Pen Y Fan gully scrambling - Far left and Far Right

I woke up on Sunday feeling under the weather, and heading to the hills didn't seem like the best idea. The forecast however hinted at a cloud inversion, which despite spending many days in the hills I've never managed to see. A couple of paracetamol later and we were on the road. As we drove along the Heads of the Valleys road we both pondered how the dualling of the road would work in the sections along to the gorge, it seems inconceivable.

We decided to park in the free Car Park by the Neaudd Reservoir to enable a fast stomp up onto the hills along the track as we'd had a bit of a later start than planned. I was glad to see the fly tipping I'd reported a few months back had gone. The sun was shining, and it was no cloud inversion for me, the hills did look beautiful in the sunshine and we had a surprisingly quiet walk up on our own for most of the way. The snow had started to melt, and turn to slush, although there were a few patchy ice sections which could be avoided. It's frustrating when the ice is so patchy as you don't want to put anything spikey on, but have to keep your eyes to the floor to avoid a slip.

It didn't take us long to get up onto the top of Cribyn where we bumped into our friend Johnny who had spent the night wild camping in the hills.

We stopped for a bite to eat before putting on our crampons to descend down the nose of Cribyn, although the snow hadn't been too bad to that point the path down the nose was compacted slippery snow. 

Once off the steeper gradient we traversed along the hillside to join the side path along Cribyn - it was devoid of people and felt safer in the snow than it does in wet conditions!

The plan was to ascend Far Left Gully which is a Grade 1 scramble/climb. Before heading up we took a look at Central Gully which Steve had climbed the previous day, it looked big and scary.

Our choice route was nice and frozen, although it did manage to spit a rock at us we ascended (glad I was wearing a helmet). It was fantastic to get such different views to what I'm used to in the Brecon Beacons - I'd looked down into the gullies from above and afar many times, but had never been to the bottom of them.

The last section of the gully was a bit of a knee wobbler for me as it involved exiting a small chimney onto a slope above which was starting to melt. We all got up without incident (after I pinched a second axe for reassurance) and it felt strange to pop out onto the main path in our crampons/axes/garb whilst being passed by people out for a stroll. Johnny was pretty shattered due to it being his 3rd day in the hills so bade us goodbye.

Watching another climber ascend

We wandered back down the ascent path of Pen Y Fan to have a look at some of the other gullies, neither of us fancied descending them so it was back up again onto the top where we were going to follow the Blaen Taf Fechan down to avoid the masses. Before heading down we took a look at the path down to Llyn Cwm Llwch and spotted a gully which was a little easier to drop into. (Far Right Gully). It was my first steep snow descent so Steve belayed me down until it evened off a bit. It would have been easy to ascend but felt hard coming down especially with the wildly spaced steps already kicked in.

As we descended we admired the ice falls which had formed.

We'd not checked the time for a while as we had been busy concentrating, when we did check it was 4.10pm - darkness wasn't an issue as we know the area well and had head torches, but I had to be back in Bristol for 7. Once the gully ended we traversed high across the slope to top out in the gap between Pen Y Fan & Cribyn then it was quick march around the other side of Cribyn to pick up the track back to the car. Before our final stomp out we stopped to admire the sunset, drink some much needed water & remove our kit. It was a beautiful evening to be in the peace of the hills.