A ridge of extremely high pressure guaranteed clear blue skies this morning, although with the severe hoar frost overnight the temperature at the start was a rather low -2 celsius!
After leaving the lay-by on the A470 you walk into an enclosed atmospheric amphitheatre created by the soaring, craggy cliffs - formed by glacial action over 20,000 years ago - the high ridge seen above will eventually provide the middle section of the walk.
The grinding action of the ice carved the 500 feet cliff face and escarpments that remain. Ironic that the moraines created by glacial action were covered in frost and ice!
The north facing rocks rarely see the sun, probably only occasionally in summer. Because of the cold, dark conditions rare arctic-plants survive at their southern most limit only re-appearing in the Alps.
The initial walk takes you into the 'bowl' of the Nature Reserve below Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad before starting the steep climb towards Fan Frynych. Luckily the paths were still frozen so the conditions underfoot were perfect. Looking back to the east you see the first view of Pen-Y-Fan and in the far distance the Black Mountains.
At the top of the ascent (after climbing to a height of 629 metres) the route bears left towards the ridge of the crag. The wonderful landscape opened out providing crystal clear views to the west of Fan Llia, Fan Nedd, Fan Gyhirych and Fan Fraith which all looked superb bathed in the winter sunshine.
The ridge of the crag takes the walk eastwards providing superb views down into the cwm, to the low lands of Brecon and east to Pen-Y-Fan and Corn Du.
The descent was extremely trecherous as the ground (it was like walking on Crunchy Nut Cornflakes!) was still very frozen and slippery. In normal conditions this would have been relatively straight forward but this morning it was very much a case of take your time or end up on your bottom!
The final section of the walk down the flank of the crag returns across a semi-frozen brook to the original path used at the start.
All of the photographs taken on this walk can be viewed here. Select 'slide-show' for automated viewing.
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