Waun Fach - 811m, 8 points
Association: Wales Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 57 46 N, Longitude: 3 8 38 W
Grid Reference: SO 215300, QTH Locator: IO81KX
After the early morning mist lifted, I arrived at the starting point in glorious sunshine and a clear blue cloudless sky. A magnificent morning, but temperatures hovering just around the freezing level. The path was crunchy underfoot with ice, as I ascended to the Grwyne Fawr Reservoir to cross over the valley.
Grwyne Fawr reservoir
I always forget how energy sapping this ascent is. There is no path or track to the summit making it hard going! Luckily the ground was frozen solid and so the boggy bits at least were easier to negotiate. The summit plateau is itself just one huge bog and virtually impossible to traverse when the ground is not frozen, This was one of the main reasons I'd picked today to be up here :-)
At the summit
There is quite a bit of work going on to try and lay a path across the summit, and one solitary chap in a small digger was working away moving sand gravel. I pitched my tarp next to one of the many rolls of dried bracken which is being laid on top off the peat bog to help support the aggregate.
Comfortably out of the freezing wind, I set about making some contacts.
The shack
Just like the weather, HF conditions were pretty good too! Nice to grab a few stateside contacts alongside three S2Ss with F6HBI/p on F/AM-432, DL/HB9AGO/p on DM/BW-157 and on 2 metres a quick chat with Allan, GW4VPX/p on the adjacent summit of GW/SW-015 just across the valley.
I even had a quick venture onto 60m using the antenna, as usual lieing on the ground. This netted just the one contact with G3VNC in Chester.
Log
A longer than usual activation but it was such a beautiful day it would have been a shame to rush away.
To complete the day, I took a circular route back to the start via Pen y Gadair Fawr. This took in some of the newly laid pathway across the summit plateau. It certainly made for quite an easy walk in comparison to the usual bog trotting. I just wonder how long the path will last before nature takes it back!
The new pathway towards Pen y Gadair Fawr
At the summit of Pen y Gadair Fawr
View towards Sugar Loaf, yesterday's summit
A fantastic day out. A strenuous 8 mile hike in beautiful weather and good radio conditions to boot. They don't come much better than this.
Waun Fach - 811m, 8 points
Association: Wales Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 57 46 N, Longitude: 3 8 38 W
Grid Reference: SO 215300, QTH Locator: IO81KX
Well, I almost bit off more than I could chew today. For some reason last night, I changed my planned activation of Mynydd Troed and Mynydd Llangorse to Waun Fach.
The reason was primarily based around the forecast of severe icing above 400 metres.
There are two issues with that. The lane up to the Mynydds, from bitter (cold) experience, can be an ice rink.
The actual ascent of Mynydd Troed is very steep and probably needs crampons in these conditions.
For that reason I thought I'd go for a longer walk (8 miles in the end) on the easier more gradual ascent of Waun Fach.
Easier than what I ask myself. It was pretty obvious right from the start that this was going to be no walk in the park. The track up to the Grywne Fawr reservoir was a sheet of ice in places where the thaw from yesterday had frozen solid.
Luckily I was wearing my Yaktrax15 .
After a quick rest at the reservoir dam, I started out for the climb to the summit.
This is where I'd underestimated just how much snow there was! I was knee deep most of the time and at one stage entered a hole up to my waist. I had to sit and think about how I was going to get out of it
It took me an hour from the dam to cover the 1 mile to the plateau at 811 metres. I was so shot that I didn't have the energy to try and find the summit a few hundred yards away.
As predicted the temperature on top was minus 3ºC and with the strong wind it definitely felt like -10ºC.
And the wind was to have the last laugh...
I donned 2 extra layers, set up and got ready to operate. As I said the wind chill was quite extreme and before I'd even touched the key I decided on getting into the Bothy bag. I got tucked up inside but it was all wrong. I was facing the wrong way and the bag was covering my face. I tried adjusting myself without success, so decided to stand up and readjust the set up. That's when it happened!
A momentary lapse of concentration whilst getting up, the wind filled the bag like a spinnaker, ripped it out of my hand, and it went careering away towards South West Cymru. I vainly tried to run after it, pencil in mouth, ear phones in ears and thigh deep in snow. A bright yellow flash was last seen rolling and tumbling merrily across the valley towards Mynydd Troed, laughing as it went
Gone with the wind!
There was a bit of cursing and swearing at my stupidity, thank god I'd already erected the antenna, because after my marathon attempt at chasing the runaway, when I first turned round I couldn't see where my kit was!
Anyway I had a quick run on 20 metres, all the time the snow was blowing and filling up every crevice it could find on my kit. When the run on 20m dried up I was pretty cold and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and it was wise to pack up before the cold could become a critical issue. I'd had enough fun for the day so far. Apologies to anyone waiting for me to appear on 10 and 7. It just wasn't to be today.
So it was pack up time and just as I was about to leave another hiker appeared. I thought I'd the place to myself but just shows there are other mad people out there too. He of course was wearing snow shoes. Who was it that mentioned them just a day or so ago!
It was much easier descending, although still hard work. It was nice to be back on a solid path once I reached the dam, at least I could tell what was under my feet.
Beautiful day even with the loss of the Bothy.
Hope someone finds it that can make use of it .
More photos here.
Association: Wales Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 57 46 N, Longitude: 3 8 38 W Grid Reference: SO 215300, QTH Locator: IO81KX
With the forecast set fair for a fine spring day, I set off home early for the activation of Waun Fach. When I arrived at the car park on the road to Grwyne Fawr reservoir there was only one other car there. The sun was shinning brightly and it was relatively mild.
Following the stream uphill
I hiked along the road to the second foot bridge crossing the river and
then skirted the northern bank to the end of the forestry enclosure. At
this juncture I headed upwards along the fence line. With a sharp drop
to my right and muddy and slippery underfoot this was a careful and
technical walk. after the forest gave way to open moorland things became
even more difficult. The gradient increased sharply, the conditions
underfoot difficult and I resorted to scrambling on all fours several
times. This was a long hard climb! Eventually the summit of PenY Gadair Fawr appeared ahead and I was awarded with some great views from the summit at 800 metres, only 11 metres lower than Waun Fach over a mile away.
PenY Gadair Fawr
The hike to Waun Fach can only be described as interesting. This was a walk of about a mile and a half through gloopy wet bog land. More than once I was up to my knees in the bog, gaiters not really helping the ingress of water to my boots. After 1:50 minutes I arrived at the barren boggy summit of Waun Fach. The sun was shinning and I'd seen only three other people. I quickly set up and launched straight onto 14Mhz. Once spotted I had a good run of contacts before moving onto 10Mhz. One thing to note was that the mobile signal was very patchy. One minute my phone would say "No Service" and shortly after it would momentarily pop up. This was good news as I was running the iPhone app SOTAgoat. When I got a signal, the push notifications came rolling in, and I was able to spot potential S2S contacts. I therefore became activator and chaser at the same time, and although a few got away, I managed 10 S2S contacts which was pleasing in it's own right, but the cream was working Bill, W4ZV/p for a transatlantic S2S on W4C/WP-012. He writes about his own activation on his blog.
Summit to Summits
My plans to pack up and move on early to activate a couple more summits on the way home seemed to be evaporating. Every time I said "that's it" another spot would appear, or one of the many hikers would come across and engage me in conversation. This turned out to be a very busy hill top! Eventually I pulled the plug, packed up and made ready for the descent. Not wishing to trudge back across the bog, or tackle what would be a difficult descent, I instead made a direct beeline for the reservoir in the valley below. The descent was very straight forward and as an ascent option I'd also highly recommend it. I passed dozens of people ascending this route and it certainly seems popular.
Bog!
Ready to roll
The shack
The easy descent route to the reservoir
Grwyne Fawr reservoir
Looking back at the dam
Eventually I arrived back at the start point having walked a total of eight tough miles. It now looked like I'd only manage one more activation, so packed the car and departed for Bryn Awr, GW/SW-026.
