Well, today would have been perfect for a winter Traverse attempt. Perfect conditions. Clear, cold, dry and firm underfoot. Snow on the tops, beautiful. Only problem, its the first day of spring!
Lots of talk before Xmas about winter traverses, don't think it actually happened........
I know someone who had a sneaky low-key attempt late in Jan - did most of it, thinks it's well do-able, but now theoretically a bit late for a Winter traverse?
Re: South Wales Traverse
Picking up a very old very short thread (was a Winter SWT ever done?) ....
Has anyone done the descent off Pen Twyn Mawr recently? I did it a couple of years ago with no problem finding a way down thru the forest, from SO242272, but these things have a habit of changing - I remember a mad five minutes near the end of the Ramsay.
No, i don't believe it ever happened.....and I certainly will not be doing it this winterNever mind there is always next year!
Last did the Pen Twyn Mawr descent about 18 months ago and it was fine then, it should be fairly clear in winter anyway.
Tempting...
“the cause of my pain, was the cause of my cure” Rumi
Go on....
Go on Go on Go on Go on..........
Rob,Originally Posted by RobW
Has anyone done the descent off Pen Twyn Mawr recently? I did it a couple of years ago with no problem finding a way down thru the forest, from SO242272, but these things have a habit of changing - I remember a mad five minutes near the end of the Ramsay
Anne and I ran this section of the SWT last summer, and that descent off Pen Twyn Mawr was a nightmare! We couldn't find a decent way down through the woods.
On their successful traverse, Adrian Belton, Mark McDermott and Andy Addis had taken 26 mins to get down to the road and it took us an hour.
I was meaning to post and ask about that descent, but never got round to it.
On your run down there 18 months ago that was fine, Toffer, did you go straight down through the woods? Or did you use the forestry tracks?
By the way, why does the traverse ignore Foel Fraith just after the start? I can't see why it's not included (unless my list of summits is wrong!)
"And the winds blow and the sky looks cool / So I make my home in the clouds"
When Toff and I had a look at this section, we used a bit of forest trail first and then picked up the track that plunges pretty much straight down to the road. The last bit is a bit sketchy but if you keep straight on down you hit the road about 100m below the car park.
The key is the right entry point off the open fell, through a gate onto a track, following the track SOUTH for a bit before turning back NORTH on the high forest trail. The track leading off this is on the apex of a left hand curve and when we were there, someone had helpfully marked the exit with some logs forming an arrow.
Simon Blease
Monmouth
The summit selection can seem a bit perverse and includes some really insignificant tops, however, all the summits are over 610m (2000ft) - Foel Fraith is 602m, so not included for that reason.
Rhys
Yup, thats the key, hit that track and it just goes straight down the hillside, keep that line as you hit the trees near the bottom and though its is not an obvious clear route it is perfectly passable to the road. We didn't time it but went straight down without stopping, it certainly didn't take us more than half an hour.
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