Convoluted scrambling up Siabod

Posted by Sam Harrison on January 12, 2011 at 00:30.

 Hill walking

scrambling siabod snowdonia

Moel Siabod is often overlooked, falling short of the 3000 foot mark but only just, standing at 2861 feet. It is no less of a mountain than its taller counterparts however, and boasts a number of interesting and varied ascents with arguably some of Snowdonia's most rugged and interesting scenery. The best of this scenery can be seen via the ascent of the mountain's east ridge, Daear Ddu (Black Earth). The ridge offers a variety of different paths, mostly scrambling of lower-end grade 1 difficulty, but this can nearly all be bypassed. It is a great introduction for those less experienced.

I received both Nuttall's books for Christmas and as Siabod was one of the first mountains I ever climbed (at the age of 5) I decided it would be the first walk from the books I completed. I was certain I had never done this exact route before, but I'm now having second thoughts as I recognised a good deal of it. I did the walk  today on my own - I saw a brief spell of good weather on the forecast and decided to go for it. I was hoping for a bit of snow but unfortunately it had all thawed.

Start point: Pont Cyfyng, SH 735 571
Summit: Moel Siabod
Distance: 6 miles / 9.7 kilometres
Ascent: 2400 feet

The weather forecast wasn't entirely accurate as the first mile of my walk was in pouring rain. It did clear up slightly but there was still a considerable amount of cloud about, hence the lack of photos.

From Pont Cyfyng, a tarmac track crosses the river by the Cyfyng Falls. A signposted footpath branches off this and winds its way up to the disused Rhos Quarry first of all, and then the natural lake Llyn y Foel. The path is very well defined and well used right up to the start of the Daear Ddu ridge itself. From here it's theoretically as easy as following the ridge right up to the summit, picking the difficulty of route you wish. However I made the mistake of branching off too far to the west on a path that seemed to be skirting right around the southern aspect of the mountain. I decided to leave this path and as a result ended up heading directly north onto the summit (instead of north-west along the ridge), a route that involved some pretty tricky scrambling. So, a word of warning, it is by far best to stick as close to the ridge as possible!

The summit itself was very icy, but with only the odd patch of left-over snow. I stopped for lunch in the small shelter and managed the below photo in a momentary break of cloud.

Summit of Moel Siabod
 


A compass bearing led me off the summit and down to Coed Bryn Engan, a small forest with a network of different sized tracks that eventually led me back to the A5, albeit about half a mile further down the road than I intended.
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