llagi. 

Having just checked Dan’s reply, the route card for Cnicht is the route I was recommending. 

Cadair Idris is the finest mountain in Wales, if not the UK, if not the world.

Could go up Snowdon from the Rhydd Ddu / South Ridge side. Will probably be much quieter than the other routes and you can giggle in smugness at the chaos on the top.

Cnicht is good and feels remote but you could be forgiven for feeling short changed with the height

Could go up the Carneddau too but parking might be laugh on Easter weekend, unless there's a way up from the other side 

Bit of a drive if in N. Snowdonia!

Moel Hebog from Beddgelert is a brilliant mountain. Easy access, some fun grade one scrambling with no exposure and fantastic views. For me it's one of the best mountains in the UK.

Moelwyn Bach via Cwmorthin and Rhosydd is a pretty memorable day out. Mostly fairly easy going and there's a lot to see.

Aye but which part of Eryri wasn't specified.

I'd second the Moel Siabod suggestion. Lovely walk in, gradually revealing Llyn-y-foel and the ridge. An easy but exciting scramble and outstanding views from the top. It won't take you 6 hrs unless very leisurely.

Snowdon will be an horrendous ants nest.

Those lakes are lovely, would make this an excellent choice too.

Agreed, there's more interesting walks up those parts than Cnicht's voie normale, but the walkers being taken were less experienced and... heaven forbid, some kind of route finding trial (which can happen particularly in those parts if the weather closes in) could put them off for life. If they were all more experienced I'd be recommending something more like you did, perhaps the circular walk past Lly Stwlan and up Moelwyn Mawr. One of the most spectacular sights I've seen in Wales was the height of the huge storm in Feb half term last year (red alert, stay at home) looking up at Llyn Stwlan in a gap in the clouds and it looked like it was on fire? with huge clouds of white "smoke" billowing from it, the water was being blown away! Spectacular area even if you limit yourself to staying above ground, easily rivals the "bigger" hills in my opinion. Anyhow, not for OP's weekend but anyone interested in the area should consider this one too

https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/wales/gwynedd/llyn-stwlan-circular

Agreed, there's more interesting walks up those parts than Cnicht's voie normale, but the walkers being taken were less experienced and... heaven forbid, some kind of route finding trial (which can happen particularly in those parts if the weather closes in) could put them off for life.

If they were all more experienced I'd be recommending something more like you did, perhaps the circular walk past Llyn Stwlan and up Moelwyn Mawr. One of the most spectacular sights I've seen in Wales was the height of the huge storm in Feb half term last year (red alert, stay at home) looking up at Llyn Stwlan in a gap in the clouds and it looked like it was on fire? with huge clouds of white "smoke" billowing from it, the water was being blown away! (Don't worry it was getting filled up again just as quickly).

Spectacular area even if you limit yourself to staying above ground, easily rivals the "bigger" hills in my opinion. Anyhow, not for OP's weekend but anyone interested in the area should consider this one too

https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/wales/gwynedd/llyn-stwlan-circular

Edit: why does spelling "correct" remove the "n" from Llyn?

Really? I'd say it's one of the easier ones. Half of it is the slate trail (reverse this to start: https://snowdoniaslatetrail.org/section-8-croesor-to-tanygrisiau/), then turn off basically anywhere, there are at least 3 opportunities but I'd recommend the old inclines, and head up above the upper reservoir. The return leg is down the reservoir road so pretty easy not to get lost and it's obvious which way to bail if it gets too much at any point. Paths were all fine at the beginning of last year and it was definitely less tiring and more interesting than Snowdon from llanberis.

Thanks all for the fantastic suggestions. I have read, looked into and shared all your recommendations with the family. Seems my nephew is hell bent on ticking off Snowdon so we’ll likely do Snowdon via Rhyd Ddu Path. 
Cheers!

If you must go up yr Wyddfa, consider the south ridge from Nant Gwynant, possibly taking in yr Aran on the way. This is my favourite route up. Descend via the Watkin path. 

I haven't been for a while but I've heard it's fairly busy up there. Have you booked a time slot for the summit?

Maybe less of a joke than people realise, in late Aug last year I was up at the summit trig of yr Wyddfa at 03:30 in not very lovely weather. You could see headtorch lights in gaps in the drizzle on every path especially Miners' Track . There was a summit queue!! seriously!!

If BattyMilk's nephew is heart set on "conquering Mount Snowdon" then he probably needs to get that out of his system before he'll appreciate routes for their quality, sure many of us in our youth "conquered" Crib Goch, Goûter route or whatever before we learned