Ice, snow, alpenglow and aspect ratio

The forecast was for light winds, temperature inversion, excellent visibility, hill fog lifting and clear skies, with snow still lying on the ground at high levels. I didn't fancy dawn, but a leisurely afternoon/evening wander somewhere in Fforest Fawr seemed promising. The forecast was that good, the wife was motivated to go for a walk too, I did suggest she take her camera gear as sunset/dusk could be good, she just wanted to stretch her legs.

View to the Black Mountain escarpment and upper reaches of the Tawe valley

Parking up in the Upper Tawe valley, it became evident that it was a 'sensational' winters day for walking on the hills, plenty of snow still lying, the sun shining and no wind.  In my eyes, there's a huge difference between sensational weather and conditions for hill walking and landscape photography. Powder blue sky, harsh sunlight and blue shadows are probably the most uninspiring combination for making images, however for hill walking these are probably as good as it gets and a scan around suggested plenty of walkers on the popular summits. Whilst getting 'suited n booted' the options were considered;  a trip up to Fan Hir/Fan Foel might involve some trail breaking on the ground under the escarpment and considering this was an excursion for views, only one of the party would be trail breaking and trail breaking for someone to follow with shorter legs, oh, and that other member of the party didn't like long descents under head torch. I suggested the summit of Cefn Cul. A hill with views, but rarely visited, so other hill walkers footprints wouldn't be an irritation or issue in any composition and the clincher, was sunshine all the way up Cefn Cul, whereas most of the walk in to the Black Mountain would be in shade. To the north and east, high pressure and a temperature inversion revealed itself with a band of haze obscuring the most distant views 20km+, but this band of haze could hold some potential, come sunset/dusk.

Moorland topography and 'texture'

It was an enjoyable walk up across the moorland, the ground frozen, only a few inches of virgin snow, a few spots with maybe a foot in depth and the warmth of the sun, meant layers were soon discarded down to base layers, fabulous. There was no urgency, so plenty of stopping and wandering around to soak up the views over the Tawe and Crai valleys, a look through the binoculars revealed just how many people were out and about on other hills, we came across a solitary set of footprints partially infilled with snow, testament to this hills solitude.

Fan Gyhirych

The prospect for dusk seemed good too, as a distinct yellowy/cyan band in the sky on the horizon became more prominent. A slight concern, from a photography perspective, was high cloud to the west. There's a couple of low knolls on Cefn Cul that vie for the highest points, both give views and it was great to just sit there in the sunshine and enjoy the moment.

Fan Gyhirych II

Instead of staying on the summit area for dusk, I thought there was an area lower down with potentially more interest and along the way the moorland grasses offered some compositional interest at dusk. It was also apparent the Fan Gyhirych would be prominent in most compositions and some high cloud might afford some interest in the sky if it caught the dusk colour too.

The wide view 

As the sun set the cyan/yellow band on the eastern horizon started to turn red and the last light of the setting sun catching the summits also was a crimson red, this lighting phenomena is called alpenglow. This dusk ticked almost all the boxes for perfect alpenglow, with reds turning to magenta as the sun sank lower below the western horizon and I did have a small pang of regret for not being on Fan Foel on the Black Mountain.

Ice, snow and alpenglow

The wife was just enjoying the spectacle of  watching dusk unfold, blue shadows turn magenta and the sky colour intensify slowing going through the warm spectrum. My Xmas present of a Down Jacket paid dividends, as there was no moaning about the, by now, fast dropping temperature over the snow fields and increasing windchill from a breeze. What the photos don't convey was the absence of noise, it was complete silence, no roar of engines or any bird calls and the hill summits had emptied of walkers. It was as if everything was stood still entranced, watching the magic of dusk unfold.

3:2 view composed for 5:2

On a more mundane note, above and below are a 3:2 image composed for a 5:2 image crop, I personally think there are many views in the uplands that suit this format and it is something the 5DS R will be evaluated on. A single image is far preferable for a panoramic crop, than stitching a number of images as the colour changes/light intensity can be fairly dynamic at dusk and dawn. In high winds making a series of images for panoramic stitching, becomes a lottery, ditto with squall/storm lighting too.

5:2 aspect ratio crop

The walk off was an uneventful  the colour fading from the sky and the car reached just as head torches were needed, it was one of the better excursions with a magical dusk in the hills.

Dusk/Twilight colour

Plan A, oh yes indeedee

The UK was gripped for a few days in an 'Arctic blast', the Mountain Weather forecast noted snow falling, less endearing were the words upland gales and wind chill in minus double digits. I thought it best to wait for the wind to ease and finally initiate Plan A.

A 20 second exposure

When the forecast finally predicted that winds would drop, Plan A was finally rolled out. Parking up at Blaen-y-glyn car park and there was a lot of cloud overhead, maybe it would break up?  Ice was conspicuous, but there wasn't as much snow as I'd been expecting and not full on winter conditions. I appreciate the effectiveness of crampons, but the convenience of Kahtoola micro spikes generally wins out for the Brecon Beacons terrain, the crampons were left in the boot. The path up had some interest in parts with sheet ice, consolidated snow and thigh deep drifts, the going was good though, courtesy of walkers who had trail breaked on the preceding days. Up on the plateau a few things became apparent.

Caerfanell valley

Extensive hill fog covered the Brecon Fans and higher ground, which was disappointing, as these summits were to form the main composition viewpoint. The northerly wind was also a lot stronger and buffeting, this was bad for both windchill and tripod stability. Conversely, the northerly wind was a good thing too, as cold, clear, moving air offers excellent visibility and clarity, not something that can be typed too often, as the UK has a maritime climate with moisture laden air. The cloud overhead was extensive, but the south easterly horizon appeared clear. There seemed little point in heading off to be enveloped in fog and plenty of time to spare before dawn to revise my plan and find a viewpoint. The chances of side lighting were minimal, a pity as the landslide under Cwar y Gigfran might have had some potential,  a view of the sunrise down the Caerfanel valley offered the best hope, with the misfit streams in a glaciated valley.  I dumped the rucksack and spent 30 mins scouting the edge of Craig y Fan Ddu for i) a sheltered viewpoint and ii)  I needed to keep moving to keep warm.

I was fortunate enough to get a red sky and horizon for dawn and sunrise, less fortunate was the wind strength and buffeting, which made most long exposures soft and forced a move to the sheltered ground around Blaen Caerfanell.

With sunrise over,  I decided to cut across Gwaun Cerrig Llwydion to the Craig Cwareli overlooking Cwm Oergwm, the aptly named cold valley. Gwaun Cerrig Llwydion is a plateau. in part covered with an eroded and eroding surface of blanket peat and as the ground was frozen solid, the joys of shin deep bog were negated. In any case the snow mantled peat hags would offer some interest, whilst waiting for improved weather to hopefully manifest itself.  Wind ablation of snow created this mildly unnerving scene amongst the peat hags, anthropogenic snow heads with grass for hair.

Snow heads

The mechanism(s) for blanket peat erosion, forming peat hags, hasn't convincingly been proven, but  whatever the cause, the peat hags on Gwaun Cerrig Llwydion are impressive in their size, number and extent. I also managed to disturb some the resident Red Grouse on my wander.

Brief sunlight

Before everything had froze solid, water draining from the blanket peat had formed icicles and the weight of ice hanging had visibly stretched and pulled down on the vegetated layer covering the peat. Once this protective vegetation mat is removed, the underlying peat is exposed to the elements and weathered away. From my limited observations, icicles indicating water draining from blanket peat usually appeared in the 'head wall' of an erosion embayment, cutting back into the blanket peat.

Icicles

With the sun showing signs of breaking through the cloud and Cribyn's summit clearing of hill fog, it was heads up and time to explore the views.

 The cloud masking Cadair Arthur refused to play ball and clear, sigh.

Cwm Oergwm

Craig Cwareli was fully exposed to the wind, the windchill was pretty severe and I was thankful to Canon engineers for designing a camera that I could operate wearing gloves.  At the head of Cwm Oergwm there's a suite of landforms at the foot of the escarpment that have proved elusive for me to photograph, I was hopeful that snow cover and a BW conversion would reveal their nature, with the benefit of hindsight, I probably needed a better point of view, perspective and more snow. Some of the landform features represent cirque glaciation moraines, other landforms are more contentious and have provoked some discussion on their nature.

100mm BW

After 6 hours on the hill, the ominous darkening of the sky and lowering of cloud base, signalled an end to day and time to head home. Plan A had at last been rolled out, but I'd have liked the hills to have cleared of fog/cloud for dawn and try again to get the views I'd last seen in 2013. On the other hand I'd probably have missed the views over the Caerfanell valley.

2013 Dawn

2013 Sunrise

Plan C

The next outing was after there been a thaw, followed by more snowfall in freezing temperatures, an earlier rise too, to take into account the weather warnings for Ice and extended journey times, Grand Plan A for a high summit view on the Brecon Fans was firmly in my sights and with no travel delays, everything was good. Turning off the well gritted A40 onto a minor road and the ungritted road conditions weren't the best. Parking up the car and exiting it, 3 things were apparent - everywhere was covered in ice, even low down the wind was decidedly breezy and the summits seemed covered in cloud, not good. Now I've stood around in windchill, waiting for summits to clear and suffered for my optimism, so Plan A was abandoned.

Plan B, initiated carry on west and take the A road from Defynnog to Craig y Nos  for a location on the south side. Plan B was abandoned when it was soon evident the road hadn't been gritted and a convoy of tail lights in the distance, suggested more crawling.

OK, Plan C carry on the A40 and head for the moorland north of Y Mynydd Du where the headwaters of the River Usk rise. The ungritted minor roads would be interesting and didn't disappoint.

Winter tyre conditions

Parking up and the view south revealed that Y Mynydd Du was wreathed in cloud and the view North to an impressive train of shower clouds tracking eastward, hopes for a dawn spectacular faded.  The spectacle of spindrift on the hills underlined the wise move to have abandoned an excursion to higher elevations.  I'm conscious writing this, just how many times my plans are changed at short notice to accommodate weather conditions, I don't believe it is indecisiveness, more case of experience of actual weather on the hills and fallibility of a Met Office weather forecast.

The ability of animals to endure the elements has to be respected and this was illustrated by a couple of dozen that had hunkered down in the lee of a small scarp/clumps of rushes and adjacent to the infant river Usk.  In comparison with the terrain on offer, this was an excellent choice - the high river bank and rush clumps provided some shelter from wind and ground relatively well drained and dry. 

Shelter

I'm giving credit to the local hill farmer, that these sheep are the ewes left out on the hills all winter to accrue the survival knowledge of shelter and food resources of this terrain, the over wintered upland ewes, then guide the main flock when it returns in more clement weather. I thought there is a name given to these ewes and a search of the web to find the correct terminology for sheep left out on the hill over winter, was unsuccessful.  My search did throw up one of the more tragic episodes in sheep husbandry in the upland environs.  The Gonial Blast in late January 1794 witnessed a storm hit the Southern Uplands of Scotland, when the snow melted the following was reported "there is a place called the Beds of Esk, where the tide throws out and leaves whatever is carried into it by the rivers. When the flood after the storm subsided, there was found on that place and shores adjacent, one thousand eight hundred and forty sheep, nine black cattle, three horses, two men, one woman, forty-five dogs and one hundred and eighty hares, beside a number of meaner animals" these bodies washed down were the ones resting close to or in water courses, the actual death toll must have been staggering. 'Gonial' or  'Goniel', is the term applied to the mutton of sheep found dead, from which the smoked mutton-hams are got.

Prior to this trip I'd packed a 100mm prime and 80-200 tele zoom and for this excursion I'd swapped the zoom for a 180mm prime. Sod's Law dictated I could have done with a 130-150mm to abstract a meander loop and the cloud colour reflected from the water. The concept was good, the DoF, execution and point of view less so.

Reflected colour

A view to the north, with the 180mm prime, over the meander loops, two flavours of the cloud colour and the silviculture of the Glasfynydd Forest, was more acceptable.

The cloud to the south over Y Mynydd Du finally started to break up and clear. Now despite the cliche of a landscape image with the ubiquitous glacial erratic in the foreground, on a featureless moor an erratic is not to be sniffed at, especially as the provenance of the erratic was highly likely, to be from the Y Mynnyd Du escarpment and hints strongly at the direction of glacial ice flow.

Cliche glacial erratic I

Cliche glacial erratic II

Cliched landscape foreground glacial erratic images satiated, it was time to wander. It's fair to say the wanderlust was short lived as the novelty of trail breaking through increasingly deeper snow, the wind increasing and clearing sky, rapidly translated into sinking enthusiasm and a trip up to Llyn y Fan Fach was saved for another day.

Instead the longer lenses were brought out to play, to try and capture spindrift on the spur of Fan Foel.

180mm

100mm

Then it was time to head back for some entertainment on the ungritted roads.

Snow, yay!

The UK winter of 13/14 was the wettest since records began and snow events were at a premium, so it was with some anticipation with snow falling, that I made plans for a dawn excursion. Snow cover has the ability to reduce the visual complexity of a landscape, by blanketing vegetation and reveal land forms. So, great plans were made, winds were at an acceptable strength for longish exposures and I even allowed an extra 10 mins for clearing the car of snow in the morning. Sadly, the plan slowly unravelled during the journey. The majority of UK drivers seem content to carry on with normal tyres and mitigate the hazards of snow/ice by travelling at crawling speeds until gritted or snow/ice free roads are reached. If conditions get too bad, they simply abandon their car, which really adds to the congestion misery. Whilst slowly crawling along behind a dispiritingly long line of tail lights, I reflected on the aforementioned and that whilst my investment in winter tyres is a sensible move, I really should have set the alarm for 1 hour earlier when snow fell overnight and as the extended travel time, ate into the walk time, Dawn at Great Plan A was scuppered and others too, eventually a trip up to the oh so familiar enivrons of the Black Mountains southern flank was settled on.

Cumulonimbus Incus

The walk up was initially over a dusting of snow, until the Ffridd wall was reached and then the snow depth increased to several inches. Where the 'mountain wall' has been sited in empathy with the upland environs and not with a surveying line, I have noticed the 'mountain wall' often seems to demarcate fairly accurately the zone of snow accumulation.

Onwards and upwards and with views opening up, a band of cloud was present to the south extending across the horizon from the SW to SE, sigh. so no alpen glow or warm red light. It was very much a case of waiting for something to happen towards sunrise. A cumulonimbus incus cloud offered some interest and if the cloud had arrived 30 mins later there would have been some very nice lighting.

Instead there was the opportunity to experiment with the camera white balance (WB) settings, as sometimes manual settings have produced a more pleasing image colour than the camera auto WB. Conventional wisdom says WB can adjusted in RAW post processing, I think it is probably best to get it thereabouts in the field and it is something I'm still experimenting with, a better memory would help too.

A belated sunrise

The effect of snow and low angled light reduces the complexity of a landscape and highlighting landforms was  illustrated by the view across the Usk valley to Craig y Cilau on Mynnyd Llangatwg where the landslide scar/glacial cirque were revealed.

Craig y Cilau and Mynydd Llangatwg plateau

One landform that I'd seen on previous trips was a lobe or debris tongue, with depression and debris ridges. The snow cover highlighted the form and nature, with the intriguing possibility of a rock glacier origin, or alternatively winnowed landslide debris. The south facing aspect of the slope and the gradient are potential settings for ice cored debris flows that form in severely cold climates.

Boulder lobe from a rock glacier or winnowed landslide debris?

Spin drift rising from exposed ground was a visible indicator of the wind strength increasing, sadly my efforts to capture spin drift failed miserably. With cloud sheets approaching from the west and thunder snow forecast it was time to head back to the car, whilst the weather was still good and photograph the Ffridd wall and trees mantled in snow. An enjoyable trip and always a childish pleasure to walk on virgin snow that's not too deep.

Stock pen and Ffridd wall

Field beech and graze line

Winter light and colour

This post covers two excursions to the Brecon Beacons National Park and locations avoiding the high winds and gusts to gale force intensity, the sheltered lee side of scarps/hill sides.

The first trip was an afternoon excursion to the eastern flank of Y Mynydd Du, to coincide with the departure of a weather front and the relative shelter of the Old Red Sandstone escarpment. Anomalously high Autumn temperatures - well into winter and grass was still holding a green tinge of growth - and an absence of frosts, hadn't brought the rich palette of colour to the upland sedges and grasses, the cold spell over the festive season might have rectified this.  This area also encapsulates the headwaters of the Afon Tawe and the lake Llyn y Fan Fawr, it is fair to suggest there's no shortage of moisture and recent heavy rainfall had left the ground saturated with surface water streaming down the hill, streams in torrential flow and below ground the natural soil pipes were revealed with water flowing into normally dry gulleys.

The moorland also has a number of eroding peat hags, an increasing UK wide phenomena that is causing some debate as to the cause, in environmental and earth science circles

Eroding Peat hag

The erosion of preat hags does reveal a ground surface covered in rock debris, much of it angular in nature and probably a relict land surface from the the end of the last glacial stadial 11,500+ years BP when this area would have resembled arctic tundra.

Rock debris revealed by eroding Peat.

On the theme of controversy and Ice age landforms, Llyn y Fan Fawr has prompted some discussion of its origin, an active glacier is the popular consensus, there are alternative views though.

View to Llyn Y Fan Fawr and present outlet stream (not visible)

I can't find any references, but the moorland does seem to have a suite of landforms arraigned normal to the down valley glacier ice flow.

There's also a scatter of erratics, that might be from winnowed moraine or till and on the western flank of Fan Gyhirych a series of lineations that are discordant to the southerly dipping bedrock, these have been postulated as glacial lineations.

Fan Gyhirych glacial(?) lineations

With the wind easing, I ventured up onto the escarpment for a look around. On the way up, the path  exposed these mudstone, siltstone and sandstone beds, that nicely sum up the composition of the Brownstones formation.

Sandstone, siltone and mudstone beds, of the Old Red Devonian, Brownstones formation.

The wind was still on the strong side, so only Fan Hir was visited for a view over to Fforest Fawr and with ominous cloud rolling in from the west it was back to the car.

View from Fan Hir

On the way down, a stop to record the infant Afon Tawe flowing through soliflucted sheets of glacial till.

Infant Afon Tawe

The 2nd trip was an afternoon excursion too, the morning wasn't the best and the Mountain Weather Forecast hinted strongly that even with a weather front clearing, walking at elevated and exposed routes would be challenging, so keeping the tripod steady seemed optimistic for dusk, more interesting was the forecast of sunshine and snow showers.  The car parks for popular low level walks would be full, so the National Nature Reserve of Craig Cerrig Gleisiad and Fan Frynach, seemed the best bet for quiet and some views. The National Nature reserve has a lot to offer from a geomorphology and flora perspective, I'll hope to cover these aspects in future posts/visits, as the images on this trip were of the views. I'll add that the Mountain weather forecast was spot on.

Cadair Arthur

I've always known the peaks of Corn Du and Pen y Fan as Cadair Arthur, but this name seems to have fallen from favour in recent times. A pity, as viewed from the NE the twin summits do appear arm chair like, the connection with Arthur I have no idea, but there's a thread of Arthurian folklore in the Brecon Beacons NP.

Breaks in the cloud were few and the showers were light in intensity, the final image, just caught some light before the sun dropped below the hills.

The National Nature Reserve makes for an interesting outing with plenty to see and varied routes at high and low levels.