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Okay, let’s get the gloating out of the way. It was a glorious summer’s day in sunny South Devon today (Tuesday). 15 degrees and people were sunbathing on the beach. As you sit there in Scotland with the rain bouncing off the pavements, spare a thought for us poor people here who have to shell out for suntan lotion in March.
And now, back to reality. With a superb weather forecast for Sunday I decided to give Dartmoor a miss and head up to South Wales and the Brecon Beacons. I chose to tackle them from the north which turned out to be a wise decision as the car parks around the Storey Arms were choc-a-block. Of course it did mean a long drive around narrow country lanes (with virtually no passing places) to the start of my route at the beginning of Cwm Llwch. This valley leads up to the tiny Llyn Cwm Llwch below Corn Du, the first peak on the route, and is arguably the most scenic route up on to the Brecons. The main disadvantage is a long walk out along Cym Cynwyn followed by a three mile road march back to the start. There are alternative routes over the several ridges which emanate from all the main summits, but this means backtracking and the road still has to be negotiated at some point.
My first surprise was seeing something I never expected to see again this side of Christmas – snow! It rained overnight and had turned to snow at altitude. Consequently, the tops of the Central Brecons received a good dusting. Corn Du and Pen y Fan were worst affected. The sun melted most of it away during the day but the sheltered northern cym below Corn Du kept its snow all day.
It was one of those sublime days. Clear blue skies, sunshine, and perfect clarity. I had been to the Brecons many times previous to this and had never seen the coast before due either to cloud or heat haze. Today, everything was visible including the hills of North Wales. It was a perfect day. I didn’t even bother putting my jacket on. There was a brisk wind on the top of Corn Du and Pen y Fan, but none on Cribyn and Fan y Big. Hard to believe it was still only March.
The stream coming out of Llyn Cym Llwch was full of frog spawn. Well, toad spawn to be accurate and there was literally hundreds of toads swimming around in the pools created by the stream. I stopped beside the lyn/lochan/tarn (delete as appropriate to your native tongue) for a drink and a couple of photos and then it was time to tackle the ridge up on to Corn Du, the first summit of the day which, incidentally, is pronounced ‘Corn Dee’. On the ridge above the Lyn is a memorial obelisk to Tommy Jones, a five year old boy who became lost on the hills in August 1900. His body was found 29 days later on the spot marked by the obelisk. Of course, his body would never have remained undiscovered for such a long time these days and this gives some insight into hill-walking, or the lack of it, circa 1900.
Corn Du is the only Central Brecons hill with any sort of rock structure on it’s summit. These are hills in every sense of the word but, make no mistake, they are damn steep ones. The summit was busy as usual. The views made up for it though, with most of Wales visible from the Bristol Channel south, the Western Brecons, Sugar Loaf and the Black Mounts to the East, and north to Snowdonia.
If you tackle these hills from the south via the Upper Neuadd Reservoir and Windy Ridge (Craig Gwaun Taf) you get the chance to see the light aircraft which crashed on the ridge. I actually prefer the one on Ben Lui as it has some decent history connected to it as it’s the actual wreckage of a crashed World War II plane. This one on Windy ridge looks as if a crowd of students carried it up there, turned it upside down and left it there for a laugh. The pilot walked away from it unscathed and it’s no surprise when you see it. It has barely a scratch on it. So if you’re expecting wreckage strewn around everywhere, forget it. I thought the insurance company would salvage it, but this now seems unlikely as it’s been lying there since November last year. All in all, not much to get excited about, but it rates novelty value at the very least.
A lot of work has gone into restructuring and relaying the path between Corn Du and Pen y Fan. It looks like a tarmac path through the local park but is perfectly suitable for the trainer brigade who come up here to exercise their dogs and sprogs. The removal of the trig point on Pen y Fan has been rectified to some extent by the National Trust who have erected a summit plaque bearing the hill’s name and its spot height (886m). At least this will prevent people wandering onto the summit in thick mist and not knowing where they are.
Pen y Fan is as far as the trainer brigade go. From here on in it’s walker’s territory only. Pen y Fan is like Blackpool during Glasgow Fair Fortnight. Cribyn (the next hill in line) is heaven by comparison. I left the crowds behind and set off to tackle the monstrous climb up the side of Cribyn. It is only 430ft from the col to the summit of Cribyn but it looks ten times that. Steep is not the word for it. My advice is walk very slowly and don’t look up until you fall over the summit cairn. Not that you’ll find that easy as the cairn is now just a scattering of stones. I’m sure it had more structure that that the last time I was here.
The final hill on the ridge is Fan y Big, which appears to be some kind of crazy anagram. I seemed to be the only one taking the zig-zag path to the summit and, with a bit of luck, I would have Fan y Big to myself. And if that’s not an innuendo then I don’t know what is! Actually, there were a few people on top, waiting in turn to have their photo taken on the ‘diving board’, a rather innocuous piece of stone sticking out into thin air although not really warranting its place in mountain folklore. I would have understood its fascination more if it had been hanging out there like the cantilever stone on Glyder Fach. It’s lucky if the diving board’s overhang is even a couple of feet. I stood on it anyway as I always do when I’m on this hill. It’s the final insignificant act before heading down and back to the car via Cym Cynwyn and that very long road route. Cracking day though and, needless to say, I didn’t miss Dartmoor one little bit.
- Hey ho and away we go!
- There’s snow on them thar hills
- A couple of Lowrie figures make their way towards Corn Du summit
- Llyn Cym Llwch
- The Tommy Jones memorial
- The ridge path
- Tourist route from the Storey Arms
- Path to Corn Du
- Corn Du with Pen y Fan beyond
- Llyn Cym Llwch from Corn Du summit
- Windy Ridge
- Looking East to the Black Mounts & Sugar Loaf
- The hills of the West Brecons
- Main highway to Pen y Fan
- Looking south to reservoir valley
- View from Pen y Fan to Corn Du
- Pen y Fan summit
- Cribyn and beyond
- Pen y Fan & Cribyn
- The nightmare climb up the side of Cribyn. Oxygen required
- Pen y Fan
- Looking back to Cribyn from the diving board on Fan y Big
- Retro look over the whole ridge
- Back at the start and there’s still snow on Corn Du’s northern slopes
