I set out and gave Neil a call, but he said he had some DIY to complete and couldn't get away, so I offered to help him complete the DIY when we got back if he came along. He didn't need much persuading and we were soon ready to go - well I say ready to go - Neil was uanble to find some of his hill gear after his wife had 'tidied it up', but the weather looked set fair so it was unlikely he'd need is primaloft jacket!
We decided on Moel Siabod as it's closest to Neil's house - 30 minutes drive then a couple of hours up and down. As we neared Capel Curig Neil pointed out some grey clouds starting to move in and break up the clear blue sky, but ever the optimist I said that I didnt think the weather would change before we were back at the car. Furthermore the snow looked quite patchy so I decided to leave my crampons in the car!
We set off at 12.45 for an ascent from the south. Neil set a blistering pace and I started to drop back; as I was working so hard to keep up I didn't really notice the weather closing in until we paused after about 30 minutes when I put my outer shell on to keep out the wind. As we got into the snow line we were initially able to stick to rocky sections, but as we climbed higher the snow covering was more widespread and in parts frozen solid so that crampons would have certainly been useful.
I never really got over the fast start so the final push to the summit seemed much steeper than I knew it to be - I was certainly relieved to reach to trig point at which I turned immediately and headed for the nearby shelter.
- Me on Moel Siabod
- Neil on Siabod
We paused for a quick bite to eat, but there wasn't much shelter and we both became chilled fairly quickly (especially Neil as he didn't have his primaloft jacket!) and headed off towards Plas y Brennin after taking a quick bearing, (Neil had to call me back after we set off as I was just following my sense of direction up ahead of him when he had the compass).
Once beneath the snow line we followed the path to Cobdens pub then walked back to the car along the road arriving at 15.15.
