Moel Siabod sits in the northern part of Snowdonia overlooking the village of Capel Curig, so called because of the crown of boulders at the top which was said to have resembled the bald head of the Welsh prince Siabod.
However, the crown of boulders are there simply because it’s a trimline. This is an area above the line of the glacier that passed through the valley during the last ice age and remained unscoured by the glaciers passing.
It makes for an interesting mountain, a mountain of two faces. Looking from the northwest Siabod looks for all the world like a big green grassy hill with coniferous forest at its base, quite friendly looking really. However, viewing from the southeast gives a very different appearance. From this direction what you see are incredibly steep inclines made up of fragmented rock. This is further enhanced by the extensive slate quarrying that took place during the 19th century.One of the paths to the summit takes you past this quarry towards Llyn Y Foel and the start of the ascent proper, up Dear Ddu.
This is a grade 1 scramble rising along a rocky ridge taking you up to just southwest of the summit and the trig point. There is however a path that follows it’s course if you don’t feel like a scramble close to a sharp drop. This is the path I recently took my youngest son of 17, and his best friend for their first excursion up a mountain. There are other mountains I could have taken them to, less imposing, not so arduous, but probably less of a challenge, and not quite the same sense of achievement for having negotiated such a path to get to the top.
I have to say that once they started to get their mountain legs working after leaving Pont Cyfyng, they took to it really well and made the quarry and Llyn Y Foel in fairly good time. The path up Dear Ddu was a little slower obviously, but nevertheless they both made good progress and coped with the climb up remarkably well, especially my son who is afraid of heights. I’m pretty sure I was the subject of a few curses under his breath during that time as he also made a few out loud. His friend has all the hallmarks of becoming quite the mountain goat. My usual response to my son of “it’s character building” did nothing to make him feel any better. However, both of the lads forged onward and upward until we finally reached the top and we all tapped out on the trig point, and we took plenty of pictures to commemorate their stirling achievement.
After a quick respite and our lunch of pasties in the shelter cairn, we started to make our way down the ridge line back towards Pont Cyfyng. This took us over the top and along the boulder crown of Siabod, which is fairly tough going, especially for a couple of lads that have never experienced that kind of thing before. And despite a bit more cursing coming from my vertigo challenged son, we carefully made our way back down the final section of the steep path, until we were on much more secure ground, and then headed back to our start point at Pont Cyfyng and the comfort of the car.
All in all it was a great walk, challenging at points, but with the reward of some truly impressive views. Crib Goch, Yr Wyddfa, Tryfan, and Carnedd Llewellyn are just a few of the sights that can be seen from the top of Siabod. It offers a fantastic panoramic view, but only if the weather is with you. Fortunately on this occasion it was, despite a prediction for a cloud base of 650m.
Siabod has long been one of my favourite mountains. It’s a mountain with two faces, two personalities, a real Jekyll and Hyde, but if you go with care, and prepare yourself (as you should with any walk) then you’ll be rewarded with great views, a real sense of achievement, and a good workout for your knees and thighs.