Best routes on the Carneddau

x3man

Hi all

Anyone got any recommendations for routes on the Carneddau, North Wales? Ideally want something with good descents, is not full of ramblers, and can be done in approx 4 hours.

tsenior

theres a good one on the eastern flanks of the range, out of capel curig i'm pretty sure this map shows it.

http://www.mbpost.com/view_object.php?object_id=265539

someone on here (scale?) knows the northen end of the range well if you are coming from t'other side.

scale20

Thats a good route posted there by tsenior. The carneddau are a pretty big mountain range and a lot of it is hard going and bike on your shoulder stuff.

If you want something thats about 4 hours and some good descents you would be better going in the hills just above the North Wales coast between Conwy, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. It can take you a couple of hours plus to get to the top of a good descent up in the Carneddau.

when you heading up? Happily show you a route.

ddraver

Try the Llyn Cowlyd Loop - start at Trefiw, Ride up the amazingly steep hill up to the lake and then follow the path around the ?north side of the lake, up and over the col and down into Capel Curig, You can then either follow turn left off the A470 at the Ugly house and follow the Marin back to Trefiw or ride up over Llyn Crafnant and back down into Trefiw... i don't have a map but it was an MBR/WMB/MBUK Killer loop/epic ride or whatever a few years back so have a look on the net...

It's a major mountain ride but a really good challenge, and because it's not the famous part of Snowdonia it's commonly pretty quiet, you get a really good view over the famous bits too!

Conwy Mountain is another good place to ride especially if you ride up Drum, We used to go there alot on our wednesday evening rides (I worked in Llandudo)

scale20

ddraver wrote:

Conwy Mountain is another good place to ride especially if you ride up Drum, We used to go there alot on our wednesday evening rides (I worked in Llandudo)

Dum is a good ride, a right slog up but a cracking descent, same as Conwy mountain, get it rambler free anf the descent is amazing. 8)

ddraver

^^Particularly if you do it the Ridgeline way!!

Anonymous

tsenior wrote:

theres a good one on the eastern flanks of the range, out of capel curig i'm pretty sure this map shows it.

http://www.mbpost.com/view_object.php?object_id=265539

someone on here (scale?) knows the northen end of the range well if you are coming from t'other side.

^^That is a corker, just done almost that exact route on Sunday. It's incredibly technical in parts, definitely not for the faint hearted.

x3man

Thanks for the info guys.

I'll be heading across there this weekend, prob sunday. From what you've all said I think I'll try the route recommended by tsenior as I already had that one in mind anyway. Just wasn't sure how good it is. Thanks for the offer of meeting up scale. I might take you up on that sometime. I like the sound of riding the hills above the coast - I've often looked at those and wondered...

Anyway I'll report back on how I found it.

So I take it there are good routes from the tops of the big mountains then? It's been ages since I last walked up the Carneddau and can't really remember what the terrain was like.

ddraver

Walking "off piste" is generally hard and rough and often requires some scrambling to get to the very tops...There is also usually a long approach (even more so if you come up Egiau)

Usually It's nice and quiet though...(as above)

Anonymous

x3man, we've had some heavy rain overnight, and it looks to continue for a few days at least - some partf ot he trail might be almost impassable, so be prepared for biblical quantities of mud, bog and marsh :?

x3man

Thanks for the heads up Yeehaa. It looks like the ride may be postponed for other reasons anyway. Sounds like it might be for the best then.

Anonymous

If you don't mind bad weather and proper boggy conditions, then it could be a good laugh. It doesn't venture to particularly high altitude, so it's not too bad.
Not sure how well Mountain rescue could find you though if the visibility got poor.

x3man

This might be crazy talk but, has anyone attempted to go all red bull rampage on some of those scree slopes on the hills on the north coast?

Anonymous

I tried something along that lines when I was about 14, but nearer Snowdon, in the quarries. Any initial expectation of it being RAD SICK, DUUUUUDE kind of stuff was immediately turned into fearing for our lives and, having realised there was no turning back, having to inch our way foot by precarious foot down the cliffside.
Terrified does not even begin to explain it!

The trouble with a lot of the hillsides like that is that they look deceptively smooth. Once you're up close and you get a sense of scale, you realise how bouldery most of them are.

x3man

Yeh it was crazy talk! Some of those slopes do look good (from the safety of the car!)

I'll stick to shredding those kinds of gnarly radical dude lines in my dreams!

scale20

What Yeeha says.

From the road they look pretty mental and good for a ride but close up what looks like scree are granite rocks the size of footballs. Your tyres and rims would get eaten up and spat out.

I have tried riding a couple of them that have smaller chipping type stones but there loads of hidden drop offs and most are too near flippin big cliff egdes. Too many ass twitching moments!

Anonymous

Indeed. This pic of mine on flickr kind of demonstrates how our perceptions can be wrong.
From Snowdon (in the distance), this mountaintop looks smooth like a nice green field - just like Snowdon does from here, in fact.
Now, whilst this particular mountain is definitely rideable, you have to carefully pick your lines, and can't just career at high speed down the mountainside (sadly). Imagine this surface, but tilted to 40-60 degrees.
Oh, and there' sMORE rocks hidden in the "grass" too!

scale20

The hidden ones are the best.

This is the old Quarry near me on the North Wales coast, you can just make out the size of the rocks on the scree slopes, but these inclines make some good riding down, get it wrong or get caught out on an obstacle and you will probably get a helicopter ride home