Cadair Idris on a glorious day [LOTS OF PICS]

I’ve wanted to do this ever since I saw a pic in a mag. Yesterday we got that pic

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

It’s a bit of a slog to get up there. Two and a bit hours, lots of steep firetrack and a whole load of pushing and carrying

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

The views aren’t bad tho

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales MTB – April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

And, of course coming down is fun. The first part is pretty sketchy – steep scree slopes with lots of moving rock. After that it’s loads of steps and then some lovely natural singletrack you’ve ridden/pushed up

Getting read to descend on the summit

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Going down!

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales MTB – April 2015 {HPR} by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Loads more here if you like pictures of big skies and landscapes: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/with/16661746403/

New Bird Aeris was fantastic. We rode the Marin on Friday in the dust and the Beast on Saturday in the lashing rain, and it was brilliant in both places. Top of Cadair tho, that’s when you find out how good a modern full suspension bike is.

Definitely go back and do it again one day. It felt like a proper old school XC ride. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

Glorious! Chapeau

🙂

A view??????? I thought there was always a big grey cloud sat on top of it?

Looks ace 8)

We might have a go at this in July, what route did you take?

Ace!

Cadair is stunning on a good day… Never ridden there mind, only walked (And slid down a scree slope on my arse)

Brilliant.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing it.

@fathomer – we actually had a GPS from http://www.theedgecycleworks.com/mtbroutes/cadair-idris/ and a route guide from the current MBUK. There’s a couple of ways up, we took the one that looked a bit more rideable. They both end up at the bottom of the final (1 hour!) carry/push to the summit.

@munrobiker. Yeah, we were lucky, due to go up Saturday but woke up to low cloud and rain. It’s days like this when I REALLY like trail centres 🙂

North Wales Weekend – MTB April 2015 by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

@chamboard – the scree slope looks quite intimidating when you’re carrying up it. It’s properly steep. But on the way down, it’s kind of pick a line and let the bike do its stuff. I’m sure some people could absolutely blast down it, but I’m not that brave. Was happy to make it down mostly in control and only occasionally sideways!

We had a similar day on Cadair over the Easter weekend.

Great ride down from the top with pretty much every surface you can dream up. The grassy section approx 2/3 of the way down was great over-steery fun until I nearly missed the last turn!

Have you ridden snowdon? How do you think the Ranger Path compares to Cadair?

Looks like we were exactly 1 day early(saturday):

Not much of a view for us!

Had they moved the dead sheep by the time you guys went past? 😉

@MT – blimey. Good effort for going up Saturday. I was thinking how grim, that would have been. Dead sheep still there, had nightmares about overcooking that last corner and ploughing into it!

@ST – yeah bottom section is surprisingly fun, I overtook my mate on the inside of the bend before and nearly took us both out. That last corner tightens up a bit doesn’t it 😉

Never ridden Snowden, must get round to it. From what the guys said who have ridden it, I think the Ranger Path is more technical in parts.

I was up there with MT on Saturday too. The only grim part of the ride was wiping off the sheep #### which we were covered in after the rapid descent. At least we got a bit of a buzz out of the bemused looks from the hikers!

Gorgeous weather and pics- see any jets?

Yeah we’ve been every Xmas, February, Easter and Autumn since 1998. Anyone can ride up on a sunny day

fricken mountain bikers 🙂

Alex, I think you were going down as we were going up? 12 of us spread over the scree part of the hill. We bumped into the warden. (Literally!) Friendly chap, he was bemused by how many bikes were up there.

Thanks Alex, I’ll check it out.

Aces.
I really must get around to getting a full suss, and days out squared away.

Nick- Cadair isn’t really full sus territory, you should be fine on whatever bike you’ve got. It’s not the easiest mountain in the world but it’s a really good one to ease yourself into it.

Looked like this up top when we first did it-

Then brightened up further down-

When I did it last year the same cloud was still in residence up top and the descent was phenomenally wet-

Alex, Looks fantastic! Any chance of the gpx, ill probably never go but for me that is aspirational and one day i would love to have a pop at it

Yeah, 2 of us rode it on hardtails yesterday. The FS riders were quicker. (And more comfortable I’d guess.)

Mark – it’s up there in an earlier post! Or on my Strava if you need it.

MB is more hardcore than me. I wouldn’t fancy that top section on a hardtail! After that it’s fine but from the summit to the steps… very happy to have the FS.

@IJ – yeah sorry if we didn’t stop to say hello, I was concentrating quite hard at that point. Even tho it was quite busy near the top, no problems at all descending. Just be polite and sensible and everyone gets to share a great trail. Did you enjoy the descent

@hora – no jets but didn’t feel we missed out!

Did it a few years ago on my HT. I had beautiful day like you but a lot more walkers than you appear to have had. On my way down, to make it more interesting I used the drainage ditch at the side of the trail. This was great until I hit a drop and went over the handlebars. Got back on the proper trail after that!
Great photos.

It’s weird Cadair Idris, It’s pretty much a straight up and down, but I love doing it. Proper big hills stuff.

Ace

Lovely. Thanks for sharing.

A group of us rode Snowdon on Saturday – it was pretty grim on top! Rangers descent is awesome though, and the weather on Sunday at Antur made up for the grimness!

munrobiker
Cadair isn’t really full sus territory

I was more than happy to be riding my 160mm skills compensator on Saturday….. 😉

Great pictures. Was hoping to maybe do it when I was there in February but snow/cloud on the tops rather put me off. Very much hope to give it a go one day.

Great pics
Hoping its not horizontal rain in 10 days time as its on our plans to do when we are there

maxtorque – Member

munrobiker
Cadair isn’t really full sus territory

I was more than happy to be riding my 160mm skills compensator on Saturday…..

And if I’d been on a full-sus then maybe I’d not be limping around with a dead leg today. (Thigh, pointy rock, slow speed fall.)

Alex, yes, really enjoyed the descent, although the climb was pretty special with the huge view unravelling as you got higher. (In that way that mountains tend to…) I like the way that there were several distinct sections on the descent – slidey scree, nice singletrack, steep gravel doubletrack, grassy steep singletrack. (Did you use the old bridleway to the left of the gravel road on the way down?)

We didn’t actually physically bump into the warden – he wandered across to chat to us, twice. All the walkers we spoke to were lovely, and we even had a chat with a farmer at the bottom who claimed to own the mountain. Even he was friendly!

Yeah agreed on the view. Made the climb somehow more bearable! Tough on 1×10 (had 2×10 on my 29er) – mostly rideable until the obvious carry, but just an endless grind. Glad it was almost dry. We finished on the gravel road – didn’t know there was an alternative route. Have to go back now!

I was chatting to a bloke walking his dog/bear who’d been stationed there with the military the year before i was born. And I’m 47! He was still very lithe and fit and was less out of breath than me. Talked about buying himself a mountain bike 🙂

Hope the leg isn’t too bad. One of our group made a video: https://vimeo.com/126100349 – it’s quite long but shows how bumpy the top section is. I think I’m going to watch it again 🙂

Nice video! MTB Pigs alert at 2:57 and then I see myself pushing up!

Will just add my 1 photo from when we got to the top.

I was the guy in that MBUK guide you got the route map from. It’s properly stunning. Loved the place. Weather was vicious when we went up though. We had to huddle in a multi-person bivvy bag to warm up before we headed down.

Yeah thought that might be your group. View from the top is pretty stunning.

Oh right-o. Top route then. I thought it looked pretty cold in the article pics. It looks like we got really lucky in terms of weather and amount of people.

wow, you’d hardly know that^^^ video was filmed on the same mountain we rode on Sat!

That first pic is a real stunner in the max res in flicker – nice one!

Glad I have seen the pics above as it was nothing like that on Sat but still had a great day out

Trout – has that dude in blue & black got a wingsuit on ??? 😯

Great pics thanks for posting them.
Reminds me we need to get up there again on a clear day.
I’s an awsome view from the top.

Cader Idris Summit View by multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr