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The first proper hilly walk of the year at last!! 
We have been fostering 3 boys since November, 9yr old twins and their 11yr old brother. I have been getting them interested in walking. Until now, mainly on our local South Downs but promised to take them up a “real” mountain this year.
I thought straight away about the Brecon Beacons and started planning.
Myself, Sam, Dom, Jon and Tom travelled the 200 miles on Friday afternoon / evening and pitched tent at the Lakeside Park on Llangorse Lake at 8.00pm and soon settled down to the boys first ever attempt at sleeping in a tent.
Tomorrow was forecast to be a clear sunny day!
The boys had us awake at 5.00am after their first experience of camping. After an early breakfast we were off, parked up and walking by 7.00am.
The months without a decent walk had taken their toll; I was puffing like an old man all the way up to the Pen Y Fan ridge.
Yes, I know I
am an old man but you still have to try to keep up with the youngsters
From here the going got easier up to the summit where the boys claimed their first mountain!!
From here we had a short diversion to summit peak number 2, Corn du which was in cloud at that time. Quite a sharp drop off on the northern face of the summit
Now to Cribyn. Rather than return to the top of Pen Y Fan, we took a short cut around to re-join the decent path. On reaching Cribyn, peak number 3, we stopped for lunch.
A great setting, but we were not finished yet. Fan y Big awaited us.
- 2 happy faces
I need not have had any fears about bringing the boys up here. They climbed the hills like mountain goats leaving me struggling to keep up with them! We found the notorious “diving board”. This looks a lot more exposed than it really is but was still a fair drop and I resisted the urge to venture upon the board.
- The diving board with Corn du, Pen Y Fan and Cribyn lined up behind
Peak number 4 was now claimed and the long walk back to the car began.
Originally I planned to walk back to the top of Cribyn and come down the ridge. None of us fancied the climb back though so the route we took was to drop down Fan Y Big and follow the path parallel to the Cribyn ridge path until they met. It was then just a short hop back to the car.
They are now keen to climb more, next stop Everest so it seems that I will have to get fit again. Back to the Gym for me now!
Another great day out on the hills
Mountain Coward, if you read this:
You were interested in this descent a little while ago?
Below are a couple of photos of the Cribyn ridge. I walked down it last year and it was quite easy. I does look quite sharp from an angle tho!
- Not too bad?
- walkers climbing Cribyn ridge
Thanks for reading. Off to Cadair Idris in a couple of weeks with the big boys so see you soon!!
P.S. Corn du is not listed as a hewitt. Does it not count due to the height difference with Pen Y Fan?
