Shropshire Hill Walking: How many times for you have to climb Pen y Fan for a clear view?

25 November 2012

Our second day in the Beacons followed a very pleasant night at at the Bear in Crickhowell, thoroughly recommended. We had thought about a walk in the Black Mountains but in the end decided to try the walk we had originally planned the day before and go up the north face of Corn Du and Pen y Fan. The phone GPS guided us pretty close to Cwm gwdi car park and we guessed the last half mile. On arrival at 10.00 we noticed the remains of broken car windscreens on the ground suggesting the place is visited by car thieves, so we parked with some trepidation but hoped that it would be too busy on a Sunday for a thief to get a clear run.

Our route took us back to the entrance to the car park and then left along the lane for a mile or so. We turned left again after crossing the stream and headed up past another parking area and onto the fell. After skirting the farm we emerged onto the hill up towards Corn Du. The morning had started off pretty fine and we should have been able to see both mountains ahead but the top was shrouded in cloud.

Cwm Llwch.

A soon as we got to the steeper section it started to rain so I had to get full warterproofs on again. Sue had started out in hers. The rain got more unpleasant as we got higher and there wasn't much time to admire the small lake that came into view below the summit. We eventually made it up to the obelisk which was erected in 1902 to mark the tragic loss of a five year old on the mountain, Tommy Jones.

We contemplated turning back at this stage but decided that we should plough on and made it on to Corn Du just ahead of a couple carrying a very small baby who was evidently starting Marillyn-bagging at an early age. Our second consecutive day on Corn Du and we still couldn't see a thing. Oh well, on to Pen y Fan, maybe that will be different. It wasn't. How many times do you have to climb Pen y Fan before you are granted the pleasure of its 360-degree views?

Our route could now have continued on to Cribyn and Fan y Big, but since we couldn't see a thing we decided to leave that for another day and, having consulted our compass, took the path to the north off Pen y Fan which has quite a steep and unstable start but becomes a decent if boggier path below.

The route was quite straightforward for some time and included some light downhill jogging and then we veered to the left as we needed to keep going roughly north. The path now became very faint for a while and we thought we'd lost our bearings but managed to find the route that led directly down into Cwm gwdi car park and found the car and thankfully no sign of the glass breakers. It was now just before 2pm so it was probably a good idea we hadn't taken the longer route as in these shorter winter days we could easily have ended up finishing in the dark.

Another wet and somewhat muddier day in the Beacons but we will certainly be back for more.