[Sorry - just found this in my "Drafts" folder from before Christmas. Back when I was still full of naïve hope that I might actually get some winter routes in this year. I'm not bitter. Honest.]
Last weekend I found myself having to travel to my parents' house near Chester on Friday night, so I took the opportunity to grab a quick snowy round of Moel Siabod with James.
Given a strict timetable, we needed something easily accessible and fun, but not hard enough to involve ropes and associated faff. We settled on the east ridge of Moel Siabod, Daear Ddu (Grade I/II). The first early start of the season in the truck set us off towards Snowdonia, and I started playing with time lapse photography on the iPhone. Whilst still requiring some tinkering, the results were quite interesting (below). As we pulled into the car park at Capel, the unwanted sideways motion of the truck suggested it was a little icy. Having finally skidded our way into a parking spot, I jumped out and promptly fell flat on my back on the ice; you'll notice I appear only momentarily at the end of the time-lapse sequence, as I spent most of that time writhing around on the floor in a mixture of agony and hysterics.
Time lapse video. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.
Nevertheless, a quick blast of christmas Mariah Carey on the radio soon sorted me out, and we set off up the horrifically steep tarmac road to the start of the hill proper. At about 08:30 we passed an old chap on his way down; his assessment of conditions higher up? "Grim". Excellent. There was surprisingly little snow low down, but as we passed through the old mine workings and crossed the cwm to the bottom of the ridge the cover increased steadily.
View towards Betws y Coed and the Conwy Valley. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.
I've waxed lyrical about how much I love this ridge before, so I won't do it again. I had actually run this route a couple of weeks earlier (didn't get around to blogging about that one) and with the ludicrous weather in the intervening days it was a different prospect now. It was snowing heavily by this point, and with our increased height things were looking pretty white. With the consistenly low temperatures of the past couple of weeks, it was still all powdery and unconsolidated.
Moel Siabod looking snowy but fairly pleasant. Copyright Haydn Williams 2010.
The ridge is graded as I/II apparently, but it really didn't feel like that at all. I think we took the most sporting line. Crampons and axes were definitely not required, with progress being made through a combination of brushing six inches of snow off holds, and kicking steps in slightly more consolidated cracks and corners. An hour later we were stood on the summit. The old bloke from earlier turned out to be completely wrong, as apart from all-round cloud and a stiff breeze it was fine up top. Given our impending deadline, we scuttled quickly down the north ridge (via the most amazingly accurate compass bearing I think I've ever taken).
Despite not needing any pointy implements, it was nice to get back out in the white stuff for the first time this year. There's a new Welsh winter guide out before Christmas so hopefully we'll be able to get out again soon!
