May - Pen y Fan

Summit Height:
2907ft / 886m

What?
Pen y Fan

When?
1st May

Where?
Brecon Beacons, about an hours drive from Cardiff.

Who?
George & Lettie

Why?
On my very first post on this blog I mentioned that some of the mountains would be dictated by circumstance rather than organising a specific mountain trip, and that is very much the case this month; I had planned a mini tour for the Bank Holiday weekend (Cardiff & Bristol), and thought I'd fit a sneeky mountain in on one of the days! Pen y Fan was the obvious choice being accessible from Cardiff and the highest mountain in the Brecons.

How?
Plenty of people had suggested I avoided climbing Pen y Fan from the Storey Arms since the route was often busy and only offered a couple of hours walking, rather than the full day I was after! We chose instead to start from Taf Fechan forest and complete a horseshoe walk that would take us over three summits; Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn.

The walk out of the forest was pleasent and easy, but the climb up to Graig Fan Ddu was the first real test of the day. It was tough but instantly rewarding. Graig Fan Ddu is a ridge that over looks the three summits and the valley below, and it was fantastic to be up high early so we could spend a large part of the walk at a decent altitude, and the views that come with it.

We enjoyed lunch looking over the Brecons on the summit of Corn Du, then quickly carried on to Corn Du's biggger neighbour Pen y Fan, our highest point of the day. A quick 'summit photo' and we were heading down towards the foot of Cribyn. The highlight of the day for me was Cribyn; the view of this wonderful looking mountain on the way down from Pen y Fan was spectacular, and I never expected to see such a beautiful mountain so far south. The other reason why Cribyn was a highlight was that it offered the greatest view of Pen y Fan we'd had. All day we'd been seeing Pen y Fan as a 'big hill'. Looking back from Cribyn the rolling grassy features give way to the impressive North Face, which looks very much more 'mountain-like'. As we reached the foot of Cribyn the rather pleasent walking weather we'd had all day disappeared and the heavens opened. We walked for the last hour back to the car in heavy heavy rain. We were able to warm up back in Cardiff that evening with a few Ales (as is the ending to so many of my mountain days out!)