A hill walking learning curve

A friend is testing the waters with hill walking and I have taken him out on a couple of walks into the nearby hills, walks away from the popular summits and into less visited areas. It has been an insightful exercise watching someone on a learning curve. He has now cut his toenails and realises the virtues of a walking pole. The most recent trip saw him experience the reality of a Met Office Mountain Weather forecast and some weather. The weather was gale force gusts, squalls and extended periods of rain, interspersed with some dryer spells and some brief intermittent spells of sunshine. He was genuinely surprised at how quickly weather deteriorates over the hills and the first time he had looked down onto a rainbow in the valley below. Sadly the rainbow was not luminous enough to attempt photographing.

The walk was a circuit around one of Wales less visited and written about landslides in the Black Mountains. There is much of geomorphological interest and the escarpment is also one of the locations where Llanthony Valley Whitebeam grows. It was a good hill walking trip and loitering at one viewpoint between showers was rewarded with a break in the cloud and some sunlight to illuminate the scenery.