First Winter Day

Black Mountains – 19-01-2015

Having just replaced my long-suffering boots with a new pair, the weather forecast gave an ideal opportunity to bed them in. The amount of ice on the driveway and local roads meant that somewhere near was athe best option, so I headed south to the Black Mountains at the eastern end of the Brecon Beacons NP.

Plenty of snow was visible on the hills as I drove towards Hay and then Talgarth, so I was a little surprised that the ground was mostly free of snow and unfrozen at the bottom of Y Grib – the undulating ridge head onto the high ground.

But after crossing over Castell Dinas and climbing out of the bwlch, there was no shortage. I followed the ridge up to the cairn, with Pen y Fan and friends impressively coming into view round the side of Mynydd Troed.

wpid-P1020841.jpg

wpid-P1020848.jpg

On the ridge, the snow mostly just inches deep – the wind scouring from the ridge and depositing it on the leeward slopes – but on the plateau towards Pen Y Mallwyn it was much deeper and unconsolidated, making every step an effort.

wpid-P1020850.jpg

Much post-holing and floundering later,  and I reached the ridge path heading towards Waun Fach. The snow again was a lot easier here, and I made good progress on the path to the summit plateau.

I’d seen figures on the skyline earlier, and now could see they were all carrying unfeasibly large packs. And the SA-8o’s were bit of a giveaway that this wasn’t a D of E award group out training.

wpid-P1020853.jpg

wpid-P1020854.jpg

After stopping for food, I took a wide loop round the summit plateau, before heading back to the car via Pen Trumau

wpid-P1020859.jpg

wpid-P1020858.jpg

wpid-P1020862.jpg

2 thoughts on “First Winter Day”

Comments are closed.