The Black mountains are so named for a very good reason - they are often grim, wet and cold and on this trip, they lived up to their name well. Having said that, it was an enjoyable, if view-free excusion into the mountains, giving us the opportunity to blow away the cobwebs and set the world to rights. During the winter months, daylight is in short supply and it is important not to under-estimate the time it takes to climb mountains, allowing a margin of error for getting lost, incidents and fatigue bought on by cold-weather.
Abergavenny was our starting point as we had chosen to climb Blorenge the hard way, followed by a circuit around to Sugar Loaf (Y Fal) and back to Abergavenny. Abergavenny is about an hours drive from home, so it was that at 8:45am, we strode briskly out of the town towards the first mountain of the day.
The steep side of Blorenge is the North-Eastern side, which faces the town. On this occasion, we could not actually see the mountain, but knew it was there. Leaving Abergavenny on the A4143, one crosses the River Usk, then take an immediate right to follow the river, but climbing up to cross the A465 and along a farm track to the tunnel under the Monmouthshire Canal.
From here, the path heads directly up through the woods until it eventually exits onto open moorland. The only way is up from here. Paths criss-cross at various angles, but in the mist, I decided the best and quickest route would be a direct line to the summit plateau. The rise is from 230m to 500m in a distance of less than a kilometre. We arrived on the plateau suitably breathless from our efforts. From this side it is a difficult navigation exercise to the actual trig-point that marks the true summit since the remaining 60m of ascent is achieved over a further kilometre. With visibility less that 100m I decided to use my trusty GPS, not wanting to overshoot or get lost in the ever-worsening conditions. A GPS in these circumstances is a god-send and we were soon unloading the sac for a well earned drink and chocolate bar, the first summit conquered.
We stayed no more than a few minutes as it was quite cold - and the view was non existent. Reaching for my compass, I took a bearing which would take us onto the South-West path to the next destination, the B4246 at Keepers Pool.
Once on the path, the descent is quite quick and uneventful and one soon arrives at the pool. I decided on a second, slightly longer stop here to take a good drink and check the route that would swing us North West towards the Sugar Loaf mountain. Given that there is a canal and river, plus a small village between Blorenge and Sugar Loaf, the route almost plans itself, but in the mist, navigation was still vital as there was some distance to go and getting lost would be just embarrassing.
I decided to head North, following small paths requiring some fine navigation towards Gilwern. I knew that if we strayed too far to the East, we would be 'caught' by the B4246 and too far West by Gilwern Hill. My chosen route was also an old mining road, so once found would be easy to follow. Even so, in the mist and gloom, we were quite surprised to see a yellow grit bin, on one of the roads we were due to cross. Eventually, we reached Gilwern itself without incident. There was now a rather boring couple of miles of road-work to enable us to cross the canal and River Usk before arriving at Glangrwyney which signalled almost the end of the road-work. Across the A40 and up a small side road soon bought us to the Water Works at the start of the climb to Sugar Loaf. It was here that we decided on lunch. Whilst munching sandwiches, I set the GPS for both the summit and a convenient point on the descent to Abergavenny so that we would spend as little time as possible navigating on the summit.
The walk up to Sugar Loaf is almost as steep as that to Blorenge and given that Sugar Loaf is slightly higher at 596m, I was aware of the cold wind causing a greater wind chill throughout the ascent. At the summit itself, it was so cold and the view similarly non-existant, that we immediately headed off and onto the descent path, jogging for a kilometre or so to keep warm and try to get out of the cold wind. The descent was uneventful and we soon came into the outskirts of Abergavenny again. It was a mile or so on hard tarmac back to the car in the town centre car park and with feet complaining, we were glad to see the finish.
In total, we walked about 20km, with two major climbs of 559m and 596m respectively. We started from Abergavenny town centre car park at 8:45am and returned at 3:15pm. The total stops amounted to about 45 minutes. I would consider this quite fast and would suggest anyone contemplating this to allow extra time. It is a much easier route in reverse, the climb to Sugar loaf is longer and therefore easier. Blorenge is considerably easier from the South-West than the North-East, but an easy walk was not the intention today.
