I will fess up… I am a relative beginner, but you can't knock my enthusiasm. 1 year of noodling around river banks and sticking to the low country, followed by a recent six month drive to get fitter, better, higher and faster. Mostly round the Chilterns and a couple of days out at Swinley.

Now… a good old friend of mine lives in Abergavenny which aint too far from Cwm Carn – so I organised a weekend visit, but now I've had a look at the main Cwm Carn web site – it's full of warning signs and "Experts Only" and there's only one 15 km Trail/Loop – The Twrch. Rocks, drops, cliffs, steep Ups and steep downs.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/cwmcarnLeafletback.pdf/$FILE/cwmcarnLeafletback.pdf

As much as I'd love to say "yeah I can do it", I wonder if it's more meat than I can chew.

Has anyone been there who can give some advice?

when you come back you will view swinley a bit differently.

you will be fine,

It's a piece of psss umless you are a woman.

You'll be fine. 😀

Its a very easy track

do you mean the XC loop or the DH track? if the DH I would perhaps not… it Can be hard if your not up to it. The xc is fine……

You'll be fine and you'll love the final descent back to the car park.

The climb is a bit of a bugger but the rest can be ridden at your own pace. You won't die. Even the black bit at the top can be rolled and still be quite fun.

A lot of people think they are going to die when they do the climb at the start for the first time. 😀

Edit: 3 sec's late 🙄

As long as you got brakes on the bike – you will be 100% safe.
Even on the DH track, I dont think theres anything to catch you unawares … certainly no sudden drops or jumps as long as your riding within the type of speeds you should on any unknown trail.

Also. Cwm Carn is actually Cwmcarn, its one word.

The XC loop will be fine, it'll be more about your ability to get around in terms of fitness than technical riding. As long as you don't go outside your ability to control the bike (i.e. sucked into the fast long final descent until you go faster than you can control) you'll be fine, enjoy it. The DH course is a bit tougher.

the description has to over sell it a little bit or people think its a family trail

having said that, my youngest daughter first did it when she was 10

The climb is more likely to kill you at Cwmcarn than the descent

Spin nice & easy up the climb and just be aware that you can gain a LOT of speed on the way back down.

It's a good circuit….have fun!

XC loop is ace, think at controllable speeds my wife could ride fast there. DH is good too, only 1 cross road drop may stop you. Enjoy!

Lil Movie for you from there.

Thanks for the pep… will defo give it a go.

🙂

I've taken a few (relative) beginners around Cwmcarn. Long climb can be pretty wearing for many, so by the time it starts going downhill again they're knackered and make silly mistakes either on the rocky singletrack bits at the top or on the swoopy bermed part before the carpark.

There's not much that's that technically challenging at slower speeds (although the bit of track after the freeride area / carpark has a couple of bits that can catch out the unwary) but easy in parts to let speed build up and concentration lapse if you're tired.