Pete's Eats - The well known walker's and climber's caff in Llanberis.

Weather Links

MWIS. Weather forecast for Snowdonia.

Met Office. 5 day mountain forecast.

Snowdonia Snowline - Daily record of the Carneddau Snowline.

Metcheck weather - Longer range forecasts.

Advertise your Snowdonia Business here! Email for info.

Accuweather

Snowdon Weather Station Project. Weather data and Webcams of Elidir Fawr and Moel Eilio.

Snowdon Sherpa Bus Timetables

Welsh Highland Railway.

Travelline Wales.

theTrainline - Timetables and online booking

The Welsh 3000s - website just about the 14 peaks.

The BMC - British Mountaineering Council.

The Mountain Bothy Association - yes, there are bothies in Eryri...

TAC - The Angry Corrie Scottish hillwalking fanzine, read it free.

Eryri - Snowdonia National Park.

Oggy Cam . Ogwen Mountain Rescue and a Ogwen Valley webcam.

BBC North West Wales.

Graham's Wales Photos. Loads of excellent pics on Eryri in here.

North Wales Photographs Beautiful photos of North Wales by Simon Kitchin.

Cambrian Mountains National Park A 'Should-Be' fourth welsh national park.

Snowdonia Society Charity which looks after the interests onf the National Park.

eryriway.org.uk Sister site to walkeryri, emphasising long distance trails.

Carnedd Moel Siabod from Pen y Gwryd
Distance and Ascent 11 km / 700m OS Map Required OS Explorer 17 & 18 Landranger 150 Time 4.5 hours Difficulties Navigation skill is needed over initial boggy, pathless sections. Start Location Pen y Gwryd, park in layby nearby. End Location Capel Curig. Grading Moderate Facilities Hotel and bar at PYG, Shop, cafe, pubs in Capel. Public Transport Sherpa Buses to and from Pen y Gwryd and Capel Curig. GPS Files

Carnedd Moel Siabod is probably better ascended from the Capel Curig side, possibly byscrambling up Daear Ddu.This walk was more of an addon to a wild camp than anything else, but shows you can ascend Siabod from this side too if you fancy a change.

The walk starts from opposite the Pen y Gwryd hotel. There's a stile here, cross over it and follow the path past the pill box and veer right. The path becomes faint in places, and rather boggy. I found this out about the same time as i realised that it wasn't the best walk to be testing out my Scarpa Helium trail shoes. So, a new record was set for getting feet wet during the walk of eight minutes. Was I glad I'd packed extra socks.

As the path is quite faint, you might be best heading uphill to your left. You arrive within about ten minutes at some rock outcrops, with a large flat, boggy expanse between you and the ascent route. The best bet here is to keep right, where there are some grassy rock outcrops, and skirt around the boggy section. Just past this, the route starts to go uphill again along a river. This was to be our wild camp for the night. It had taken us over half an hour to cover the terrain, which considering how rough it was, was quite respectable.

The pitch was probably one of the best ones i've found. Pristine, plentiful water supply that was easily accessible and flat. Oh, and probably the best view of the Snowdon Horseshoe that you can get from anywhere. If you need one reason to do this walk, it has to be the view. As they say, seeing is believing, so click on the picture to the right and see for yourself.

The sun had set while we pitched the tent, but instead of the Horseshoe we were rewarded with an exceptionally starry night. The Milky Way was visible, and we ended up cooking and eating outside until about 9pm. The lights from cars on the Llanberis Pass occasionally illuminated us, reminding us that we weren't that far from civilisation. We observed lights low on Snowdon for a while too, wondering what they were up to. I can imagine that a small group of people were camped there, staring intently at the small lights moving about low on Moel Siabod and wondering what we were up to.

Morning was later than planned. I blame that on the luxurious Exped down matress I had lain on. So it was about 10am by the time we'd restarted out walk, and we continued along the stream and headed for the rocky outcrops above.

It's very much a head for the skyline, but avoiding bogs, sort of route and you aren't likely to keep your feet dry for most of it. The point on the map you are heading for is Bwlch Rhiw'r Ychen, and just prior to this, there's a large expanse of bog. We veered left around it, towards a fence we spotted. This fence is shown on the map, and at SH 676 542 four fences converge. Cross the stile and keep to the left, and you soon start uphill.

The walk up to Siabod from this side is quite grassy, and with little drama. The highlights are the views down to Llynnoedd Diwaunydd, and views back over to Yr Wyddfa (why you should be walking this route in reverse). After an inital climb, you descend a short slope before the ascent begins in earnest. It's not a slog, it's mostly a gently climb, with a few sharp pulls. The biggest decision is which side of the fence to ascend. There is a path on both sides, but we kept left as it was the clearest path.

Towards the summit, the path does fade out. The best bet is to stay close to the fence as you near the summit as the path follows that for most of the way. The fence isn't on the map, but is a continuation of the fence that is shown, along the parish boundary markings (the ... symbol). The summit itself is to the right on the plateau, and is only a brief walk off the path to the trig point. Views are extensive, but the haze had cut this off today. At the very least you can look down the impressive Daear Ddu and wished you'd come up that way.

Leave the summit towards the shelter, and pass it. We kept right along the summit ridge, but you need to drop off left to hit the main path. In good visiblity you can see it from the ridge and clamber down to it, but it's not too obvious otherwise. Neither is it's start so you need to be aware of where the path is - which for starters isn't on the map. Once on the path, it's an easy walk down to Capel. Some bits are boggy, others eroded, but it's reasonably easy underfoot.

The final section is a pleasant walk down through the forest, which is never too steep. You will arrive at a track across the path, turn left, then immediately down a path to your right. This brings you out opposite Plas Y Brenin. Cross the footbridge, admire the iconic view of the Horseshoe, and follow the path to the main road. Turn right here and you are by the Pinnacle Stores in 5 mins.

Height Profile of the route (image courtesy of Tracklogs)

General Links

Snowdonia attractions Several great reviews about some of Snowdonia's better known attractions. 

English-welsh dictionary Links and resources to help you translate that welsh word into English.

Walking shoes - Another site that I found that sells walking shoes online.

Merrell Walking Shoes from fitnessfootwear.com, decent little site i found for Merrell walking shoes.

Whalley Warm and Dry - paramo stockists, great service and range.

V-G Walking and Backpacking. Inspirational website detailing one to three (and more) day walks around the UK.

Trekking Britain. Route descriptions & experience as opposed to guide book.

OutdoorsMagic - Forum based website, lots of information on here.

Phil George - Mountain Leader Training in Llanberis.

Peak and Fell Walking - A photographic guide to walking in Britain's National Parks.

Wild Tramp.co.uk - New site on walking in the UK. Looks promising.

Tracklogs IMHO the best mapping for PC.

MemoryMap Still good, but route handling clumsier.

Viewranger mapping for smartphones.

Fugawi and Anquet are also popular.

Quo The new kid on the block.

Open Street Map - Open source mapping as featured on this site.

Multimap - Free online mapping.

Get a Map - Free online mapping from the OS

Access Land in Wales - online mapping from CCW.