Unclejacks Snowdon Adventure Aftermath

[kaya]

Unclejacks Snowdon Adventure the aftermath

Part 1



Sunday 13th April

A date I was looking forward to, as its the date we had set for our day out in North Wales,
We were going to ride/climb/walk/crawl our way to the top of Mount Snowdon and then descend via Rangers Path and Telegraph Valley.
The idea was too do it on 80's bikes and three out of the four riders managed to fill the brief but there's always one..
Riders were Unclejack, MrLee, Elpedro and myself, Bikes... 84 Saracen, 86 Saracen Kili Flyer, 87 Dawes and some modern guff.




Meeting at Llanberis for 8am meant we had miss'ed our breakfast so it was off to Pete's eats, before starting to make our assent on Snowden.
This seamed like a good idea at the time... but as we start to ascend the first small uphill the full English doesn't feel like a good idea.

Pete eats @ Pete's eats


Limbering up or looking shifty


Top of the tarmac climb and MrLee reconsiders his gearing..


Elpedro takes in the view


Let the train take the strain...



Leaving the tarmac we start thinking about what we're riding on, as the surface changes from good hard pack to lose gravel with some stone steps and everything in-between just to keep you on your toes.
The weather is fair but we know this can change without warning, but for now its quite pleasant if you can ignore the screaming coming from your legs..


Going up and up and up


And more up's



And then

What happens on Snowdon stays on Snowdon







My Kili Flyer


Then we start to head uphill again... and remember we're doing this for fun (Honest would I lie) if only I could stop my legs from screaming....did I tell yo about the pain in my legs..


And then we see the clouds above the summit


After abit more of this


Just past half way



We regroup and rest just past the half way mark the views are stunning and we can now see what lies ahead....
Low cloud, damp cold and soul destroying.. your own personal hell, you can only see five or ten feet ahead or behind..
But this is the last leg of the assent so its time to start thinking about making it to the summit.. maybe..

Follow the man in front



Part 2
will follow after a short intermission

Cue Pearl & Dean music

 

[kaya]

Re:

Part II

After resting and refuelling with haribos and sloe gin we set off for the summit, this will be the hardest part
of the assent as its cold damp and very steep.
I won't go into to much detail about the next section to the summit as I don't want to put anyone off doing
it them self, but I had no feeling in my fingers and was questioning what I was doing up here...


The summit (almost)


Que to the summit


Unclejack in the mist


The money shot..



From here its all fun fun fun

Rechecking our map for the Rangers Path turning we realise we have to ride back the way we came and
through all the ramblers we past on the way up...
Its slow going at first but its not to far to our first real decent....

The Rangers Path

We regroup at the the start and start to think about what we're about to ride down, it starts open and fast...
But with sprinkling's of scree to catch out anyone who's not paying attention, then things start to get really interesting with
small rock drops and chokers.
I'll let the pics tell the story...


The Start


Unclejack and Elpedro


Happy MrLee


The mist starts to clear


Attack Attack


Long and winding trail


Going Down sir ?


Stunning vistas


The trail ahead


Smiles all round


Refuelling again


80's Bike test


If you look carefully you can see the trail


Telegraph Valley

Rested and refuelled we start to climb to the head of Telegraph Valley, we all push up the steep grassy hill
chatting about our adventure so far.
The weather is now warm and sunny, all the cold and damp now forgotten as we head back to Llanberis along Telegraph Valley, this is a fast trail with lots of water bars to jump and enjoy in the sunshine.


The Pain of Pushing


The Way Back


Almost back at base camp


The End of the Ride



Just like to say a BIG THANKS to Unclejack for arranging this ride also to Elpedro and MrLee,
We had no punchers or mechanicals just a bit of sunburn and lots and lots of fantastic memory's

Thanks for looking kaya


The rest of my pics are Here :- http://s746.photobucket.com/user/thesur ... 3%204%2014

 

[HarryCrumb]

Re:

Looks like a fun outing on some great 80s metal work

 

[marc two tone]

Re:

Some graft there, i hope the second bit includes some rippin' downhill stuff!
Now i want a slack angled 80's bike.

 

[Easy_Rider]

Re:

Excellent, nice write up and photos. I wish I had made the effort and come along but Pete telling me the forecast was for -8C definitely swayed my decision to stay on a local ride.
Next year I'll be there! Riding 80's of course

 

[Unclejack]

Re:

cracking write up Vern! I have some footage i'll post up later from my (crap) helmet cam. But for now heres some photos...

 

[saltyman]

Woah, superb scenery....well done on the ride folks.

 

[kaya]

Re:

Part II and a link to the rest of my pics now up

 

[chrisv40]

Re:

When Chris first suggested riding Snowdon this was not at all what I imagined in my head!

Absolutely stunning scenery and fantastic trails, some proper, proper mountain biking there

Well done to the 4 of you for completing this it looked pretty bleak up at the top.

Was it worse than Bleaklow Lee?

 

[Spudly]

Pics and write up are top notch Vern, really quite jealous as that looks like a proper adventure!