Snowdonia / Moel Siabod

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I arrived in Nant Peris around 7pm and met fellow FC members Pete, Paddy and Gill in the Vaynol Arms. We decided on climbing Snowdon and another mountain. After pitching my tent in the campsite opposite the Vaynol Arms we headed up the road for fish and chips. Before decking down for the night we sank a few ciders outside the tents and took in the great views provided by the full moon.
The overnight temperature really dropped and i awoke to a frozen tent and field. After breakfest we headed for Snowdon but the car park was full, so Pete took us to Moel Siabod which is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, which sits isolated above the villages of Betws-y-Coed and Capel Curig. It is the highest peak in the Moelwynion mountain range at 872 m (2861 ft).
The climb up was a bit of a variant on the normal route, we decided on a scramble up the gully rather than the ridge ascent, this provided some challenging scarmbling up, but nothing to brutal. On the top we stopped for a quick snack and the usual trig pictures. We made our descent via a forest and were soon back at the car. We stopped off at the pub/hotel used by Tenzing and Hillary when practising for Everest. Once back at the campsite Pete cooked up his very hot chilli and we headed off to the Vaynol for some drinks before retiring back to the tents.

On Sunday morning we quickly put the tents and gear into the cars and headed off for Snowdonia carpark, which was not full thankfully. After a breakfast in the cafe we headed off up the miners track to tackle Snowdonia the highest peak in Wales. The Summit is known as Yr Wyddfa and lies at an altitude of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. In terms of 'absolute height' it is the same height as Table Mountain in South Africa

The conditions were close to perfect for a winter ascent. Soon we had our crampons out and heading for the final push to the summit. The summit was a windy, brutal, cold winter peak, i would say it was close to being full white out conditins. After quickly eating our snacks and making a call to Leanne we headed off back the way we came, this time speeded up by being able to slide down most of it on our backsides. On our way down we bumped into some alpinists who had tackled the near vertical gully instead of the usual track route. Back at the car i said my goodbyes and headed off home very pleased with my winter weekend in Wales.

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