Date: Tuesday 12th April 2022
Estimated miles: 20 miles
Strava says: 19.10 miles
Elevation: 4,616 ft / 1,407 m
Weather: an ideal cool temperature, cloudy with sun patches
Start: The Gwyn Arms, SA9 1GP
Route type: circular
Conditions: soft underfoot, moist in places
Website link: Gwynne-Harris Round
Describe the route in three words: trig point giggles
West end of the Gwynne-Harris round bagging 8 summits
This route is the western end of the Gwynne-Harris Round taking in the 8 summits of Disgwylfa, Garreg Las, Carreg yr Ogof, Bannau Sir Gaer (Picws Du), Fan Foel, Fan Brycheiniog, Fan Hir & Cefn Cul.
Debbie and I set off from The Gwyn Arms at 10.51am and found ourselves on a clearly visible path from the off going around the Dan-yr Ogof Showcaves. We climbed over a style and overshot the turning that we needed but quickly realised, as we pivoted around I almost lost my balance on a slippery rock, a couple of strides later I got a strap from my Salomon vest caught on a branch and that nearly halted me and sent me flying (luckily Debbie didn’t notice that happen!) that would have been embarrassing if it was game over at the start! We crossed over a river*, and continued on the track. We were only a couple of miles in when we suddenly got apprehended by what we called a “wow wow bird”. She was absolutely stunning! She was making the most incredible noises and it really sounded as though she was saying, “wow, wow, wow, wow”. She was scurrying around, fanning her tail and rushing at us. At the time I thought she was a he but my husband later pointed out to me that she probably had a nest and was protecting it from us. The wow wow bird, Debbie and I later found out, was a red grouse.
*Please see alternative route at the bottom of this article which avoids the river crossing.
We reached a rocky outcrop, I had a look around to see if there was a cairn or a trig, there wasn’t so we took a selfie, assuming that this was Disgwylfa, 543 m (which it was). We had reached it at 11.42am.
We didn’t hang around as it was foggy and windy and as we started heading to lower ground came across a pond that looked pristine, ideal for a swim which Debbie clearly was tempted to dive into to try! Pwll Cig pond, 11.54am.
We came across a few groups of Duke of Edinburgh students at a river crossing, they were making such a meal of crossing the stream. I politely waited behind the last one to cross but soon realised he would not be crossing any time soon so I said, “You could just do it like this!” and ran across!
Debbie in hot pursuit, we ran away laughing to ourselves, as soon as we were out of sight of them, we slowed to a walk, it was uphill after all!
Debbie and I had been chatting incessantly the entire time and we were rudely interrupted by my stomach rumbling, I declared that it must be around lunch time as my tummy said so, I looked at my watch and it was 12.06pm - my stomach is clearly very accurate! We discussed if we should have it soon on the lower ground where it wasn’t windy or wait until the next summit and try to find a sheltered spot near there and eat with a view. Lower ground made more sense, we crossed over a stream using my poles to save us slipping on the stones, and then sat in front of a grassy knoll to keep out of the wind.
Sandwiches and crisps were consumed, Debbie delighted in the fact that none of her pretzel sticks had snapped and she shared with me her incredible bag of mixed nuts, chocolate and dried strawberries. We stopped for lunch at 12.16pm. Not that long after we arrived, the first group of D of E students showed up and had their lunch here too, a few minutes later the second group arrived. I remarked that there didn’t seem to be too much difference in time between walking and running.
Stomachs happy and wanting to put some distance between ourselves and the D of E students, we set off again. We were on the move for around an hour and reached a short steep section which required a small amount of clambering using our hands and then popped out onto the foggy top of Garreg Las, 635 m at 1.12pm. Garreg Las is two giant cairns, the fog was quite thick and wet here which was quite disorientating, especially as there were two cairns, we felt like we were going back the way we had just come.
We were now on the Beacons Way which is a clearly defined path, this made the route easy to follow. I’d told Debbie that the first two summits were spaced out and then the next 5 would be close together. Sure enough, in just over 10 minutes we were at Carreg yr Ogof, 585 m 1.27pm. Finally we were at a proper trig point rather than a rocky outcrop or cairn. Much discussion was had on how we should pose for the occasion. Debbie did a fabulous handstand, I tried to do one too, Debbie calling instructions at me, “now just hoof it!’ “was I close?” as my feet barely moved, “yes” came the reply. “really?” “no!” Debbie laughed back at me, I turned myself around and did some kind of weird wheelbarrow thing.
The fog was finally lifting and the sun kept having moments of breaking through, spectacular views would be revealed and then covered again by the cloud, it was really quite atmospheric. We ran off from the trig, both shouting, “weeeeeeeee” as we went. We were heading for the ridge line of Bannau Sir Gaer which felt very high indeed!
The Llyn y Fan Fach (lake) seemed a long way down and I told Deb that this was good practice for when she does Crib Goch in May!
We came across another D of E group, some of whom were lying on the floor. Their friendly guide asked us how far we were going and then joked how his group were complaining that they were walking and pointed out to them that we were running.
Picws Du, 749 m 1.56pm is a cairn, the fog was back, blocking our view so a quick pose and then a slightly downhill grassy section along the ridge line prompting airplane arms and more “weeeeeeeeeeee” noises from us both!
We spotted the hill that we needed to go up and thought it looked rather long and steep so another sit down at around 2.25pm and chat consuming sandwiches and snacks felt necessary.
We spotted the D of E girls coming down the hill and decided to set off to stay ahead of them, we were halfway up the hill before we knew it and commented that it really was not nearly as bad as it looked. At the top we found Fan Foel 781 m at 2.44pm, we could see the next trig in the not very far distance. We were really picking the summits off along here, it was very satisfying indeed.
Fan Brycheiniog, 802m 2:52pm is a lovely solid trig point with fabulous views all round, we climbed on it, more confident with our trig posing, Debbie immediately climbed up and struck a pose.
My turn next, I tried swimming on it and also rode it like a horse… silly I know but also very funny!
There’s a circular stone wall close to the trig so we went inside out of the wind and had some snacks. We used the opportunity to look at the map and were impressed at how far we had covered already, we just had an out and back along Fan Hir to do plus one final summit before we’d be back on the road heading to the car.
Fan Hir is spectacular, really enjoyable to run along as one side drops away steeply to the left, offering the most incredible views, we purposely ran past the high point to continue along the top as the scenery was just so stunning. We picked a rocky outcrop we could see in the distance and agreed to run to that before turning around. More photo posing opportunities!
We turned around and were surprised that it felt a tiny bit uphill, we’d thought it was flat all the way along this part of Fan Hir! We had a little nibble of something to eat and then started following the path down. We only had one more summit to do today which was after a road crossing, I knew that we’d have to go all the way back down before going all the way up again, no more picking summits off along the top of a ridge line.
The path took us right past the end of the lake Llyn y Fan Fawr and we both managed to get really wet feet going through a deeper than we realised boggy puddle. I could see the road that we would be crossing over but my word this section was never ending!
The terrain was of the tussocky grass variety which neither of us found easy to run on so we did a combination of skipping, brisk walking and cantering horse style.
We needed to cross over a river and I realised I hadn’t done a single wee all day so decided the high side of the river made for a good privacy wall. I thought Debbie was taking a pit stop too so after I finished I stood up with my back to her. “Are you finished?” “No.” came the reply. A while later I said, “Are you finished?” “No.” came the reply again. Crikey, what is she doing? Then Debbie said, “what on earth are you doing down there?!” “Waiting for you to tell me you’re ready!” It turns out that the wind makes the word “finished’ sound just like the word “eating”. After the miscommunication, we crossed over the road and headed up the final summit of the day. The route follows a fence line, I do not believe this is an official trail as it is not marked on the map but apparently lots of people (or sheep) come this way as it was pretty clear where we should be walking. The grass was littered with patches of black, the field had clearly been on fire fairly recently, we could smell a distinct burnt smell. We went through another surprise puddle to ensure our feet remained soaked through and then spotted the cairn. We ran to the cairn of Cefn Cul, 562 m arriving at 4.22pm then sat leaning on it admiring where we had just come from.
What a view, A fist pump, a snack, and then it was the short stretch down the hill to the road.
Debbie is annoyingly fast going down the hills and it wasn’t the first time that day she’d made it look easy. It was putting me to shame really as I am supposed to have had all this training and put loads of practice in and she just rocks up and flies around like a natural. Debbie clearly needs to enter an ultra, she’d do really well and probably place on the podium.
We climbed over a few sheep pens and started the road section. This was the part I had been dreading but actually it was not too bad at all. It was downhill all the way to the car, we had to dive into the verge a few times as the cars really do come whizzing by, we also stopped to take our jackets off as we were beginning to boil. After around 2 miles we could see the turning for the pub and joyfully arrived, we had done it. Debbie’s longest run to date, and I’m pretty sure her most elevation to date too, what a star, she had made it look so easy! We changed our clothes and sat in the warm sunshine eating a picnic, drinking tea and laughing hysterically at our ridiculous photos and videos of the day.
What’s in the snack pack?
Cream cheese & cucumber sandwich
Hula Hoops
Sugar coated stemmed ginger
Mints
2x 500ml bladders water - both with Hi 5
1.5 lt extra bladder water
Gloves plus spare pair
Salomon Bonatti waterproof over mittens
Hat
Inov 8 Trailshell waterproof jacket
OMM Halo waterproof trousers
Long sleeved spare layer
Vasaline
Spare hair band
Safety pins
Compeed, plasters, surgical tape, spare socks
Harrier Helvellyn Carbon Z-Poles and quiver
Silva Head torch (mandatory but didn’t need)
Whistle
Survival blanket
What I wore: Saucony Ultra ST, Garmin Fenix 6 Sapphire, buff, Sweaty Betty power leggings, Stance socks, Ronhill merino long sleeved top, Dirty Girl gaiters, Salomon Adv Skin 12 running vest.
Lead up: I’d done a Blaze session the morning before this recce and a 10 minute Pilates for Runners session just before I’d gone to bed (I was paranoid that my ankle), and two days before I ran the River Way FKT route securing a new (and first recorded) ladies FKT. Saturday I had run twice and before that had been away with work for two weeks so had done very little indeed.
Morning preparations:
I did a 10 minute pre-run Pilates for Runners session before having breakfast of 40g porridge oats and 200ml Alpro oat milk, mashed up banana and mixed berries stirred through. I left at around 7am to pick Debbie up on route. We had a funny drive down deciding we both needed a wee after driving past the final service station, luckily a kind staff member at Home Bargains in Pontypridd let us use the staff loo! We then met a lorry and a van down a single track lane and had to reverse a very long way to let them by, we felt like it was a game of chicken as we drove as fast as we safely could to get to the end of the lane!
Summary A fabulous route indeed, the majority of it was on clearly defined paths rather than sheep tracks and invisible paths. The box was very accurate and I having thought there might be two ‘short cuts’ looking at he map previously, it was best to stick to the gpx route. I had thought we’d be in a really remote part of the Brecon Beacons but it turns out that The Black Mountain is extremely popular with D of E groups and hikers.
Lessons learned
It was a real pleasure to take Debbie along with me, someone certainly used to trails but new to the mountains, the terrain of the Brecon Beacons and also it was Debbie’s longest run, I loved sharing my passion with her, I wonder now that she might be hooked too! I did rely on the gpx for the majority of the time, I looked at the map a few time just to show Debbie where we were and where we were heading next.I think my main take aways from this are silly ones, striking a pose on a trig point makes me giggle, and my flask keeps tea warm for a lot longer than I realised!
Results
Elapsed time: 6 hr 13 m 26 s
Alternative route avoiding river crossing
Debbie and I needn't have got wet feet, on closer inspection of the map, when it came to running the route for real, I moved my checkpoint from Gwynn Arms to the Brecon Beacons Camping and Caravan Park, this route cut a little bit of distance and avoided the stream.
