Moel Siabod 879m - Expedition Training

Probably should have gone with my gut instincts this morning. I was running a training day for a small team of lads that I am taking away on expedition in May. The low 'blanket' of cloud remains across Snowdonia, but the forecast suggested that there was the slight chance of an inversion on the highest peaks. I'd planned on trying our luck on Crib Coch and Snowdon, but for various reasons decided to 'play it safe' and go up the slightly lower Moel Siabod instead, so I would have more time for 'teaching'. We still had a great day, but I just found out that my friend and fellow MIC went up Snowdon in the mist and when they got to the summit, the last 20m or so of the mountain were in bright sunshine and poking out of the top of the clouds! Magic! This was not the case for us.

It was a misty affair for us as we made our way around to the south ridge. We actually ended up climbing the big gully below the ridge today, which I'd not been up before. It provided some good terrain and was even holding a bit of snow in it's upper reaches, much to the delight of my group.

 

Up at the top, there wasn't much to see though!

 

While my friend was basking in sunshine about 9km away, this was our summit glory moment!

 

It wasn't exactly raining, but everything was condensating - even our eyebrows.

 

On the plus side, the thick mists meant that we actually needed to use the map and compass, to navigate safely from the summit. It's not often I need to do this in North Wales, so it was great to be able to demonstrate 'real life' usage to my group.

 

As well as the tradition map and compass, we could also check and compare our progress using the Garmin GPS unit that I carry. It was reassuring to see that both methods agreed with each other! No broken spectres for us today, but a fun day non the less and I think the group even learnt a thing or two, so I'll see that as a success!