CRAIG Y LLYN
Craig Y Llyn is the name of the imposing bluff that looks north from the ridge at the head of the Rhondda valleys. A classically cloudy welsh day meant the photo doesn't do justice to this view - it really is a lovely mountain, its sheer cliff wrapping itself around the lake that gives the crag its name. The summit itself has no name of its own, and is in the forest just behind the bluff. I parked at a forestry pull-in on the main road just east of the top and was left with a fairly minimal climb to do - the only difficulty being the terrain, which was my "favourite"; ankle-turning tussock with occasional patches of deep bog. I'd been running for almost three hours on the mountains that same day before I got to Craig Y Llyn, so the high knee-lift you need to get over the tussock grass was challenge enough for me, and made me feel less guilty about having driven so near to the top. In fact, quite a few of the tops in my list of 40 summits could be ascended in a 4-wheel drive, as some roads and tracks in South Wales wind high up into the hills, but that really would be cheating.
Once over the boggy plain, a brief climb on a loose stoney path (obviously quite a few people come here for the view - I bet in the summer theres an ice cream van not too far away) got me up to the forested top - with a choice of an indirect path or a straight run to the summit down a firebreak, I took the path and it wasn't long before I could see the trig point that marks the top through a gap in the pines - its hidden away slightly, but is right nest to a radio mast, so easily located. The return was as easy as the ascent, apart from more discomfort for my tired ankles on the last stretch.