With Christmas finally here I whisked myself off to Wales for the week before, but the weather didn't look good. After a satisfyingly big dollop of snow Sunday morning it all quickly melted away so that by Monday morning I was driving to Wales in heavy rain. Given the weather I decided to spend the day walking around the bookshops of Hay-on-Wye. Tuesday was forecast to be dry and sunny so I set off up to the Storey Arms at the top of the A470 road between Brecon and Cardiff. This was the point where I’d started my first ever ascent of the Brecon Beacons, back in 2000, but it has been an astonishing five years since I’d last been up the Brecon Beacons so I was eager for a return climb. It had been too long since I’d been up any mountain.
Climbing the heavily manufactured path was quite easy until I was half way up when I reached snow that had survived from the weekend. The snow had gone from most places, but the path still clung to some quite deep stretches. Walking through the snow proved to be very tiring so eventually I succumbed to walking on the edges of the path where there was no snow. Finally I reached the ridge at Bwlch Duwynt and turned south, away from the Beacons. I had come so close in such a short time, due to the 435m start at the Storey Arms, that I wouldn't have felt like I’d deserved the climb to the top of the Brecon Beacons if I'd gone straight up to the highest point from there. Instead I headed along the ridge above Craig Gwaun Taf, initially battling against strong winds that soon died down and left me with a pleasant walk and good views behind me of the snow-spattered Beacons. Unfortunately the sunny weather forecast failed to appear.
This walk was similar to the one that I did in 2000 on my first visit to the Beacons, but on that occasion I had gone in the opposite direction. The route that I took to get onto the ridge then was up a steep gully around a stream that tops at a cairn that is marked on maps, but when I got there now I found a lot of snow packed into the gully that made a descent at that point inadvisable. Instead I proceeded to the trig point on Twyn Mwyalchod, and across to the top of a badly eroded path near a pile of stones that is also marked on maps. I have taken this path several times before and it has always been in a poor condition. Given the heavily constructed nature of the paths over the Beacons you'd have thought the National Trust would have turned their attention to this path. Carefully I made my way down the crumbly path into the horribly boggy ground below where careful route-picking took me safely to the dam of Lower Neuadd Reservoir. On previous visits to the area this reservoir has always been empty, even my map showed it as being empty, but now it was full and overflowing (unlike the reservoirs I saw in the Pennines last September); it’s amazing how things change. On the other side of the dam I climbed up to the old track that goes up to Bwlch ar y Big. In 2000 I had taken this track but now I felt like extending the walk a little so I climbed the hillside opposite beside the Nant y Gloesydd. After stopping for lunch half way up the hill I eventually reached a cairn and pile of stones that is marked on the map; at that point I turned left onto the route of the Beacons Way. A bleak traverse of Gwaun Cerrig Llewydion took me to the northern edge of the Beacons looking out over Cwm Oergwm. Turning left along the edge path took me round to the top of Fan y Big, overlooking Bwlch ar y Big.
After a steep drop down to the pass I climbed the hill opposite, Cribyn. In 2000 I went around Cribyn, but I had no such luck this time as I wearily climbed up to the wind swept summit. Another steep descent brought me to the start of the climb up the highest of the Brecon Beacons, Pen y Fan. After what seemed like ages, and with snow becoming more plentiful the higher I climbed, I eventually reached the top. By taking this circuitous route I felt like I’d finally earned this summit having done a lot of climbing in order to get there. The last time I was on Pen y Fan, in 2006, the summit was packed with people, now, due to the poor weather, I had the top all to myself. The traverse to Pen y Fan's twin, Corn Du, is usually relatively easy but on this occasion there was a lot of snow lying between the two tops, more than I had encountered all day. Fortunately it was very soft so with the help of my two walking poles that I had been using all day I was able to safely traverse the col.
From the top of Corn Du I took the regular tourist path that led me all the way down to the Storey Arms. In descent the snow that once again filled only the path was no problem for me and I was able to waltz down the path as if walking on sand, until, in fading light, I eventually reached the Storey Arms and returned to my car. This was a fabulous walk in weather that was at times cold, windy and wet, but I enjoyed the whole thing as I had finally been able to satisfy my mountain-lust.
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