South Ridge, or Allt Maenderyn to give it its proper name – doable to ascend with a bike? doable to ascend with a bike in December!?

done some of the classic routes before, thinking up South Ridge / down Rhyd Du. or even up Llanberis / down Rhyd Du / up South Ridge / down rangers.

ok guessing not as i can find zero attempts on Strava!!

http://www.eryri-npa.gov.uk/visiting/walking/ground-conditions

Weekend before last I tired to ride up/down Snowdon. Snow and frozen rain from about 400m upwards. At 700m it got too dodgy to continue. Sure, I could have walked up carrying the bike, but then would have had to walk / slip back down to 700m before actually riding down any of it.

So with frozen fingers, we bailed out from 700m and had a great laugh plummeting down.

So take that into consideration whatever route you do.

South Ridge, or Allt Maenderyn to give it its proper name – doable to ascend with a bike?

Only if you really enjoy carrying a bike. (Notwithstanding that it’s a footpath).

Up to Bwlch Cwm Llan would be quite pleasant (and a bridleway 😉 ), but from there onwards, I can’t think that any of it would be rideable – it’s verging on a scramble for quite a lot of it (the path from Bwlch Cwm Llan climbs ~500m in about 1km).

A bloody good walk, though. Would be quite a serious undertaking with any snow lying.

That’s weird sure I saw a tweet from the summit the other day with blue skies and no snow!? It’s what gave me the idea!
I have no issue push/carrying as long as none of the scrambles require two hands!

It’d be carrying, but you would only need one hand occasionally for the path.

The summit was white this morning.

Today

Balls. Maybe wait till the spring then…

Not sure if Mahalo is asking for alternative ‘mountains’ to do on a bike, or just different routes up Snowdon….but I’d be interested to know of other big climb/descent days out in the NW/Wales. I’m assuming there must be others in Snowdonia and perhaps in the Lakes (e.g. Helvellyn).

Don’t waste your time riding up or down south ridge,

You will be pushing 99% the way up & riding only 50% down

Not sure if Mahalo is asking for alternative ‘mountains’ to do on a bike, or just different routes up Snowdon….but I’d be interested to know of other big climb/descent days out in the NW/Wales. I’m assuming there must be others in Snowdonia and perhaps in the Lakes (e.g. Helvellyn).

no i was planning an assault on Snowden with a twist.

Tons of Summits to reach in the lakes, Helvellyn one of the most accessible on a bike and has a variety of routes and and down.

id also be interested in a few more big rides around Snowdonia tho too. have done Snowdon, Pont Scethin, and Drum mountain loops before, but none feel as epic as some lakes rides.

I’m still on the hunt for good, rideable mountains in Snowdonia. Cadair Idris is one, though it is much tamer than Snowdon. After that I’m stumped.

There is at least one footpath descent off Snowdon that’s the business, but last time I named it in here I got a bollocking over email from one of the local bike advocacy guys so you’ll have to guess I’m afraid.

As for the lakes, most of ir_bandito’s threads are good, the Putting the Mountain Back Into Mountain Biking thread by Danny and there’s plenty of ideas in my annual mountain thread (with more to come in the next couple of weeks).

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/2015-a-year-in-mountains

yeah after a few years of racing and riding events, im focused on using my day passes for big mountain adventures going forward…

That’s boring….you want to be doing them going backwards.Or even sideways.

Thanks Munrobiker – I’d not come across those ‘year in the mountain’ articles before, but certainly will be checking them now 🙂 🙂

mahalo – I’m with you on that ‘day pass’ thing…..got to make each time count eh !

DiscJockey, there’s a fresh one up today.

I rode (& carried ) my fatbike up last Tuesday (up llanberis, down rangers) plenty of snow up top but perfectly ridable in the main if you get a decent weather day.