Moel Siabod disappoints
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:50 pmI was getting withdrawal symptoms not having done any serious scrambling for well over 6 months. After the wet early spring the forecast of a dry and sunny weekend sent me searching online and thumbing through my guidebooks for a suitable grade 1/2 route. The challenge was where to go? I live in Preston and had done most of the 3 star routes in the Lakes and Wales such as Striding Edge, Sharp Edge, Jacks Rake, Tryfan N Ridge, Crib Goch and Bristly Ridge etc. I was running out of clean good routes within 100 miles. In addition to running out of options I decided that the Lakes would be too busy and happened upon a recommended route named the Daear Ddu ridge on the back of a hill called Moel Siabod near Capel Curig. It seemed to be sustained grade 1 so off I went early one bright sunny Sunday morning. I knew there were roadworks on the A55 at Colwyn Bay which had been causing misery but my sat nav took me off at Abergele and after negotiating some very narrow roads and an altercation with a pick-up truck I arrived at Capel Curig and parked, eventually.
The approach from Pont Cyfyng was along a very boggy track through some atmospheric abandoned quarry workings. The bog became tedious but eventually my objective came into sight and in silhouette it looked rather impressive with the promise of some airy scrambling. After negotiating some more gooey boot sucking gunk I arrived at the bottom of the ridge. The day had held fair with a mix of sun and clouds but it certainly wasn’t the wall-to-wall sunshine forecast by the BBC. I started off over some boulders and soon arrived at an interesting-looking steep smooth corner which could be avoided on the right. This proved to be quite awkward and greasy with a few delicate moves to regain the crest. This was definitely into rock climbing territory and certainly at grade 2. Great I thought “bring it on”. However, unfortunately that was it. The ridge belied its appearance and the rest of it was just a steep walk with a few problems here and there. From above it appeared well defined but apart from the initial steep corner, which can be bypassed, it offered no real interest unless you count some impressive slabs and drop-offs. Its barely grade 1.
After one final scramble section I arrived on the summit rather disappointed and unsatisfied. Well at least it was a great day with extensive views and the brooding sawtooth of Tryfan grabbing the attention to the west. I had even got some exercise and honed my skills in ploutering through bogs! The long boulder strewn summit shoulder yielded a few problems before giving way to long soggy grass slopes leading down to the Capel Curig path on the north side. I use the description “path” reservedly because it was a hazardous mixture of water course, cork screws, slippery bog, rock-ribs, ankle breaking rocks and rock bands. Apart from that it was fine! And to cap it all I spent 30mins crawling through the roadworks on the A55. I would not recommend this route.
The approach from Pont Cyfyng was along a very boggy track through some atmospheric abandoned quarry workings. The bog became tedious but eventually my objective came into sight and in silhouette it looked rather impressive with the promise of some airy scrambling. After negotiating some more gooey boot sucking gunk I arrived at the bottom of the ridge. The day had held fair with a mix of sun and clouds but it certainly wasn’t the wall-to-wall sunshine forecast by the BBC. I started off over some boulders and soon arrived at an interesting-looking steep smooth corner which could be avoided on the right. This proved to be quite awkward and greasy with a few delicate moves to regain the crest. This was definitely into rock climbing territory and certainly at grade 2. Great I thought “bring it on”. However, unfortunately that was it. The ridge belied its appearance and the rest of it was just a steep walk with a few problems here and there. From above it appeared well defined but apart from the initial steep corner, which can be bypassed, it offered no real interest unless you count some impressive slabs and drop-offs. Its barely grade 1.
After one final scramble section I arrived on the summit rather disappointed and unsatisfied. Well at least it was a great day with extensive views and the brooding sawtooth of Tryfan grabbing the attention to the west. I had even got some exercise and honed my skills in ploutering through bogs! The long boulder strewn summit shoulder yielded a few problems before giving way to long soggy grass slopes leading down to the Capel Curig path on the north side. I use the description “path” reservedly because it was a hazardous mixture of water course, cork screws, slippery bog, rock-ribs, ankle breaking rocks and rock bands. Apart from that it was fine! And to cap it all I spent 30mins crawling through the roadworks on the A55. I would not recommend this route.
