Pen Y Fan

Distance: 18.4km
Ascent: 934m
Duration: 6 Hours 51 Minutes

This was our main goal for our visit to South Wales, to climb Pen y Fan via the southern horseshoe. We had remarkable weather for March, with 18C heat and sunshine all day. What a spectacular day in the mountains!

We headed north out of the car park towards the old reservoir.

Crossing the outflow from the reservoir. We were already high up here, somewhere close to 400m but there were many ups and downs along our route.

Pen y Fan and Cribyn across the valley. To the right is Fan y Big.

Up on the ridge now looking to Corn Du and Pen y Fan.

The summit of Corn Du.

Looking across to Llyn Cwm Llwch (the mountain lake) and to the north.

A view across to Pen y Fan and its distinct summit.

Looking back to Corn Du.

Looking to our next peaks of Cribyn and Fan y Big.

Thousands of people about today (i’m not exaggerating)

A dramatic view back to Pen y Fan and its eastern face.

And the same view but from the top of Cribyn.

Looking back to the pointed peak of Cribyn.

And back up the hillside to reach the top of Fan y Big. This is the view west along the Beacons. Corn Du at the very back, Pen y Fan and Cribyn.

The view ahead as we headed uphill once more over this ridge.

A final view back from this summit across all of the peaks we have done today. An epic hike and a few miles downhill back to the car park.