A climb up Pen-y-Fan

[John Fenna]

Winter on the Fan? It is lovely!
I recall step cutting up the final stretch from the monument and practicing ice axe arrest all the way down the Cribyn ridge (having come up from the North side). The hard work ascending was mitigated by the lack of effort needed for a really fast descent

 

[mousey]

A good while ago I was walking down pen-y-ghent [completely different place - but similar name], and I came across a load of squaddies comming down - or rather they over took me moving at an incredible pace - I talked to a few as they passed and they were all knackered, well weighted down with big and very heavy looking packs. I asked where they were going and they just pointed to a minibus at the bottom of the hill and were looking upon it like salvation was near. I asked how far they'd walked, if I remember, they said 20 miles - it was only mid-day! I did a bit of rough calculation and thought 20 miles in [say] 6 hrs [assuming an early start at 6 in the morning] they'd been moving at 3.5 m/hr over rough terrain and heavily loaded.

At the time I was young and relatively fit and I thought if I covered 25 miles in a day it was good - but 20 miles in a morning [then to be expected to do a whole lot of other stuff] is just nuts.



Nice write up and I really enjoyed the photos.