If you’ve ever travelled up the A5 to Snowdon or the Glyderau then there’s no doubt you would have noticed it. You head out of Betws y Coed and reach a clearing just after Ty Hyll (misleadingly – The Ugly House) and there towering above the left hand side of the road: Moel Siabod. You are suddenly transported from the Conwy Valley’s wooded hills to the rugged mountains of northern Snowdonia. The peak looms over the village of Capel Curig almost as a guardian of the junction between the Mymbyr and Ogwen Valleys. The point where the Moelwynion, Glyderau and Carneddau ranges meet.
At 872m high it falls short of achieving Welsh 3000 status and those who have only viewed Moel Siabod from the summit of Snowdon or Glyder Fach can be forgiven for dismissing it as a bump on the skyline worthy of little thought or time. This cannot be further from the truth and Siabod protects it’s secrets well.
The Daear Ddu ridge rises on the western flank of the mountain from the glacial cwm which is now home to Llyn y foel. An excellent grade 1 scramble the ridge gains over 300m of height and finishes at the summit. It provides perfect ground to develop scrambling skills as you search out or avoid the difficulties as you so wish. You can certainly find some grade 2 steps if you go looking yet if you’ve got a good nose for route finding can avoid all of the tricky sections if you so wish.
To access the ridge the best place to start is either the Siabod Cafe (good food and cheap parking) or in the lay by just before you get to the bridge Pont Cyfyng (heading towards Capel Curig). From either parking place you need to head up the road and over the bridge. Continue on the road through Pont Cyfyng until there is a fork with the right hand branch heading up a reasonbly steep gradient. Head up the road until it turns right and a footpath sign directs you straight on up a gravel track. Follow this briefly until it rejoins the road. Go over a stile by some idylic holiday cottages and head up into open moorland. As you walk through this keep you eyes peeled for the Wheatears, Chats and Pipits that will serenade your passage.
After another stile the terrain changes and the track is soon hugging the bank of a small llyn. You then wind you way up a little higher and find yourself among the ruined buildings and small quarry workings which were abandoned in the late 19th century. The track twists and turns a few times though the old workings and then finds itself back in an area of moorland. Soon enough you reach a crest and can see Llyn y foel and there behind it the Daear Ddu ridge rising up across the skyline to the summit.
Now you have a couple of options. You can take a direct line straight across to the bwlch that marks the start of the ridge. This will involve a bit of bog hopping and most likely wet feet. The extent of the wetness will depend on the ability to pick a good route but mostly luck. The other option is to take a wide line to the right (as you’re looking at the ridge) around the cwm. This does still come with a risk of wet feet but with a much higher likelihood of avoiding the inevitable.
Once you reach the bwlch the fun begins. To get the most scrambling out of the route you want to try and keep as direct line as possible. Nearly always any trickiness can be avoided by heading left (facing up the ridge). There are a few tricky steps that can be sought out but are only there if you want to go looking for them. Now depending on conditions the ridge can feel anything from a summer stroll in clear skys to a full alpine experience in low visibility and slippy conditions underfoot. On a quite day in such conditions it can feel quite out there. I know a couple of people who have got to the bottom of the ridge and turned around and headed home because of this. On the other side of the coin in perfect weather it can be a great first scramble for an experienced hill goer. I’ve regularly used it to develop peoples confidence moving over difficult terrain.
Whatever the weather once the ground levels out the summit trig point will not be far from reach. If the sky’s are clear the view is unforgettable across all of the Welsh 3000 foot mountains. As a famous travel presenter once said “sometimes it is better to be in a hole and look at a castle than to be in a castle and look in a hole!” Once the panoramics are taken and peaks identified the best route down is to head in North Easterly direction at first across boulders and then a stone strewed grass bank to meet a heavily eroded path. This leads all the way down to the woods above Capel Curig. Once you reach the woods there are various tracks which all bring you back to the road.
So Moel Siabod may not be the highest peak and from some angles may appear little more than a rolling hill that would be more at home in the Brecon Beacons. But this hill is a middleweight who swings like a heavyweight. It’s a fantastic day out for everyone and provides a perfect playground to anyone who wants to take their hill walking into more serious terrain