It had been a while since I had been out on the Brecons, so I decided another visit was in order. Previously I had climbed Pen-y-Fan via the Fan Dance, from the Storey Arms and from the Neuadd reservoir to the South. I needed something else to go for, so after consulting my Mountain Tables book to see which mountains I had not climbed in the region, planned a route that would 'bag' three more peaks and give a fine days walking. My good friend and sometime diving buddy, Dave had indicated an interest after hearing of my previous exploits in the Black Mountains. I called him up, invited him, he agreed straight away, so it was that at 8:45am we were pulling into the Talybont reservoir car park to start our days walking.
Our first objective was the 654m peak of Allt Lwyd to the South East of Pen-y-Fan. The snow line was down to about 500m so we were soon enjoying ourselves plodding through the snow. The magnificent edge of Waun Rydd loomed in front of us - we would soon be there, but first we had to bag Allt Lwyd. The route has no official path, so we forced a route through and upward. It is quite a pull from this side and we were soon stopping for photo opportunities - the standard excuse for a breather. The views to the East across the Black Mountains were magnificent, Waun Fach, Hay Bluff and Herefords Knob clearly visible in the distance.
The summit of Allt Lwyd is a bit of an anti-climax as the route to Waun Rydd stretches out ahead, but a good peak all the same. We had taken about 90 minutes from the car, so were making excellent time. Across the saddle gave us time to recover our leg muscles before it was up again to the summit of Waun Rydd (769m) our second peak and my second new peak of the day.
We could see Pen-Y-Fan in the distance and decided we would go for it as the day was so nice and were making such good time. It is here that the Fan Dance is met (Fan-y-Big, Cribin and 'the fan'). We had decided to by-pass all but The Fan itself as we had a long walk ahead of us and were concerned that we would run out of daylight - it is dark at 4:30-5:00pm at the moment.
As we approached Pen-y-Fan the weather began to change from the glorious sunshine to dull, to cloud to eventual rain. The ascent of The Fan was quite slippery and the summit in cloud. We stayed just a few minutes for photos, which could have been taken anywhere of course, then headed down.
This was my fifth or sixth time on the summit, but Daves first - in fact, Daves first visit to the Brecons. He was pleased to have summited the highest peak, but disappointed with the view. I consoled him with the comment that I have only ever had a decent view once on Pen-y-Fan - it would have been unfair to get it on the first attempt!
Once back at Bwlch ar y Fan, we took the track South past the reservoir through Taf Fechan Forest where we were met by numerous Gamekeepers in search of foxes - what fun! At the end of the trail, we had about 500m of road work, before turning South to summit Pan-y-Creigiau (565m), my third and final new peak of the day. The mist was well and truly down by now, so the views were non-existant and we soon headed off.
From Pan-y-Creigiau the path heads Eastwards before turning North to meet the head of the reservoir. There was about 350m of slippery slidey descent to reach the road, which upset the already tired knees, so we decided to walk back along the road for the final 3km to the car. I never enjoy road-walking, especially at the end of a long day, but we managed to catch a glimpse of a Kestrel (see the photo) looking proudly around its territory, an ample reward for the tarmac.
Our bag for the day was four peaks, including the highest (Pen-y-Fan), 25km of walking, several photos and that great feeling of having been out on a superb days walk.
