GwersyllaCnau
27-01-2013, 01:26 PM
Cause and Effect
Cause: 60mph winds at 3am, driven needle like shards of constant heavy rain, waist deep drifts of melting snow in places, thunder and lightning and a mountain that obviously didn't want us there.
Effect: One tent with two broken poles, unfortunately the repair kit only carried enough spares to repair one pole. This happened during pitching the tent at around 5pm so we weren't off to a good start. The other tent suffered a bent pole almost immediately after pitching and to be fair to the tent it stood up extremely well to the severe battering it received until 10 hours later at 3am the tent finally gave up and the zip on the door split open. So two tents down, lying in a puddle because in those conditions ANY tent would have leaked, we decided to call it a night.
During the rushed packing of gear I had moved out of the tent to roll my sleep mat so Strider could carry on packing his gear the wind snatched my sleep mat out of my frozen hands and I stood there as it rose high into the air disappearing quickly from sight to land only God knows where. Pen-y-fan beaten us, the mountain had got what it wanted, we were suitably scorned and were leaving with our tails between our legs, Pen-y-fan had thrown everything at us... Or so we thought.
The trip up in good conditions usually takes us about an hour, sometimes less, it took us a little longer on this trip as we were playing in the snow, negotiating waist deep drifts on the path and the river that we usually just walk through was a little deeper than usual (maybe mid calf depth) with a two foot drift on the bank to climb up on the other side, so we went about 20 or 30 yards upstream to find a narrower part with a suitably placed stepping stone. As we were nearing the summit of Corn du light rain started and the wind picked up, Strider measured the wind speed at the ridgeline just below the summit at an impressive 47mph. The wind was behind us and although we were having trouble just standing still we knew that as we dropped down the other side towards Llyn Cwm Llwych, our intended camp the wind would die down. As we carefully climbed down the snow and ice covered bare rock that has formed a dangerous at the best of times natural stairway, the wind dropped to almost nothing and we started looking forward to a peaceful night. How wrong we were.
Pen-y-fan must have been watching us and decided to teach us a lesson, for as we started to get the tents out of our bergens the rain increased to a downpour and the wind changed direction, coming up the valley, hitting the cliff like face of Corn du and buffeting us from all directions. This is when our troubles began with the tent pitching disaster.
The trip down was no different. We had come up the path only hours earlier and knew where the hazards were, we were expecting a 45 minute to an hour walk through the darkness to the waiting car. Pen-y-fan thought otherwise. So at 3:40am we donned our bergens for the walk back. The heavy rain combined with the now fast melting snow had turned the staircase up to the ridgeline into a dangerous very slippery small river. We carefully and slowly climbed this sometimes on hands and knees helping each other where necessary. One consolation was that on the ascent, as we were so close to the almost vertical face the wind had died to almost nothing. This came back with a vengeance as we got to the ridgeline. We did not want to walk along the precarious ice and snow laden path that follows the edge of the ridgeline back to the main path up Corn du and Pen-y-fan so we decided to go up further away from the edge and travel parallel to the path, this is where the wind really hit us, we recorded it at 60mph, even with my hood up the rain at this point hitting me from the side was stinging my ear. Also somehow the wind had changed direction and we were not looking forward to heading into it when we reached the main path. The trip to the path was relatively easy considering the conditions even though the going was a bit slow. The main path had become treacherously icy in places so we skirted around the obviously icy parts looking forward to the clear parts of the path, it was when we got to the parts that were waist deep in places that Pen-y-fan had revenge for the ‘easy’ parts of the path. We wanted to avoid the deep snow by trying not to leave the path even by a foot. Unfortunately the melting snow had turned the path in places into a raging torrent forcing us into the deep snow. This snow had melted from the bottom giving maybe 10 inches of supporting snow that we occasionally broke through into the thigh deep slushy water beneath. When we got to the small river that we usually walk through without thinking, we heard it even above the noise of the wind before seeing the seething white water. We considered our options: A) We should have foreseen this and taken the other path at the top to cross at the bridge. B) Follow the river until we met the other path and cross at the bridge. C) Go back up to the top and follow the other path down. D) Try and find a place to cross. We had almost decided to go back up when we noticed a point in the river that looked narrow enough to cross. Thankfully we were able to jump across without falling in.
From this point in was just heads down, concentrate on the path, get down as fast as possible without falling and breaking and bones. I had always sort of taken the mickey out of people using walking poles but for the first time ever both of us used poles on this trip and to be honest I don’t think either of us would have made it back without cuts and bruises, maybe worse without them. I will always use walking poles from now on, it’s so much easier.
As we neared the bottom, I was concentrating so hard on the path as the batteries on my head torch were now dying that I didn’t realise where we were until I heard the wind in the trees, I looked up the see a light on in the Storey Arms adventure centre and I cannot explain what a welcome sight that was, knowing that only yards from that light was the warmth of the car. At 5:42am I unlocked the car.
Here is the video of the limited footage. Unfortunately I was more interested in getting back than filming anything on the way down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRdVuunpN-4
Cause: 60mph winds at 3am, driven needle like shards of constant heavy rain, waist deep drifts of melting snow in places, thunder and lightning and a mountain that obviously didn't want us there.
Effect: One tent with two broken poles, unfortunately the repair kit only carried enough spares to repair one pole. This happened during pitching the tent at around 5pm so we weren't off to a good start. The other tent suffered a bent pole almost immediately after pitching and to be fair to the tent it stood up extremely well to the severe battering it received until 10 hours later at 3am the tent finally gave up and the zip on the door split open. So two tents down, lying in a puddle because in those conditions ANY tent would have leaked, we decided to call it a night.
During the rushed packing of gear I had moved out of the tent to roll my sleep mat so Strider could carry on packing his gear the wind snatched my sleep mat out of my frozen hands and I stood there as it rose high into the air disappearing quickly from sight to land only God knows where. Pen-y-fan beaten us, the mountain had got what it wanted, we were suitably scorned and were leaving with our tails between our legs, Pen-y-fan had thrown everything at us... Or so we thought.
The trip up in good conditions usually takes us about an hour, sometimes less, it took us a little longer on this trip as we were playing in the snow, negotiating waist deep drifts on the path and the river that we usually just walk through was a little deeper than usual (maybe mid calf depth) with a two foot drift on the bank to climb up on the other side, so we went about 20 or 30 yards upstream to find a narrower part with a suitably placed stepping stone. As we were nearing the summit of Corn du light rain started and the wind picked up, Strider measured the wind speed at the ridgeline just below the summit at an impressive 47mph. The wind was behind us and although we were having trouble just standing still we knew that as we dropped down the other side towards Llyn Cwm Llwych, our intended camp the wind would die down. As we carefully climbed down the snow and ice covered bare rock that has formed a dangerous at the best of times natural stairway, the wind dropped to almost nothing and we started looking forward to a peaceful night. How wrong we were.
Pen-y-fan must have been watching us and decided to teach us a lesson, for as we started to get the tents out of our bergens the rain increased to a downpour and the wind changed direction, coming up the valley, hitting the cliff like face of Corn du and buffeting us from all directions. This is when our troubles began with the tent pitching disaster.
The trip down was no different. We had come up the path only hours earlier and knew where the hazards were, we were expecting a 45 minute to an hour walk through the darkness to the waiting car. Pen-y-fan thought otherwise. So at 3:40am we donned our bergens for the walk back. The heavy rain combined with the now fast melting snow had turned the staircase up to the ridgeline into a dangerous very slippery small river. We carefully and slowly climbed this sometimes on hands and knees helping each other where necessary. One consolation was that on the ascent, as we were so close to the almost vertical face the wind had died to almost nothing. This came back with a vengeance as we got to the ridgeline. We did not want to walk along the precarious ice and snow laden path that follows the edge of the ridgeline back to the main path up Corn du and Pen-y-fan so we decided to go up further away from the edge and travel parallel to the path, this is where the wind really hit us, we recorded it at 60mph, even with my hood up the rain at this point hitting me from the side was stinging my ear. Also somehow the wind had changed direction and we were not looking forward to heading into it when we reached the main path. The trip to the path was relatively easy considering the conditions even though the going was a bit slow. The main path had become treacherously icy in places so we skirted around the obviously icy parts looking forward to the clear parts of the path, it was when we got to the parts that were waist deep in places that Pen-y-fan had revenge for the ‘easy’ parts of the path. We wanted to avoid the deep snow by trying not to leave the path even by a foot. Unfortunately the melting snow had turned the path in places into a raging torrent forcing us into the deep snow. This snow had melted from the bottom giving maybe 10 inches of supporting snow that we occasionally broke through into the thigh deep slushy water beneath. When we got to the small river that we usually walk through without thinking, we heard it even above the noise of the wind before seeing the seething white water. We considered our options: A) We should have foreseen this and taken the other path at the top to cross at the bridge. B) Follow the river until we met the other path and cross at the bridge. C) Go back up to the top and follow the other path down. D) Try and find a place to cross. We had almost decided to go back up when we noticed a point in the river that looked narrow enough to cross. Thankfully we were able to jump across without falling in.
From this point in was just heads down, concentrate on the path, get down as fast as possible without falling and breaking and bones. I had always sort of taken the mickey out of people using walking poles but for the first time ever both of us used poles on this trip and to be honest I don’t think either of us would have made it back without cuts and bruises, maybe worse without them. I will always use walking poles from now on, it’s so much easier.
As we neared the bottom, I was concentrating so hard on the path as the batteries on my head torch were now dying that I didn’t realise where we were until I heard the wind in the trees, I looked up the see a light on in the Storey Arms adventure centre and I cannot explain what a welcome sight that was, knowing that only yards from that light was the warmth of the car. At 5:42am I unlocked the car.
Here is the video of the limited footage. Unfortunately I was more interested in getting back than filming anything on the way down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRdVuunpN-4