WHAT DID I DO?

The idea of 40 summits came to me in January, when members of the Sri Chinmoy Centres all over the world were embarking on projects to commemmorate the 40th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy's arrival in the West from India. With a trip to Indonesia scheduled for late January and most of February, I knew I'd not have much time if I wanted to complete the task before April 13th - the Anniversary Celebration. I got just one mountain under my belt before I went abroad - Black Mountain - which meant I'd need to do six or seven per week every week through the end of February and all of March. That would mean one to three tips out to the mountains each week. As it happened I got into a routine of going out twice each week and doing three summits from the list each time, though there were a few occasions when I had hoped to do more and simply couldn't (because of adverse weather or simply tiredness) or even when three proved to be too many.

The day would start with a 7am departure from home, breakfast of one or two energy bars in the car & constant drinking to get my hydration levels up, followed by some pretty intense map-reading challenges on the mountain roads! I'd usually be out on my first mountain between 8am and 9am, which is why I rarely saw another human being.

INSPIRATION

This was, as I said, one of numerous ways in which myself and other members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team worldwide wanted to mark the 40th anniversary of our founder, Sri Chinmoy, coming to the western world from India in 1964. In our club, we like to mark significant anniversaries in significant ways, for example I know team members who run their age in miles on their birthdays - I did this myself on my 30th and 32nd, though sadly injury curtailed such long road-runs for me before I could do my 33rd. At first I was really inspired by the mountain idea, but there were times when I asked myself why I was doing it - with work, family commitments and the huge amount of work needed on my new house (I'd moved to Wales on Feb 25th) all piling up, here I was taking myself off to the middle of nowhere for a day or two every week on some project that could be seen as - well, of no consequence. I suppose such second thoughts are natural, but if you believe yourself in what you're doing, theres always an underlying inspiration that motivates you and makes you carry on. I had some wonderful experiences, and some really difficult ones when I had to "dig deep" for some endurance and perseverance, so all in all I feel it was very worthwhile and something I'll treasure in my memory for some time.

WHERE DID I DO IT?

The 40 peaks were chosen from the TACIT tables by taking all the "Marylins" of the South Wales area (about thirty) then adding the highest from the list of "Hewitts" to make up the numbers. If these terms mean nothing to you, take a look at the TACIT tables online and you'll see an explanation. If you come from outside the UK, you probably think that my calling these hills "Mountains" is a bit of a stretch of the imagination - but here in Wales we use the term "Mountain" for any upland, theres no minimum height requirement. The average height was around 2100 feet above sea level.

HOW TOUGH WAS IT?

Some mountains were really easy. Some were very tough. My background fitness was not up to much at the start - I could really only exercise intensely for an hour at a time during 2003, as knee problems had prevented me from maintaining a decent level of training. I was doing just a few miles a week, building up to 15 per week around Christmas and into January. To suddenly be running mountains for three hours at a time was a huge leap. The biggest difficulties, however, did not come from the climbing. The toughest aspects were the weather and the terrain. Running a flat course over the roughest tussock and bog in a storm force wind is infinitely harder than running up a steep hill on an easy path.

40 SUMMITS - MY FAVOURITES

To pick out the most beautiful sights from 40 mountains isn't that easy, but here goes. Number one is the view of Cribyn, looming like a fallen pyramid through the low cloud and swirling rain as I approached from the neighbouring peak of Fan Y Big. This vague picture gives you an idea of the murky conditions I was mostly running in, and doesn't do justice to this shapely peak. Being so close to higher summits Cribyn is not a household name. Should be.

Second comes the view across the desolate wilderness of The Black Mountain which I glimpsed for only a few minutes while descending Bannau Sir Gaer (then the cloud came back down and my only view of a twenty yard radius). I also loved the spot where a standing stone guards the flanks of Fan Llia (the stone is called Mean Llia - see pic below). A rare day of clear weather too.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS...

I remember seeing a fox in the frozen slopes of Waun Fach - frost forming on his shaggy coat - and two Peregrine Falcons (I'm no ornithologist but they were the right size and had the "anchor" shape when aloft so I'm confident I got the species right) on Fan Nedd, who took off and circled above me as I descended. Catching sight of a snow-capped Pen Y Fan or Sugarloaf from some distant summit was always inspiring. Frozen waterfalls on Pen Cerrig Calch were beautiful - like the mountain's own precious jewels. The summit of Pen Y Fan with its monumentally huge cairn appearing out of the clouds and the ancient twin burial mounds at the desolate summit of Carreg Las were memorable, as was my car, when I was really tired, coming into view at the end of the run...

MOUNTAINS WITH THE WORST WEATHER!

Number one is Pen Allt Mawr, with a wind so strong and penetrating it felt like some supernatural force! It sucked all the energy from my body, leaving me tired and frozen. Bware the east wind on the Black Mountains in Winter. Number two was the wind, rain and hail on Fan Hir (soaked to the skin despite full body cover), and three is Waun Rydd with its stinging hailstones and unfeasibly blustery winds.

MISHAPS...

I was truly lost on just a few occasions.....firstly on Fan Hir, when I drifted too far south while looking for Llyn Y Fan Fawr and sound myself at the foot of the cliffs - still, I found the summit soon enough. Secondly on Carreg Las, again with almost zero visibility in a vast area of trackless desolation with deep bogs and endless streams and rivers in full spate - here it took me over an hour to cover a mile and a half. Also, Mynydd Marchywel, where the maze of forestry tracks almost defeated me (and on such a small mountain, too..). I took a few falls - usually caused by ice, combined with tiredness. I fell flat on my back on Waun Fach, as my foot hit an unseen patch of thick ice on the frozen ridge. I realised how easy it would be to get some minor but immobilising injury (ankle sprain etc.) and thats when I decided it was imprudent to push myself quite so far somewhere so remote. I also went face-first into a bog on Coity mountain, just as I was thinking how lucky I had been to stay dry - talk about pride coming before a fall. After painstakingly avoiding the ice on Pen Y Fan, Cribyn and Fan Y Big I relaxed a little on Waun Rhydd and, as punishment, slipped on a loose stone and cut my hand up - still, the hand was so frozen I didn't feel a thing.

Theres a few of these 40 that I wouldn't bother going to again - especially the "urban" mountains such as Coity and Carn Y Cefn where access over private land makes things tricky and the views are more post-industrial than pastoral. I did, however, develop a real liking for the Black Mountain / Carmarthen Fan area and I now run their whenever I can (which is not often as it's a two hour drive from my place in Cardiff). Often the cloud ceiling is low, as in this typical winter view of Bannau Sir Gaer :)

Another favourite, Sugarloaf (below) is the kind of mountain you need to run up from all angles just to appreciate the superb shape and exhilarating final climb:

 

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