Skyline at Afan - best ride in AGES!!

miss notax

Hello

We found ourselves up at Afan yesterday, and despite all the talk of diversions etc we though we would ride the full Skyline (i've never done it before) - and I loved it

Fab ride, and some of the paths for the diversions were quite tricky, so not all boring fire road. Some great loose rocky descents too.

Does anyone know how long it is with all the diversions though? We did it in 3 hour 33 mins (including a few stops for a chat / pee / drink etc) which I was really pleased with, and a new personal best on the Whites / Skyline climb of 35 mins to where the black splits off

Loads of people on the trail, so Hello to anyone we saw out there (especially to the bloke that looked positively shocked as I shot past him on the climb )!!

Andrew_J_Heard

dying to do this ride before it closes but at the moment in not sure if my fitness is quite up to it! only just getting back into things after 5 years off the bike

have heard nothing but good things about it!

3 1/2 hours must be a bloody quick pace though? im gonna aim for coffee and cakes at about 3 hours and back to the car at about 7 hours : lol

miss notax

Andrew_J_Heard wrote:

3 1/2 hours must be a bloody quick pace though? im gonna aim for coffee and cakes at about 3 hours and back to the car at about 7 hours : lol

It was actually much nicer and less painful than I was expecting...!!

For me, the trail has a really great 'flow' which made it much easier to ride a bit more quickly. We were on a bit of a mission, to enjoy the trail but to push ourselves a bit... I think we overtook about 20 people (and no-one overtook us - which is unheard of for me 8) )

I really enjoyed it - it's well worth a visit

Gwaredd

Sounds great. We were up last Thursday & did the W2 rather than Skyline. I found the diversion signs around the W2 were fairly poor, with the diversion out of Energy diverting us up the fire road (hell of a climb!) to Windy point which of course dropped you straight back into the energy section again!

We looked for ages for a diverted route down to Glyncorrwg but could see none other than the Energy/Windy point loop! With fear of being stuck in a groundhog day scenario, we checked with a workman to see if the felling had stopped, it had, then snuck down Goodwood & Darkside.

Apart from that, it was a great day. Only Skyline to do to tick the Afan box.

Do you think Skyline & a trip to CwmCarn to do the Twrch trail on the way home is doable in a day?

miss notax

Crikey, sounds like a bit of an epic (albeit a tad repetitive )!!

We were actualy debating whether to do Whites Level after Skyline (but as we didn't start Skyline until about midday, we left it and sat in the cafe instead!) , so I would say that if you got an early start on Skyline then definitely yes. I would factor in time for a nice big lunch though, as it's quite a long ride and you will need a breather....

We were also lucky as the weather was perfect and the trail was (mostly) dry - I can imagine that in the wet it would be a lot more of a slog and would take a lot longer too :?

bartimaeus

miss notax wrote:

a new personal best on the Whites / Skyline climb of 35 mins to where the black splits off

Remind me not to race you up any climbs... took me closer to an hour, though we did stop to ensure we had no stragglers [unfortunately, that mostly meant waiting for me :oops: ].

My excuse is that it was November and it was raining... but still, 35 mins :shock:

Thewaylander

Hmm Skyline is pretty easy in terms of climbing all nice gradually fireroad. so no major pedalling issues on it.

And I think it sure beats the hell out W2 only windy point and the Wall decents are fun Definately looking forward to a ride there with an old friedn this friday

JasonRwmb

We (wife and me) rode Skyline the weekend before last, it is a year since I last rode the trail and to be honest I was a bit disappointed at the amount of diversions in place - we missed out several nice bits of singletrack and gained a few muddy diversions. Luckily the final descent is still very good Our riding times sound very similar to yours miss notax, about 3.5 hours for the complete loop and under 40mins for the climb. In the afternoon we met up with some friends and did a fairly easy pace ride around Whites Level, which is great for non-stop singletrack. Sunday morning we rode W2, which I much preferred to the current Skyline route.

Gwaredd, the midweek diversions on Whites should direct you to the Skyline descent after the fire road climb.

Depending on your speed you should be able to do Skyline and Twrch in a day. Cwmcarn is pretty handy for the motorway, and the Twrch trail is fairly short, I think it took us just over 2 hours to do two laps on the way to Afan on the Friday.

bartimaeus

Hmm, must be a different climb then... we went up the Whites climb, down Whites, then up the very same climb to do the Skyline descent.

It's a lovely climb through the trees with no fireroad at all until you get to the Whites Black... then, looking at the map, it looks like we used the emergency exit fireroad to head on up to Deadwood on Skyline (starting at Waymark 66).

Must go back!

Thewaylander

Bartimaeus wrote:

Hmm, must be a different climb then... we went up the Whites climb, down Whites, then up the very same climb to do the Skyline descent.

It's a lovely climb through the trees with no fireroad at all until you get to the Whites Black... then, looking at the map, it looks like we used the emergency exit fireroad to head on up to Deadwood on Skyline (starting at Waymark 66).

Must go back!

This is the first bit of climb which goes up vertically around 500M but skyline has 2000m of climb so its one of a few.

miss notax

Same climb - both Whites and Skyline share the same start (the technical climb ending where the Whites Black goes off). You then split off for the rest of Skyline

Gwaredd

JasonRwmb wrote:

Gwaredd, the midweek diversions on Whites should direct you to the Skyline descent after the fire road climb.

Ahh, perhaps that's where we went wrong, as when at the top we followed the W2 signs that took us down Windy Point, although we never saw any more diversion signs directing us to the Skyline descent & I'm pretty good at spotting signs, being a signmaker & that

Perhaps it had blow down? It is windy up there after all

Anyone know when the Skyline diversions will be lifted?

Silversladey

Rode Skyline this week and it is still a great ride.

The Whites climb is still the best way to get up a mountain
Some of the diversions are fun trying to pick a line,
The views are brilliant, and the singletrack on South Pit and On the Edge are fantastic
The Descent from Peregrine Ridge and Jetlag are bonkers.



Miss Notax

3 hours 33 Minutes is a bit quick I must be getting to old
Took my mate andI just shy of 4 hours with a picnic looking out over the Black mountains.

miss notax

Glad you enjoyed it too - I was starting to think I was the only person who actually still enjoyed it (even with all the diversions!)

Thewaylander

to be honest most of the trails center trails at the moment are seeming steep enough for there decents for my taste, Only the last bits really got me moving.

Spending alot of time up FOD at the moment pushing up :S still enjoy a pedal but the big bike demands steady progress lol. I have to admit though it's not half the trail it was even a year ago


Do enjoy the pedal though