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  1. #1
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    Apr 2005
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    Between a rock and a soft place. Aberdare and The Brecon Beacons, Wales
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    SR : Wales 2013/14

    THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2013


    The Met Office is calling for the freezing level to drop below the summits of the Brecon Beacons National Park over the weekend with the possibility for the first snow of winter 2013-14 on Monday afternoon (18 November).

    BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK

    Monday 18th November

    A cloudy start with patchy outbreaks of rain. Clearer spells and scattered showers developing through the afternoon, increasingly falling as snow over the summits through the afternoon. Winds becoming northwesterly and strengthening.

    Issued at: 0352 on Thu 14 Nov 2013

    http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/w...ountainWeather


    Last winter saw the first snow (Yr eira gyntaf in the Welsh language) on the peaks of the Brecon Beacons National Park on 01 November 2012, and the first turns on 03 November 2012.

    Cwm Llwch panorama, Sunday 04 November 2012





    Yours truly on the summit plateau of Corn Du, Sunday 04 November 2012
    (Chris Dainton pic)





    For last season's words & pictures please click the following link

    SR : Wales 2012/13
    https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ighlight=wales


    BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK INFO

    Brecon Beacons National Park
    http://www.beacons-npa.gov.uk/


    Brecon Beacons Webcams
    http://www.beacons-npa.gov.uk/pages/livewebcams
    http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts...webcams/latest


    Brecon Beacons National Park weather forecasts
    http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/w...ountainWeather
    http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Penyfan/6day/top

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    58
    Going to be stuck in the UK this winter, so here's hoping for a snowy Wales!

    Are your older photies all dead? Seems like everything before last winter that you've posted here is text only...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Between a rock and a soft place. Aberdare and The Brecon Beacons, Wales
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    The long term forecast is for a snowy and cold winter so fingers crossed for you.

    I'm heading to Hokkaido on 24 November so hoping for a couple of turns before I leave.

    Yeah snowjapan overhauled their site last spring and my older pics went awol

    Working on my own site this winter so hope to have everything in one place then.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    SLC
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    2,746
    Hope you get snow cool to see people getting after in in Wales
    If ski companies didn't make new skis every year I wouldn't have to get new skis every year.

    www.levelninesports.com
    http://skiingyeti.blogspot.com/

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Avon, Colorado
    Posts
    27
    Nice, that's awesome! Looks promising for you guys:

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/442...ting-next-week

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Between a rock and a soft place. Aberdare and The Brecon Beacons, Wales
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    TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2013

    As forecast, the first snow of the winter arrived this morning.

    The snowline was down to approx 300m - the hills around my house had a light covering - and the Central Beacons Massif had coverage top to bottom.

    Unfortunately it was a consistent frosting of about 2-5cm of dry, powdery snow which was too thin to ski on.

    I drove west to the Carmarthen Fans, the Black Mountain, where more had fallen and was continuing to fall throughout the morning.

    YR EIRA GYNTAF - THE FIRST SNOW









    Fan Brycheiniog and Llyn y Fan Fawr in the Black Mountain





















    Heading back over tomorrow morning to try to get the first turns of the winter


  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Between a rock and a soft place. Aberdare and The Brecon Beacons, Wales
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    WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2013

    Bob Hillier took this wonderful picture of the Central Beacons Massif from the Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre in Libanus at sundown last night, saying that it wouldn't be around for long.





    How right he was unfortunately.

    With heavy rain overnight and the freezing level climbing above the summits it was back to Autumn in the Beacons today.

    Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du from Mynydd Illtud





    Fan Fawr from Mynydd Illtud





    Narrow lane on Mynydd Illtud





    Cefn Crew





    It's much colder now with snow forecast above 700m this evening through to tomorrow morning.

    If it's the right type of snow turns could be on tomorrow.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Geopolis
    Posts
    16,084
    keeping this on the front page, your pics of Wales are one of the best things on TGR.
    j'ai des grands instants de lucididididididididi

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    the Banks of the Ohio
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    225
    ^^^seconded. Mike, your descent of N face of Pen y Fan was the first on record, correct? Given all the secret (military) athletes out there I could understand how somebody might have done it first without announcing, but...*man* that was a strong line! Very artistic photos as well.

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Many thanks ml242.

    Thanks for the props whippesnapper.

    Yes first descent recorded.

    See the army up there regularly but never with skis. Doesn't mean it never happened though

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Posts
    3,230
    Yeah Mike! At some point I want to go visit the home of my ancestors and maybe catch a Swans - Cardiff City derby. I never thought I'd want to take skis with me. Beautiful!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Between a rock and a soft place. Aberdare and The Brecon Beacons, Wales
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    That would make for a great trip.

  13. #13
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    Apr 2005
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    SATURDAY 19 APRIL 2014


    Back in the 'Land Of My Fathers', and had a fabulous walk up Sugar Loaf Mountain in the Black Mountains above Abergavenny with Nerys, Sue, Mark, Ceri & Gemma.

    We did the Sugar Loaf Circuit as recommended by the National Trust

    http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1355786035621/


    Easy access by car to the Llanwenarth car park (free car parking) and then a 60-90 minute walk to the summit (depending on conditions underfoot, the weather, and your fitness).

    We had intermittent sunshine and clouds with a strong breeze that dropped the tempeature down significantly as we got to the top.

    Ceri, Gemma, Sue, Mark & Nerys at the summit





    The 596 m summit is lower than the Central Beacons Massif of Corn Du, Cribyn and Pen-y-Fan (886 m) but with easy access, a healthy 275 m vertical, and wide open non-rocky slopes it should be a great ski.





    With enough coverage the ancient oaks and beech in St Mary's Vale at the foot of the mountain could offer up some wonderful tree skiing






    TravelChampion's winter walk of Sugar Loaf from January 2013





    On the way back down to Abergavenny we popped into Sugar Loaf Vineyards for coffee (the drivers) and a wine tasting. Well worth it.

    http://sugarloafvineyard.co.uk/sugarloaf/


    And then on to the Hardwick for a late lunch

    http://www.thehardwick.co.uk/


    The 3-course set lunch offers plenty of choice and tremendous value for money at 24 quid.

    Excellent. Highly recommended.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Flatland, PA
    Posts
    2,834
    Excellent, really enjoy these reports, this isn't an area one normally thinks about.
    You're gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen spliters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    58
    It was a glorious weekend, wasn't it? I was up on Y Liwedd; there's still a tiny snow patch on Snowdon, though the looks of that video Abergavenny got a better snowfall than Snowdon did this winter!

    I hiked up the Sugar Loaf at Easter about two years ago, I think. The hills up at Hay on Wye still had a good coating on snow on top, nothing like that further south though.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    2,503
    Love this stoke. My wife and her sister did Crib Goch last summer. So cool. She came back saying " If we could to live in the mtns of Wales I would in a second" I called bullshit and she responded with " You would move there just for the pubs alone" hard for me to argue that.

  17. #17
    Join Date
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    Thanks ArmadaBC.

    Some decent falls down this way this winter coldandwet, they just didn't stick around for more than a couple of days at a time. Which is the norm.

    'Scramble' is the key word in this neck of the woods.

    My part of S Wales is very similar terrain wise to large parts of the Shiribeshi area of Hokkaido where I spend my winters philth.

    If Wales received consistent below zero temperatures during the winter months (cold air sweeping down from the Arctic similar to the cold air sweeping down from Siberia to Hokkaido) then snowfall would be measured in metres not centimetres.

    Lord knows we get the precipitation.

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