Coooooooooooold.

Boxing day turned out to be the coldest day of the year in my locality - minus 12 when I got in the car at 6am for a prearranged tramp with Chopper and Nicholls through the snows of the beacons. As cold as that sounds, it was perfect weather. There was a slight breeze and cloud forecast for later on but the early part of the walk was forecast to be clear. We missed sunrise from the top of Corn Du due to kindly giving a hitcher a lift from Newport to Cwmbran after his car broke down. Still, some good photo opportunities arose.



Fan Fawr looking appealing in the morning light



We started out at 8am and got to the top of Corn Du after about 40 minutes.

The views were great. White as far as the eye could see.

I don't have a portable thermometer but it felt very cold on the summits. Probably not as low as the minus 12 when I set off, but the wind chill made up for that...and some. The only piece of gear I didn't have with me was a buff or a scarf and at one point, I thought my nose was going to drop off (that wouldn't be a bad thing in some respects!) so a spare beanie hat and a penknife were employed to make a DIY buff. Chopper had brought some freebie hand warmer things that were quite impressive. You get about 30 minutes of heat and one stuffed inside each glove was great.

We stopped in the saddle between PenYfan and Cribyn for a snack and noticed two Ravens coming quite close on the scrounge for food. This seemed to prove how bleak the past few weeks must have been up there as I've never know them to come near before. They enjoyed the peanuts and crisps we gave them. Big buggers!

At the top of Cribyn we decided, instead of retacing our steps exactly, to go down the north ridge and along the goat track. Good choice, out of the wind and good fun. Plus, Nicholls £4 hat blew off his head on the summit, straight over the north face. So he wanted to go and look for it....



Me




Chopper - Cribyn North Ridge

Guess what...no hat in sight!

Over on the north face of PenYfan, 4 brave (crazy?) souls were starting an ice climb. My zoom 'aint the best...

The wind was starting to whip snow about a lot, it almost seemed like it was snowing.

Nicholls in spindrift...whatever that is!

I took a few small videos with the compact and added a bit of (sarcastic) music with moviemaker. Let's try an upload...

Boxing Day blowout

Finally got back out onto the Brecon Beacons for a walk today, boxing day, to burn the turkey off and enjoy the.....f***ing rain! After over a week of freezing temps and snow, it decides to warm up and rain. Still, walkers don't moan about a little precipitation, do they? Managed to try out a few xmas pressies too - a Lowe Alpine Hat, sealskin gloves and the old Gorillapod! All performed admirably, apart from the hat making me look like a complete dork. I think that's more to do with my face than the product though.

Nicholls, his son Henry and their gorgeous 15 week old Speagle (a cross between a Spaniel and a Beagle!) called Lily, were the company. We did a simple 'up to Corn Du from the Storey Arms and back' which was enough for both Dog (not me, the 4 legged one) and Henry. The winds were freezing on top and the poor dog was shivering so she got wrapped up in a fleece and carried along.

A few pics.