Well, not exactly the fan dance, but three friends and I DID get up to the summit of Pen y Fan, and then some.
For those of you who don't know, the Brecon Beacons are a range of hills in the south of Wales; the highest point in the Brecons is Pen y Fan, at 890 odd metres. Every year potential recruits into the Special Air Service (SAS) have to go through the final part of initial selection here: they have about 8 hours to cross something like 30 miles of steep terrain, including reaching the top of Pen y Fan (hence "Fan Dance"). Well, we had a 30 mile (50 km) long route, but fortunately we had three days to do it in, and here's a short photo diary for your viewing pleasure.
Before we started was the "acclimatisation" walk (which was a ludicrously long 15km), and I thought I'd include some photos of that because of the beautiful mist that hung about the area on that day.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25010012.jpg)
You can't quite see it here, but there's a 200m (600 foot) sheer drop the other side of that grass in the foreground.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25010010.jpg)
This gives quite a good impression of depth. Remember that for this walk we didn't get anywhere near the summit!
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25010013.jpg)
Did I mention I suffer from vertigo? That tiny line in the distance is a wide river, with valley.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25010008.jpg)
This picture makes a great wallpaper - message me if you want a higher res version for yourself.
Well, with the acclimatisation over, we returned to Cwrt-y-Gollen CCAT camp for our last shower for three days. Then began the expedition in earnest:
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020023.jpg)
Just some of the kit we had to carry 50km.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020024.jpg)
Ahh, so THAT's where the army gets its rations from
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020019.jpg)
My good friend S.Sgt Dickins (foreground), with L.Cpl McRae lurking in the shadows. "We're not lost, I just don't know where we are."
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020003.jpg)
A stream. Ain't it pretty?
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020007.jpg)
By the middle of tomorrow we'll be at the top of that hill. Not the big one in front, the even bigger one on the horizon!!
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020004.jpg)
The end of day 1 and Cpl Rocker (that's me!) is boiling some water for the ubiquitous dehydrated chicken balti.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020002.jpg)
Day 2 begins in earnest. My three friends are perambulating (what a great word!) towards the peaks in the distance. The far, tabletop-shaped hill is Corn Du, and we'll be standing on top of that before too long.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25020011.jpg)
This may actually have been day 1, to be honest I can't remember. But it looks nice anyway.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030025.jpg)
100-200m up the first hill, Fan y Big, looking backwards. We used this hill as the 'ramp up' to the beacons, if you will. And please, no jokes about the name. I've heard them all a million times already ;D
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030024.jpg)
Me again, wondering how the heck we're going to get up there.[/IMG]
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030020.jpg)
We're pretty much at the top of Fan y Big here, looking back over the path we took, along that ridge to the left. It was a bloody long slog, and there's still a long long way to go.[/IMG]
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030016.jpg)
That peak to the right of the picture is Cribbin; we have to climb that before we can get to Pen y Fan.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030012.jpg)
At the top of Cribbin, looking out towards Pen y Fan, and Corn Du just behind it. What you can't quite appreciate is that we have to drop about 200m before we can begin climbing that path you can see.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030011.jpg)
This is 200 times better with depth perception.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030010.jpg)
My friends enjoyed playing on my vertigo and freaking me out by sitting RIGHT ON THE BLOODY EDGE OF CRIBBIN! That's about 400m down, btw.
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030005.jpg)
After a long uphill struggle, which I haven't photographed due to it being uphill and a struggle, we reach the summit of Pen y Fan. What a sense of achievement!
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030006.jpg)
From left to right: Me, Cpl Cockram and S.Sgt Dickins, doing our own version of the Fan Dance
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25030002.jpg)
We begin the long, slow decent. This picture was taken half way down the far side of Corn Du.
To cut a long story short, after walking about another 10km, we arrived at our second camp site. The third day was a mere (ha) 13km, over pretty uninteresting terrain (by which I mean easy :D ). Just to prove we did it, here's a photo of us by the minibus at the end:
(http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.rocker/Brecon/25010001.jpg)
From left to right: S.Sgt Dickins, Cpl Rocker (me), Cpl Cockram, L.Cpl McRae.
So in short, I had an absolutely fantastic time, and if anyone here has the chance to do something similar (this was for a Duke of Edinburough Award Silver), I would strongly recommend it. I've got about 80 photos in total, so if you want me to send you a hi resolution version of anything (for reference, or a BG, or a wallpaper), feel free to forum message or email me. Thanks for reading!
I live (when not at Uni in Derby) not far from the Brecon Beacons. I'm not sure how impressed people would be by your having climbed Pen Y Fan if they'd been there themselves (or maybe I've only ever gone up the wussy side of i ;) )
On the other hand
EXPODITIONS ARE COOL!!!! I'm jealous.
It's not just that I got up pen y fan, it's that I got up it after already having walked 30km, with a heavy pack on my back. Ok, so it wasn't Snowdon, but it was still aw3sum!1!
Some of those pictures remind me of "middle earth"
sounds like a great trip!
when i saw dance, i thought it was some sort of mittens dance remix