Snowdon

miss notax

Right then, who's ridden Snowdon?!

We are thinking of doing this in April and i'm curious to hear from anyone who has ridden it, which route you took (we are thinking of up the easy one and then down the Rangers Path), what times of year, how long it took etc etc

Thanks!

delcol

you probably already know this but.

there is a voluntary bike ban from the 1st of may to 30th of september between 10am and 500pm..

you can go and hit before 10am or do it after 500pm during these months...

i never done it it's on my to do list.

miss notax

Yes, read about the voluntary ban thanks

Just need to crack on and get it in the diary I think!!

nonnac85

I went up and down Llanberis path. Took me ~2hrs up - some riding and some pushing. Was great fun on the way down. The tourist train had just started going up and there were quite a few turned heads / stares from the carriages as I went past!!

TrailGuru

Hi, Snowdon is truly an epic ride and still on my list... thinking of doing it this year just before the ban kicks in.

There's a great article all about it on my site if you want to read a bit more and see some awesome photos - http://bit.ly/rUzKfO

welshkev

3 of us are doing snowdon in april, when are you doing it?

DodgeT

Did it last year. Went up llanberis path, took it nice and steady with a few refuelling stops and it was under 2 hrs. We also did a muppets trick of going the wrong way.. At the top of the lane, we ignored the sign which said llanberis path and carried on up the road - which then took us right back down to the valley bottom. Then a muddy trek directly up some fields got us on the train track, then finally back on the path... I'm not very good with directions :oops: So, if you don't take a wrong turn, should be comfortably up in around 1.5hrs.

Down, we took the rangers path, then onto telegraph valley. Have to say, after going up the llanberis path, I was disappointed coming down the way we did. Rangers has a few steep switchbacks, couple of scree areas, 1 really nasty boulder route (about 20yds) but is nothing to shout home about. It soon turns into a flatish path where you have to watch out for metal waterbars,,. You then climb up a field to get onto telegraph valley. This was even more of a disappointment. Basically just a path.
Down took about 2hrs, as I had a metal object implant itself in my tyre at the top which buggered my tubeless set-up. So had to stick a tube in which was a lot of faffing.. Then the water bars caught me out with a pinch flat, which needed another tube...

I really want to do it again in the coming months, but will be going up llanberis and turning straight back round to come down the exact same route. IMO it is a much better / more interesting route than rangers.

Shout up when your going, some of us may tag along

1mancity2

I'll try to make it too!!

The Northern Monkey

welshkev wrote:

3 of us are doing snowdon in april, when are you doing it?

Yup... maybe more than 3.. who knows!! haha!

miss notax

We were *thinking* of the last weekend in April - but this is still up for discussion! I'll post up when we decide to go for it.

Interesting to read the comments about the Rangers Path - this is the one we were thinking of coming down. I liked the look of the technical bits as good training for the Megavalanche (albeit on a much smaller and less scary scale )? Good idea or not?

The Northern Monkey

Think we are set on either the 12th or 19th feb (going from the Thurs to Sunday)... Just need to set a date!

DodgeT

miss notax wrote:

We were *thinking* of the last weekend in April - but this is still up for discussion! I'll post up when we decide to go for it.

Interesting to read the comments about the Rangers Path - this is the one we were thinking of coming down. I liked the look of the technical bits as good training for the Megavalanche (albeit on a much smaller and less scary scale )? Good idea or not?

That dates out for me... Have strict instructions from the gf to be no more than 1hr away.. little'un due 23rd

Thing is with rangers, the technical bits are very short. You'd have to keep doing short sections again and again. Kind of defeats the training route as you want to be going at it for a while, not stop - repeat. Whereas llanberis route, is a good rocky / stepped route for the majority of the run. If you manage to get before the ban, why not go up twice. Then you could do both routes down. This is what i'd like to do.

Monkey - let us know whcih date you go for, as if 19th weekend, i'd be interested

miss notax

DodgeT wrote:

miss notax wrote:

We were *thinking* of the last weekend in April - but this is still up for discussion! I'll post up when we decide to go for it.

Interesting to read the comments about the Rangers Path - this is the one we were thinking of coming down. I liked the look of the technical bits as good training for the Megavalanche (albeit on a much smaller and less scary scale )? Good idea or not?

That dates out for me... Have strict instructions from the gf to be no more than 1hr away.. little'un due 23rd

Congratulations

1mancity2

miss notax wrote:

Congratulations

We have a little due on 19th April as well so Im out...

DodgeT

Cheers MN

Ali, thought yours was 23rd aswell? You up for the 19th poss?

1mancity2

DodgeT wrote:

Cheers MN

Ali, thought yours was 23rd aswell? You up for the 19th poss?

Keep changing the day!

Im under strict guidlines from the middle of March as Archie came early we think Grace will be early too. can't wait for another bob head!!

miss notax

Crikey, something in the water around here then??!!

DodgeT

Must be, i'd keep clear of us 2 :P

miss notax

1mancity2

miss notax wrote:

Crikey, something in the water around here then??!!

We hunt in packs..... you have been warned :twisted:

delcol

1mancity2 wrote:

DodgeT wrote:

Cheers MN

Ali, thought yours was 23rd aswell? You up for the 19th poss?

Keep changing the day!

Im under strict guidlines from the middle of March as Archie came early we think Grace will be early too. can't wait for another bob head!!

know that feeling. when my missues was preggas with summer they changed it every other week.. should of been mid jan then end of jan then 20 something of jan. she ended up giving birth on feb 12th..
b4a5t4rd5 i could of gone snowboarding with our kid in fernie afterall..

TheGeneralist

DodgeT wrote:

will be going up llanberis and turning straight back round to come down the exact same route. IMO it is a much better / more interesting route than rangers.

Shout up when your going, some of us may tag along

I quite agree we went up the railway way and down the Rangers path and I thought the decent wasn't any good. No idea why people rave about the ranger path, maybe I'm just not up to it.

Would you be doing a day trip from England? If so I might you have room for one more?

Doing it twice in a day.... now there's an idea :-)

DodgeT

TheGeneralist wrote:

Would you be doing a day trip from England? If so I might you have room for one more?

Doing it twice in a day.... now there's an idea :-)

Prob just do it as an early start yeah. As long as the date is out of the ban time, definately up for doing it twice.
Where you based?

TheGeneralist

Altrincham

DodgeT

Didn't realise you were so close, will let you know if we make any plans.

welshkev

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Think we are set on either the 12th or 19th feb (going from the Thurs to Sunday)... Just need to set a date!

don't you mean april? i think i'll only be able to make the fri - sun cos of work..bummers

The Northern Monkey

ha, yeah april! doh!

Stu 74

Have done Snowdon twice, both times up and down the Llanberis path. It is an absolutely fantastic descent!

I don't have much of a head for heights so get a bit nervous on the first part of the descent but there are no exposed edges once you get to Clogwyn station (about a third of the way down) and it's then fast rocky droppy heaven all the way down

To get the best out of the Llanberis descent you really need to pick a time when there will be no or few walkers so you can have a clear run down. Personally I would also wait (patiently) for a good weather window, it's not going to be much fun up there if the weather turns nasty.

We did on sunny and clear June evenings. Started the climb up at about 18:00 and by the time we got to the top the mountain was free of walkers and we had a clear run down.

Awesome

Stu