CHWAREL Y FAN
Seen here in vague silhouette from the valley west of Twmpa, Chwarel Y Fan is a prominent high point on a long ridge that leads to Waun Fach and Pen Y Gadair, the highest tops in the black mountains. I parked in the lovely hamlet of Capel Y Ffinn and ran up the path from the Grange Trekking Centre. Last time I was her ein the Vale of Ewyas there was torrential rain, the roads were flooded, and weather had forced me to abandon my attempt on Twmpa and Chwarel Y Fan. This time, it was a fine hazy morning with a forecast of south easterly winds but no rain, hail or snow. The climb was steep, on a loose, stony path, but I puffed my way up on to the ridge in about twenty minutes. The 1200 yards or so to the summit of Chwarel Y Fan took another ten minutes, as I realised I was still fatigued from running four mountains (albeit small ones) the day before.
This shot shows the summit in profile from the point where I got on to the ridge - it rises to a shapely peak with a cairn - there wasn't much wind so I was able to stand there and appreciate the beautiful scene for a half minute before I remembered I had to crack on and climb Twmpa to get back to Cardiff in time to catch a train. I turned on my heels and headed back northwards along the ridge. The ground was soft, I had both sun and breeze on my back, a skylark was singing enthusiastically above me, and I was on the very last of my 40 Welsh mountains. Needless to say, I felt pretty good.
TWMPA
The path along the ridge to Twmpa was several kilometres long, so I tried to forget my accumulated tiredness and just press on at a good pace. The path was unmissable, and soft underfoot (I sank right into it in places, but it was till faster going than trying to bound through the tussock and heather to either side). At first Twmpa didn't seem to be getting any nearer - it just stayed there in the hazy distance, but after half an hour running from Chwarel Y Fan I suddenly had a clearer view and got a second wave of energy as I began to turn the corner at the head of the valley. The wind suddenly got up - blasting up directly from the south - and while not enough to trouble me as I ran across the ridge at the valley head, it was heavy going on the final ascent. I took a left turn and sneaked as far up as I could on the steep northern side of Twmpa, then cut back to the summit.
I stood there, being blasted by the wind, looking out over the Wye Valley and the Black Mountains. I felt very grateful and very happy to have completed my target of running up 40 mountains. It was a lovely moment. The difficulty of such challenges is a very personal thing, and while it may be an easy task for an experienced or very fit runner, I knew that these 40 summits had been a really good challenge for me (as well as an enjoyable and inspiring one). Some were easy, some were hard, some of the weather I encountered was unbelievable. Still, now it was done, I felt great, but with ninety minutes spent on these last two mountains I had only half an hour to get back to the car.
The view westward from atop Twmpa
I had a choice of the dramatic ridge of Darren Llwyd or the deep valley to it's western side - the wind was really strong up top, so I had no hesitation in taking the low road. The valley had a ghost of a path at it's head that soon widened to something really obvious and easy to run on, following a deep gully with a winding stream. The top picture of Chwarel Y Fan was taken from here. When I got down to the intake wall and climbed over a gate to run the last few hundred yards on farm tracks, I grabbed this picture of the valley I had just descended:
