Pen y Fan
Situated in the central Brecon Beacons, this is the highest mountain in Southern Britain at 886m, or for the old school like me 2907ft. It has a prominence of 2201ft.
The Completed Challenge
The route I used for my challenge was the same as that used by Richard Parks when he set his record of 7 summits in early August 2010 http://www.wru.co.uk/multimedia/24328.php as part of depravation training for his 737challenge. The start being at Pont ar Daf car park (Grid Ref SN987198) ) and the finish of each ascent being the summit of Pen y Fan (Grid Ref SO012215)
I did this route 12 times up and down and once from Pen y Fan up to Corn Du (Grid Ref SO007213), on the final descent, to make up the extra few feet I needed to surpass the height of Mont Blanc from sea level, which is at 15782ft.
I calculate that my total ascent was 15788ft with each ascent being 1309ft plus 80ft up to the summit of Corn Du from Arthur’s seat, between it and Pen y Fan.
This is a rough route and profile I plotted before I attempted the challenge http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-kingdom/cardiff/714128160716828541
The route is all but 4 miles from the car park to the summit and back again (once). Over the course of 23hrs 50 minutes, I did this 12 times so trudged, ran and cursed for 48 miles. This wasn’t pointed out to me until I lay in bed the following morning, on Helen’s birthday, when she said “oh that’s almost 2 marathons hun, well done” – I could have cried!! If only I’d thought about the distance beforehand, I would have pushed for 13.
