It was a couple of weeks ago..a day I shall not forget..I would say without a shadow of doubt,the best walk for a year or two. It was snowing heavily as I pulled into the car park behind the Pinnacle stores in Capel curig..Now don't get me wrong, I love to see it snowing, but ever since I left the road on a snowy bend in the Lake district a few years back leaving me stranded for a couple of hours....I have always been a bit cautious of driving in it..The idea of getting stuck in the snow terrifies me...so here I was sitting in the car all alone watching the snow covering everything...do I go out into it or not?...after 10 minutes I decided to go for it...You only live once...The hill I had come to climb today is Moel Siabod at 2,861ft it is the highest peak in the Moelwynion mountain range.Didnt know if I could make it up to the summit in these conditions but I was going to have a jolly good try. I set off along the road passing Plas y Brenin [The national mountain centre]. Dropping down I passed Llynnau Mymbyr..Here the camera made its first appearance of the day.
I picked a path up through the woodland that covers the lower slopes of the mountain...Easy going and the snow was easing ..Walking along that rising path through the woods there are plenty of things to take ones mind off the gradient..The tracks of Red deer..The thin song of the Goldcrest...The tinkling beck beside you...Suddenly a White mountain Hare bolts off...Things you feel privileged to see and hear out here in the wilds..Suddenly and without warning you are free of the tree line...You look back often.
I looked ahead to where the path should have been rising up and up across the Northern flanks of this huge mountain..Of course there was no path to be seen today as the snow had put paid to that...following a path would have been too easy..as long as I kept going upwards I knew I would eventually make it up to the ridge..The conditions were perfect.
It got a bit tiring at times, sinking in knee deep at times but I couldn't give up now..i stopped for something hot to drink before carrying on, the view ahead of Yr Wyddfa drawing me on ...it was like a magnet.
Eventually I made it up to the rocky ridge..From here I could see the trig point a few hundred yards away to my right, That few hundred yards turned out to be the hardest part of the day as I turned and walked straight into the wind...With the snow stinging my face I struggled onwards. no giving up now.
Suddenly I was there...stood by the summit Trig point...I had made it...There is no better feeling than that feeling you get on reaching the top...For this is what I set out to do those few hours earlier when I left the car...I don't like to rush summits but on a day like today I needed to get down off this windy top...firstly and more importantly a few photographs...There was a pink glow in the sky over towards Cadair idris...There seemed to be the mother of all storms kinging off on Snowdon and the Carneddau were gone from view..i spent a special few minutes up there before moving on.
The plan was to follow the rocky ridge as it drops down gently..All good and well on a clear day but in these conditions up here on my own I thought again...after half an hour of slipping, at times thigh deep between snow covered rocks I realised how easy it would be to break a limb...I decided to wimp out...I wanted to fight another day...only a fool would have carried on..I ran, sliped and stumbled down the slopes of the mountain to pick up the path that I had walked up on earlier.
I soon found my footprints from earlier in the day, although they had more or less been filled with windblown snow....The rest was a doddle..I met a bloke coming up as I neared the tree line...we stood for 10 minutes chatting [mainly about mountains but also about beer]….He was off to the summit to watch the sunset and to take photographs...I told him of the pink glow in the sky...he got rather excited and set off at pace...It had been a great day..A day that had left me wanting more....and believe you me there will be more days like this to come.....
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