I’ve been to the Brecon Beacons quite a few times, especially growing up in Bristol. I’ve been with my family mostly and most recently with my fiancée as we prepare to tackle the Three Peaks challenge later this year! We set the challenge to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society, as both of our families have gone through loved ones suffering with the illness. You can check out our page, read our story and support our journey – if you so wish!
I put together a training plan for us to follow, with a mixture of cardio, strength and HIIT sessions, as well as getting miles underfoot across a variety of terrain. We want to be as well prepared as we can be in July, when we attempt to smash all Three Peaks in 24 hours! The first stop on our plan was tackling Pen y Fan (once again) but in winter conditions. We picked a tough day in December, with strong winds, poor visibility and some rain, to begin our training the hard way!
Planning
The Brecon Beacons can be unpredictable and the weather can be quite challenging, so prior planning is crucial. I use a combination of the Met Office and Windy for weather forecasts, the latter of which has a really useful app for seeing spot winds. As I mentioned earlier, we planned for a poor weather day, but still ensured the conditions weren’t dangerous.
We also had to plan our route. Having been a few times before, I wanted to try a different way up Pen y Fan. Starting at the main car park to the South, we planned to head up Corn Du as well as Pen y Fan, looping back around to the car in just over 8km.
Hike Time
We set off from the Pont ar Daf car park to the South of the mountain, wrapped up warm and with waterproofs on as we were subject to a bit of a drizzle. We headed along the main road before ascending the smaller hill of Y Gyrn. After following the footpath up, we realised that we hadn’t turned off when we were supposed to. Instead of backtracking, we ascended across the uneven boggy terrain, picking up a fence line which was on the map. Using a handrailing technique we followed the fence before finding a crossing point up onto the ‘summit’ of Y Gyrn.
We picked up our originally intended path and headed towards Corn Du, passing the Tommy Jones obelisk. This was laid in memory of a young boy who lost his life on the mountain, which proved to be a stark reminder of how dangerous the area can be! From atop Corn Du we followed the ridge along to the Pen y Fan summit at 886m. We stopped for a minute for some photographs, although low clouds prevented any ‘breathtaking’ views across the Brecons.
Weather
So how bad was the ‘wintery’ weather we wanted? It was initially forecast to be around 5°C with winds at 15mph and potential of rain, gathered from BBC and Windy sources. At the summit of Pen y Fan it was forecast as 0°C with an 80% chance of snow, winds of 43mph gusting 54mph, however very good visibility (from the Met Office).
Leaving the car it was 4°C nd despite the light rain, it wasn’t actually too bad. We spoke about the Beaufort scale as a relatively subjective way to measure the wind. We looked at the woodland at the foot of the hills by the car park, we agreed the wind was a Force 2 at this level (4-7mph, lighter than forecast). The rain stopped on the initial ascent up Y Gyrn, however the wind certainly picked up into a Force 5/6 (mid 20mph).
Along the exposed ascent up the final part of Corn Du, the winds accelerated to the forecast 40mph, and the gusts were certainly felt! We also experienced a flurry of snow when we were in the bottoms of the clouds around 700m!
On our descent back to the car, the winds accelerated to their predicted 50mph. We decided to take the walk down as steady as we could, but ended up being hit by two hail flurries. Combined with the strong wind, the hail was pretty painful on our faces – even with our hoods up! A truly wintery day indeed!
What’s Next?
After a tough start to our training, we’ve started to look forward to the rest of 2023. Since December when we did Pen y Fan, we’ve been on a few smaller walks. In terms of mountain training towards tackling the Three Peaks in July, the Peak District is up next. We summited Mam Tor last year, but this time we’ll be increasing the distance and elevation. Time to start ramping up our training!