GW/SW-001 Pen Y Fan

Summit Information for GW/SW-001

Pen y Fan - 886m, 8 points

Association: Wales  Region: South Wales   

Latitude: 51 53 2 N, Longitude: 3 26 12 W

Grid Reference: SO 012216, QTH Locator: IO81GV 

Today's Sunrise: 07:33 UTC, Today's Sunset: 17:22 UTC 

After a bad start to the day with snow falling at 200m the sky suddenly cleared and the sun could be seen for the first time in ages. I bundled the kit in the car and headed off to Pen Y Fan.  After parking up the car I started my way up the track.  Visibility was excellent and it wasn't long before many snow covered summits came into view.   By the time I reached 600M the snow was getting thicker and several passing walkers told me that conditions higher up were quite poor.  As I pressed on the wind started to pick up considerably, and by the time I reached the foot of Corn Du it became clear that an activation of Pen Y Fan was not going to be possible today.

As I was most of the way up I decided to continue on to the summit and take some photographs.  As I cut around the base of Corn Du through knee deep snow  I was sheltered from the wind for a while but it soon picked up again as I started climbing Pen Y Fan.  It was so windy at the summit that most of the snow had blown off leaving a thick layer of Ice.  It was difficult to stand still to take a few photos, never mind setting up antennas so I started my way back down without even taking my rucksack off.  "Ill be back"