17 - 18 February
14 of us headed to Bath’s closest mountains for two days of superb walking in sunshine and mist, through rivers and lots of mud...
Once Kirsten had got over the 4x4’s sexiness (having spent 15 minutes sat in the cab, stationary, “de-icing” it…) we loaded up and spent 2 hours on the road before arriving at the Cwm Gwdi car park, north of Pen y Fan. The sun was glorious, almost spring-like, and put us in good spirits as we started up the Cefn Cwm Llwch ridge to Pen y Fan itself. Only the top 20m were at all icy, which made for a little interesting scrambling.
We queued for the group photo among the tourists before making our descent eastwards, aiming for Cribyn, where we were rewarded with the most stunning lunch view. The final peak was Fan y Big, a fine vantage point for the awesome ridge line we had just taken. The descent along Cefn Cyff was easy enough, before we ducked into the Cwm Cynwyn valley, whereupon we encountered a river crossing...with no bridge! Most made fine work of getting across barefoot, whilst some battled through the undergrowth determinedly to find a dry route.
We arrived at our bunkhouse (Llangors Activity Centre, v nice) weary but satisfied and spent the evening cooking, eating and watching the winter olympics.
Sunday dawned cloudy but mostly dry and we headed east to the Black Mountains, with two of our party staying at the activity centre to sample the climbing (quite tricky, apparently). Parking was the hardest part of the day, since the verges were soft as butter and the tyres seemed to have as much tread as a pair of climbing shoes. The van was almost lost to the ditch, but much “left hand down!”-ing and “a few more revs!”-ing and “watch out!!”-ing saw us right.
The route took us on a nice wander up to a broad, gently sloping ridge heading southwards. The mist was thick above 500m, making navigation a fun challenge and the views very white. A descent down a ridge from Pen Twyn Glas and onto the riverside track took us north back to the precariously parked van, which required some pushing and shoving to free from the mud. It emerged from the weekend very dirty.
The weekend was huge fun, made all the better by great company and very little rain! Having never been to the Beacons, I found it a really enjoyable, gorgeous set of mountains, which is actually very close to Bath, making the one night option ideal. As always, thanks to Rob, Kirsten and Andy for driving and to everyone who came for bringing smiles and laughter :)
NW
Routes
Saturday
Sunday
