Pen-y-Fan walk 30th September 2006

This trip was organised by our mountain-meister, Gwyon, who did us proud with the planning.

Ten of us arrived at the car park near the Storey Arms at about 9:30. The weather was fairly warm and there was no rain, but the cloud cover meant that there was unlikely to be a view from the top.

We were not alone! A lot of cars were parking up at the same time as we did. A "Falklands Walk" was taking place with what we guessed were a contingent of veterans and their families. This was a large, well organised event with Mountain Rescue in evidence and a film crew. There was also a burger van and Jon succumbed to the irresistible lure of the greasy bacon burger.

We started out across the bridge and up the first part of the hill. Taking our time, we stopped periodically to chat, take a breather and even stretch.

As we went further up the hill, the grass and moss seemed to get a bit greener and brighter, a bit like on the trip to Worm's Head. A result of cleaner air possibly?

The further up we went, the mistier it got, making it even more tricky for us us spectacle-wearers. Heading towards the top of Corn Ddu (the peak just before Pen y Fan), the wind became quite really strong and it was getting noticably chillier now.

"Not far now" Gwyon says, it's only about as steep as the high street! The high street was never like this! We pressed on up and soon reached the pile of rocks marking the top of Corn Ddu (873 metres).

Next it was down the other side a short way and along a flattish bit before the final short climb to the peak of Pen y Fan. The left side of this section has a precipitous drop. This is the fast way back down, take care!

We arrived at the top (886 metres) and took in the marvellous view. It was Rhian's birthday and she was presented with a full bottle of whisky by Bernadette! The first of the Falklands walkers arrived at the top, depositing a stone on the pile that he had carried from down the mountain.

We tucked into the food that we had brought and had hot drinks from flasks. Then the rain started and we donned the wet weather clothing that we were now glad that we had brought. The difference between the weather down the hill was incredible.

As we headed back down the path, we saw many more of the Falklands walkers, their families and their pets. Some of these blokes were wearing shorts, but we were glad for all the protective clothing we had. In fact, gloves would have been nice too since it began to hail a bit later.

After a little while we took a right turn and headed down the hill by a slightly different route. There were still a number of people coming up, but a lot less than the other way. The visibility was steadily improving now, the hail had stopped and the rain had eased off quite a bit. It was also a lot warmer than further up the hill.

We did have one last bit to climb before arriving back at the cars. The round trip had taken about 2hrs 10mins of walking time, more counting the breaks. It was just over 6 miles in total.

We were all left with the awareness of the importance of preparing properly for such a trip in the mountains, given the masssive differences in weather than you can experience when you're up on top. If you don't have respect for the conditions, you could easily a bad time.

We drove back, stopping off for a sit-down nosh at an excellent Cantonese restaurant/chip shop in Ystalyfera. The service was prompt and the fish, chips and noodles were top notch. Not a moment too soon as we had worked up a serious appetite.

We all agreed that it was another excellent Sospan mini-adventure.

Click here for a slide show of all the above misty photos.