The Black Mountain – the Severe climber

Me in Coire na Ciste on my first day of the course.

Me in a bucket seat that I had dug and attached to a buried axe.

Walking through Worthy Wood.

Climbing the absolutely brilliant Gargoyle Flake (VS, 4c) at Bamford Edge.

Climbing the boulder problem Big Slab Right (V0+, 5a) on a wonderfully sunny day at Higgar Tor.

Me on the top of the pinnacle on Pinnacle Buttress at Dewerstone (thanks to Peter for the photo).

Climbing Monkey Crack (VDiff) at Stanage.

Bouldering on the Marsh Boulder at the RAC Boulders.

Me on the summit ridge of Eldir Fawr.

Leading Wall Corner (HVD, 4a) at Burbage.

Me leading Hollybush Gully Right Direct (Severe, 4a) at Stanage.

Bouldering above the beach of Lon Isallt Bay.

Me learning how to do a hoist

Me climbing on The Cube boulder at Bonehill.

Me climbing The Runnel problem at Hound Tor.

Walking on The Black Mountain.

I may not have been able to see very far on my walk up The Black Mountain (Y Mynydd Du) last Saturday, but I could still enjoy looking at the pretty colours of the grass.

Walking on The Black Mountain.

Marcus crossing Afon Twrch on The Black Mountain.

The Black Mountain and Fan Brycheiniog.

Broken limestone near Castell y Geifr.

On Sunday my circular walk over some of the classic peaks in the Brecon Beacons started by walking through Cwm Llwch.

The sun broke through the cloud as I walked along a ridge towards the summit of Corn Du.

The mountains looked very pretty when the cloud cleared enough to see the summits of Pen y Fan and Corn Du.

The view back to Llyn Cwm Llwch and Cwm Llwch from the side of Corn Du.

After climbing Corn Du, it was up and then down Pen y Fan.

Then up again on to Cribyn, which is where I got this view of Fan y Big. Frustratingly, something had gone a bit wrong with my knee and I was in a lot of pain and so I decided not to walk up Fan y Big that day and head back to the car.