The Brecon Beacons in Snow 2009

A chance to enjoy the ever-changing Beacons in one of their less common shades.

When I was growing up in the Brecon Beacons, we would often see the higher ground covered in snow, which may last for a few days at a time. However, it's rare for us to get snow that lasts long enough for the entire country to turn white. When the entire island of Great Britain received a heavy downfall of snow at Christmas time, the whole country predictably ground to a halt, with many people unable to travel. Given such a situation, we were lucky enough to get just the right amount of snow, such that it produced a good, thick layer in the local cities, but let up for long enough for the roads to be cleared all the way up to the mountains, lasting long enough for a visit.

Those who arrived early in the morning risked the morning ice on the roads, but were rewarded with blue skies and an inversion. We arrived a little later, when the cloud covered the higher tops (the forecast incorrectly promised clear tops later), but produced equally eerie and beautiful lighting. So I left the rest of the family sledging down Fan Fawr's flanks, and headed up the main Beacons. Please enjoy my attempts to get the camera to recognise that snow is supposed to be white, and not turned down to average 50% lightness.

• Trees in the lower Taff Valley.
• Valley fog in the Taff Valley.
• Snow with the Darren Fach and Darren Fawr crags on Cefn Cil-Sanws (461 metres).
• Coed Penmailard.
• Berth-lwyd at Nant-ddu.
• Fan Fawr seen over the Beacons Reservoir.
• Upper Glyn Tarell. The crags on the left are known as Craig y Fro, the site of many waterfalls that will be visited at the end of this gallery.
• The mountain slopes were covered in both snow and thick layers of hoar frost.
• Fan Fawr (734 metres), the highest of the Fforest Fawr mountains.
• Frosted trees around Beacons Reservoir.
• Craig Cerrig-gleisiad (629 metres) and Fan Frynych (629 metres), seen from the slopes of Y Gyrn.
• Fan Llia (632 metres) and its Fan Dringarth (617 metres) buttress, seen over the pass between Fan Fawr and Craig Cerrig-gleisiad.
• The path misses the top of Y Gyrn, and heads directly for Corn Du ... or at least, I think it does. Hard to tell with that cloud.
• Cadair Fawr (485 metres) and Craig y Llyn (600 metres), the tallest point south of the Brecon Beacons, seen over Beacons Reservoir.
• Looking into the lowlands of Mid Wales, with the hills of Mynydd Epynt barely tall enough to earn snow tops.
• Panorama. From left to right; the slopes of Cefn Crew (a ridge of Corn Du), Cadair Fawr, Craig y Llyn, Fan Fawr, Yr Allt (604 metres) in the distance, Craig Cerrig-gleisiad and Fan Frynych with Y Gyrn (619 metres) in front of them, then lastly Mid Wales and the slopes of Corn Du.
• The impressive 200 metre scarp of Craig Cerrig-gleisiad, home to rare arctic alpine plants.
• Then I hit the cloud base, and everything turned into white. Visibility was about 10 or 20 metres, but it was hard to tell with such minimal definition, right until I reached the huge scarp of Corn Du, disappearing down into the fog for about 150 metres.
• Steadily plodding up into the fog, finally the crags of Corn Du's top loomed into view.
• Growing out of the fog.
• Crags covered in hoar frost.
• The summit cairn, almost deserted - there were a few humans up here.
• One of several ice climbers taking advantage of the conditions.
• Excellent ice growths on the crags. This is why I was here.
• Looking down between the iced crags. The fog makes it seem so much more mysterious and enticing, though beneath this is the 300 metres of scarp that drop into the valley below. Admitedly, you might only go a mere 200 metres if you slip...
• The top of Pen y Fan. Deserted.
• Since the mountain tops would all be covered, I headed back down, finally getting enough visibility to see Llyn Cwm Llwch in the corrie below.
• An obelisk commemorating the point where the body of 5 year old Tommy Jones was found in 1900, after he lost his way walking between two buildings in the bottom of the valley, and ended up walking this ridiculous distance up into the mountains before collapsing.
• Finally back below the clouds at Blaen Taf Fawr. Sadly, the clouds had now lowered even more than before, and Y Gyrn frequently disappeared. The paths get a little confused here, but the idea is to cross a stile, then follow the far side of its fence to the left.
• The barely distinguishable summit of Y Gyrn. From the wrong side of the fence.
• A wild herd of Welsh mountain ponies on the slopes of Fan Fawr. Tough little animals.
• Glyn Tarell, with Y Gyrn on the right. The streams in this valley regularly make beautiful displays in winter, and this was a lucky chance to be there at the right time.
• The bottom waterfall on Nant y Gerdinen.
• Blobbed ice at the bottom of the waterfall.
• Second waterfall on the stream.
• Small fall on the right branch.
• Small fall on the left branch.
• Iced fall above it.
• Iced falls on the top of the left branch.
• Tongues of ice beside the stream.
• Nearly at the top.
• Beautiful ice grotto on the top waterfall. Just a couple of weeks earlier, I had been walking behind this.
• Snowy slopes of Y Gyrn.
• Iced waterfall on Craig y Fro.
• Detail of the ice growths on the grass.
• Large iced waterfall on the cliffs. It's only around 10 metres tall in total, but quite beautiful. There were even some ice climbers scaling it while we were there.
• Iced waterfall at the top of the cliffs, only a few metres tall.
• Ice falls in the quarry at the base of the crags.

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