Capturing sunrise on Pen Y Fan

I can’t believe it’s April already! Usually I’ve done Pen Y Fan a few times at this stage of year. This is my first trip to Pen Y Fan this year!

Left home at 3 am to get to Storey Arms for just after 4:15am, I saw maybe 5 other cars on the road the whole drive. I took my time going up the mountain, the moonlight was guiding me up, no need for the head torch. Reached the summit at around 5:30am and put the Jetboil to use – I wasn’t the first at the top! Once my cupasoup was ready I set the camera up and waited for sunrise. I had my hood up and headphones in so was a bit surprised when I looked around just before sunrise to find out that a few dozen other people had shown up! I enjoyed my hot cupasoup while they played with flasks and water bottles 🙂

I’d never heard people go ‘oooh, ahh’ as the sun came up before, but experienced it today. Did they think the sun wasn’t going to come up? I took a few shots and wandered along the ridge getting different angles from the hoard of people that arrived. I noticed for the first time a ledge that you can stand on to get a selfie with the view behind you; I took a few while I was there, using my phone as the remote for the camera. Next time I’ll take the heavier tripod and get a better shot, wasn’t too trusting of the travel tripod I took today. I took a few more selfies at the summit as there was nobody else there; I wonder if it was their choice of clothing that forced people to go back down just as they got to the summit? Seen a few in shorts, trainers and t-shirts. Yes it might be going up to 18C today, but not at 6:30am.

Had the traditional breakfast roll at the bottom where I was harassed by a little bird with yellow feathers. I did spare a tiny piece of the roll as bait to get a picture, but I wasn’t quick enough with the phone to capture the bird. I’ll get it next time (cocky bird landed on my phone as I was trying to take a photo of it).

Ryan