Paul Lydon: Moel Siabod

We had planned on a weekend away and decided on North Wales. The weather looked good for Saturday, but, dire for Sunday. It doesn't take that long to drive to Snowdonia so we decided to go for Saturday anyway and drive there on Friday night.
We camped at the usual camp site at Dolgam, Capel Curig, which charges the very reasonable £5 per person per night.
We arrived after 21:00 and by the time the tent was up and sorted, it was 22:00 so we got into our sleeping bags.
In the morning it was a bit overcast, but there was enough of a gap in the clouds to allow the sun to light up Moel Siabod and to even light up a bit of a rainbow as there was a bit of moisture in the air.
We had some cereal and a brew of tea, then packed up everything into the car to head for the Pinnacles café up the road. We found some parking space in the car park behind Joe Brown's shop and then found the café was full. As it was around 09:30, the usual morning breakfast rush was in full swing. So we spent half an hour wandering around Joe Brown's and then after returning to the café we found there was plenty of room. By the time we had eaten breakfast, there was only one table take as we were leaving!
So, the objective today was Moel Siabod via the Daear Ddu ridge which leads up from Llyn Foel to near the summit.
We parked in the large layby near the Pont Cyfyng bridge and after getting our boots on, we set off down the road towards the bridge. Just as we got there a vary large group of walkers (about 30 or so) were also heading for the bridge and then up the minor road beyond so we let them pass and took off slowly so that we had some distance from the group.
At the first stile where the footpath leaves the minor road, we caught them up as they all crossed the small ladder stile. I walked up the hill beyond passing the group but Karen wasn't happy with the faster pace so I waited at the next stile until most of the group had gone by again and Karen caught up.
We continued onwards and soon arrived at the old quarry ruins where we had turned around due to the bad weather on our last trip. We decided to have a stop here and make a hot drink to allow the large group to get on ahead as we didn't fancy making our way along the ridge with such alarge group around.
Of course, they also decided to have a stop nearby. Rats. At least they set off again before we did.
We approached Llyn y Foel and the impressive Daead Ddu ridge cam into view ahead. We also spotted the large group had stopped by the lake for lunch so we pressed on over the small section of boggy ground and then followed a narrow footpath.
The is seemed to swing past the foot of the ridge and started to rise on the other side. We seemed to be missing out on the ridge altogether but we were enjoying the amazing views, especially when the whole of the Snowdon Horseshoe appeared ahead along with the Glyders, with the top section of Tryfan easy to make out.
A pair of men walkers were following us up the path and were also enjoying the views.
After passing an area of rocky ground we suddenly arrived at the summit with its trig point made of cemented together rock and a large circular wind-break made of piled up rocks nearby.
It was a bit cold in the wind and we found a sheltered hollow among the boulders and rocks near the trig point where we sat and began to have lunch.
So far the weather had been dry except for the odd drop of rain but we could see some ominous dark clouds approaching rapidly from the direction of the Glyders. Soon we were in the rain shower so we pulled my two person bothy bag over ourselves and continued with lunch. In the meantime individuals from some of the large group we had seen earlier were arriving from the direction of the ridge and congregating around the trip point.
The shower soon died out leaving a patch of mist for a while as we were in the cloud but that soon passed and the sun started reappearing.
We headed off towards the north-west to join a large obvious path which dropped towards Plas y Brenin far below.
We reached a track passing through some woods and we followed the track to the right and then another path through the woods which brought us to a footbridge across the river opposite Cobdens Hotel.
We only had to follow the footpath along the road heading towards Betws-y-coed for a short distance to reach our starting point.

We got our boots off and stopped off in Betws-y-coed for a meal in the chip shop before driving home.