There comes a time in life when, one day, in the midst of 2.4 children, the mortgage and weekly shopping, we look in the mirror and sigh: “I will never be in the SAS”. Not that you’ll ever particularly want to be part of the SAS (Special Air Service), the British army’s famous special forces unit: the sleeping conditions seem terrible, for starters. But this romantic notion of being one of the world’s elite excites you, putting yourself through these grueling tests designed to sort your ordinary human from those with machine-like levels of muscular and aerobic strength.

One of these tests is the Fan Dance, a playful nickname that belies the brutality of this challenge. It doesn’t involve any dancing (although you’ll have to do some serious moves), but it does involve a “fan.” At 886m (2,900ft), Pen y Fan is the highest mountain in southern Britain. Located in Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons) in Wales, just a few clicks from Merthyr Tydfil, the Fan is the focal point of an SAS selection test.