UK Mountains Expedition Report

The Black Mountain area is to the West of the Brecon Beacons and does not see anywhere near the amount of tourists that the central Brecons sees. This is largely because the highest mountain in this area is Pen-y-Fan and baggers like to boast about climbing the highest, rather than an 'also ran'. This is good for the Black Mountain area - less erosion, it is also good for our clients, because they can have a day out in a remote area where it is still easy to find routes off the beaten track. So it was that a trip was planned for the end of 2003.

The weather reports indicated that there would be snow on the ground and plenty of it, but that the day would be fine, and so it turned out.

We started from Pont'Ar Wysg at 8:45am to head via a devious route to summit Fan Brycheiniog, the highest summit in this mountain group at 802m, and the 86th highest mountain in England and Wales according to Michael Deweys Mountain Tables!

Brycheiniog was some distance and time away and we first had to summit three other peaks. We eased into the day with an ascent of Foel Darw at 424m where we had excellent view of the Fan Hir ridge. From here we had a long pathless walk to Moel Feity, crossing many streams. By the time we crossed the final stream valley to begin the climb we were above the snow line, so the going got tougher.

Whilst being only 591m high, Feity is no pushover and took some effort to summit. As we reached the final summit pleateau, the mist had started to roll in and the visibility reduced to 20-30m, making navigation difficult. Fortunately, for me, the use of a GPS had been part of the plan for the day and I had already entered the coordinates of the peaks and useful waypoints. It was time to see how well it performed. As usual with GPS units, a few minutes are required for it to gain lock with at least three satellites to allow for 3-dimensional positioning, i.e. Longitude, Latitude and Altitude. This done, we discovered we were within 100m of the summit point, so simply followed the arrow, watching the distance drop. On arrival, I demonstrated how the device can be used for route finding, by simply setting the 'GoTo' to the next desination, in this case, the Southern end of the Fan Hir ridge. In this way, minimal time was spent on the summit. As we descended Feity, the mist cleared and we were treated to an excellent view of the main ridge.

The walk to the end of the ridge is long and by no means flat. It crosses several stream systems, requiring descent to the stream and ascent of the other side. This is quite exhausting and time consuming, but eventually we arrived at the start of the ridge and turned Northwards to begin the climb. Our lowest point before the climb was 430m, which meant we had 320m of ascent, or just over 1000 feet if you prefer. Navigation here is simple, just keep going up, but stay away from the edge, which is VERY steep. A fall here would almost certainly be fatal. Luckily for us, there was no wind blowing, but if there had been, then even more care would have been required.

We set off up the ridge and were rewarded with some excellent views, including Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du to the East - amazingly cloudless. Whenever I see Pen-y-Fan I am always a little annoyed because whenever I am there, it is in cloud! Oh well, the joy of mountaineering are the days you have the views.

There is an excellent view from the summit of Fan Hir down to the Fan Fawr lake, but otherwise the summit is not too impressive so we headed on to the main summit.

The summit does not yield easily and the final few metres are a good lung-bursting pull, especially in the snow where the ground suddenly gives way. The views were well worth the effort and, as it was lunchtime, we sat in the small shelter to eat and drink.

All too soon it was time to leave, so we packed up and headed off, following the ridge line first North-West, then almost due West to Picws Du, where we could see the final high ground before descending to the lake.

As we followed the curve of the ridge, we could see the finish (many kilometres distant) and also our route behind us.

We dropped to the lake and headed North for the final climb of Bryn Mawr. This proved to be a real sting in the tail and some effort was required to ascend. Once on the summit we realised that we had to drop the other side, fortunately only about 30m of altitude then up again to the true summit of Bryn Mawr before the long descent to the finish. This was only about 2km, but with the end in sight all the time, never seeming to get any closer, and the numerous streams that needed crossing, including the River Usk at one point, it was a very tired team that walked into the car park to finish just before 4:00pm.