UK Mountains Expedition Report

For someone like me, the best and the worst gift ever has to have been the book Mountain Tables by Michael Dewey. In it are listed all of the mountains in England and Wales, categorised by region and height. It is the best gift because it lets me record all of the mountains I have climbed in my life, see the collection grow and provide memories of days or weekends out in the mountains. It is also the worst book in the world because I have now become a 'chaser', keen or in some cases, desperate to complete a regional collection of bagged peaks.

So it was that we drove down to Abergavenny and beyond in early February to bag the final peak in the Brecon Beacons. Cefn yr Ystrad is not the highest, not the nicest but probably the most remote of the peaks in the region, which probably went some way to explaining why I had not done it before.

We parked at Llangynidr and set off on a short section of road past the Coach and Horses Inn, over the Monmouthshire to Brecon canal and uphill to finally break out cross country for an ascent of Tor y Foel - not a peak in the collection but a nice climb and a worthy summit nonetheless at 551m. As we climbed views out along the valley got better and better until we reached the actual summit where we suddenly lost in mist - ho hum, another typical day out in the mountains, climb up high to be presented with a wall of white and no view.

Fortunately the path was obvious and we started down to find the mist clearing and the Tal-y-Bont reservoir coming nicely into view. As the path flattened off it improved and we found the going easier. Along here ran the Brin Ore Tramroad at one time of day and I remembered some years past taking a client on a weekend navigation course and that this section had formed part of the Mountain Bike section of the course - he was training for an Adventure Race which required navigation on foot as well as by bike.

We continued on towards our peak, heading off the main path and going cross country - this would not be an easy peak to bag! The previous evening I had programmed the GPS with appropriate way points so decided to turn it on to confirm that all was well. By now there was no distinct path and the mist had once again closed in and I was keen to avoid getting off track. We were still okay so with a combination of GPS, compass and map we headed cross country towards our destination.

At one point we came upon a quarry and because the visibility was down to less than 20m made getting through it something of a trial - every turn seemed to bring us to a sheer wall. On a nice day in clear visibility no doubt it would have been trivial but we seemed to go around almost in circles until I finally located a way through and we headed up and out.

Of course, care and patience are key here, there is no sense in blundering in hoping for the best, much better to stop, think, formulate a plan, then act on that plan. We headed out, only to be presented by more quarry related paths and mounds and were very grateful to finally emerge from it and onto easier ground again.

Coming on to the peak itself, we still had some distance to walk to reach the actual summit which seemed to take forever as it was only slightly uphill. Finally we arrived at the trig point where we stopped for a brief rest, but given that there was no view, it was cold and damp in the air, we soon left on the return journey.

Cefn Tr Ystrad is quite remote so it was a long tiring walk back to our starting point with no obvious path and little in the way of way marks to gauge progress, apart from the crossing of the road that goes from the quarry down to Tredegar which itself signals a low point in the route, so having descended from the peak through rough ground and marsh we then had to climb back up again to a small lake on Mynydd Llangynidr. By the time we reached the final descent we were both pretty tired but it was far from over!

Now I am not sure whether my map was wrong or out of date or whether the GPS was throwing a major wobbly but I could not locate the path that was supposed to take us down to the valley. In fact the only path I could find was at 90 degrees to our target - weird! We decided to take a short break while I rechecked the map, double checked the Grid Reference I had put into the GPS as our next waypoint - everything was correct except the ground! Oh well, press on, we were definitely going in the right direction so would sooner or later come down to the road.

The descent took some doing as the ground was uneven and with no path and a good days walking in our legs we were very relieved to reach the relative ease of the stream below. We followed this for about half an hour until we finally emerged at the road I had been expecting us to come out on, although confusion again as I had not expected so many buildings. We were where I thought we should have been which was good but maybe it is time for a new map or at least to check the local changes.

The final couple of miles were across a few fields and then down the steep tarmac road to the village which left the thighs screaming for mercy. Finally we arrived. We had done it!

I am pleased to have finished the collection and to be honest I will probably never climb this particular peak again, it is not the best, not the nicest, but it is done and now I can turn my attention to another region of England and Wales.