Activating southern Wales highest on a wet and windy day

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Very good and amusing report Paul. I can relate to the wind as you reached the ridge. Earlier this year I topped this same mountain the day after one of the biggest storms to hit Britain for some time had passed through and I had to crawl the final few feet to save getting blown over!

One of my favourite peaks though it does attract some interesting people, porobably because of the very easy trail access.

Did you manage Fan Fawr in the end?

73 Glyn

Gyn

Thanks for the feedback and glad you enjoyed the report.

I did make it up Fan Fawr later the same day and am working on that report as I write this.

73 Paul

Nice report Paul. I like your style!

In it you write “No view, just windy and very damp. A perfect British late summer’s day!!” Isn’t that the truth. When I activated the summit it was so damp that there was a good inch of water sitting across the entire summit and I had to assemble a pile of rocks before I could put my backpack down. At least the visibility was several feet and I could see the steep edges of the mountain. I set up well back to give myself some comfort in the strong winds.

In my experience Pen y Fan is in the same category as Snowdon - “No view, just windy and very damp” - on each occasion I have been up them. Apparently there are times when more benign weather gets a foothold.

73, Gerald G4OIG

I have been up Pen y Fan three times, each time in “you can see forever” conditions. I couldn’t possibly remember how many times I’ve been up Snowdon but I only remember one murky day. It’s just a matter of luck, or effective propitiation of the weather gods!

Brian

Brian, you know that both Paul G4MD and myself have our reputations to uphold. I am certain some people have cancelled their activations when they have seen that we are going out on the hills. :wink:

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Nearly… I lived in GM for 9 years before I saw the top of Ben Nevis either when passing by or from another summit!

DL/M0FMF
(though it’s only 2km to Poland !)

Great Heavens!

The first peak I ever did in the Highlands was Stob Coire nan Lochan, and there on the horizon was the Ben, a great snow-covered dome with a bite out of it! The next day I photographed its sunny side reflected in the loch from Corpach, the bog-standard postcard view! I’ve seen it so often and from all sides, am I just lucky or are other people just so unlucky? Admittedly I’ve had my share of duff conditions - a week camping in Torridon with no dry days immediately comes to mind - but my memory is stuffed with bright sunlit images, and so is my shoe-box full of photographic slides!

Brian the Fortunate!

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