UK Mountains Expedition Report

The true Black Mountains Roundabout organised by the local Mountain Rescue does an anti-clockwise route starting and finishing in Crickhowell covering 25 miles.

For a change, we decided to reverse the route but as the main event is only a week away, shorten the distance to around 20 miles which meant missing out Mynydd Troedd.

After a short delay to wait for the rain shower to clear, we set off from Crickhowell up the steep narrow road for 10 minutes or so, before turning left through a farmyard and out onto the steep fields that lead up to Table Mountain, our first target.

Soon dispatched, we climbed ever higher to the first trig point on Pen Cerrig and into the teeth of the Westerly that would blow pretty much all day.

On the ridge line, the visibility was excellent, we could see the entire route ahead and to the right of us, a rare treat here!

Walking on, enjoying the mountains, but not the wind, we had to stop to don more layers as the wind chill was beginning to take its toll. It is always important in such conditions to stay warm, even if that means putting on more layers than you would normally do - hypothermia can come on quickly and it is debilitating and can even be fatal.

Pushing on we came to Pen Allt Mawr where we could see the mass of Mynydd Troedd ahead of us. The strong temptation was to drop down and climb it, but our plan took us right along the ridge, so, as is always advised, stick to the plan.

As we walked, we were buzzed by gliders, if buzzed is the correct word for these silent aircraft. They made short work of the ridge we had been walking along for more than an hour - what a way to travel!

We skirted around to Waun Fach, the highest peak in the Black Mountains at 811m where a large boulder doubles for a summit stone rather than a trig point which is unusual, then made our way across the boggy ground in the direction of Pen y Gadair Fawr at 800m.

It was still very windy so we decided to make our way straight off the top and down to the Eastern side where there was a sizeable forest - shelter would be easy and as it was lunchtime, an excellent place to stop.

Tragedy! Since we last came up here, which admittedly has been a few years, the forest has been largely cleared. It was a sad sight, so many tree stumps and dead trees and for what? There was a small woodland which we made our way towards and settled down on the lee side for a well-earned break. The trees sheltered us nicely from the biting wind and as we sat we could hear birds singing. Perfect.

Of course, soon enough it was time to leave so we packed away, being careful not to leave anything behind, and set off back into the biting wind for the 8 miles or so along the ridge line. Just as we got going, we noticed a rain shower over Crickhowell, but no problem, the wind was blowing Westerly so it would not be heading our way. Glancing to the right, however, a different story, a large ominous looking cloud was most definitely heading our way, so we stopped to put on waterproofs and rucsac covers.

Sure enough, a few minutes later we were hit with driving horizontal rain so made the decision to jog for a while. The rain continued for an hour or so as we made our way up the final peak of Crug Mawr but then eased off as we descended eventually stopping as we left the ridge and entered the woodlands and fields that would lead us into Llanbedr.

At the bridge, we called another halt to take a food and drink break plus remove the now surplus waterproofs and a layer or two. The sun was finally shining and we were nicely sheltered from the wind that had been blowing all day.

Making our way up from the bridge and through the pleasant village we now had a couple of miles of road work back to the car park in Crickhowell, finally arriving a little after 4pm with 18 miles covered and 1,250m of climbing under our belts.

All in all, not the best weather, but not the worst either, a good walk with few other people out made for a nice outing in a beautiful part of the world.

Roll on the Three Peaks challenge!