Snowdon Access. Well Done Everyone.

The chair of NWMBA recently attended a meeting with the Snowdon National Park Authority and came back with some very positive comments about how we conduct ourselves on the trails. This has come to me as I am an Admin for NWMBA and dont have a link to post but here are some of the comments made….
“The Voluntary Agreement has been in place for nearly 20 years….. The General take up by you( MBT’ers) is exceptional and has meant access still will not be restricted….this is because cyclists recognise how busy the track are with walkers and we stick to the agreement…..the scheme will remain in place… The Park Authorities are continuing to look at better access for cyclists in the future and we welcome your thoughts and comments as our belief is that routes should remain open to all…”

I would like to thank Adrian Walls for representing NWMBA and being a voice for all MTB ers who use the trails around Snowdon. Needless to say our representation is strong and our views are listened to and taken into account.
The voluntary ban remains in place for good reason, and it appears to work.
If anyone would like to offer an opinion please post on here and I will pass it on or you can email me direct on
steph dot madde at o2 dot co dot uk

Thank you.

Steve Madden
NWMBA Admin.

Fantastic work, thank you!

And well done to everyone for respecting the agreement.

😀

The Park Authorities are continuing to look at better access for cyclists in the future

Well done everyone – and by the tone of that, the park authorities would be open to suggestions of extra trails that might be opened officially to cyclists.

Was there any mention of the proposed DH trails developement in the Quarries near First Hydro? There was mention of it a while a go but its gone quite.

TBH when i’ve been there (outside the ban time i may add) its pretty obvious that it would be a nightmare to ride with large numbers of walkers. Its better that we do ride when there are fewer walkers about for both groups in my opinion and i’ve yet to find an MTB rider disagree. A lot of walkers just assume we are a bit mad and i’ve had some good chats with people (one old boy was convinced that our bikes would not make it to the top and back until we pointed out that we were actually on the way back!). It just shows with a bit of sense that these areas can be shared use without major problems.

Was there any mention of the proposed DH trails developement in the Quarries near First Hydro? There was mention of it a while a go but its gone quite.

I will pass this on to Adrian to see if he has any more info Rhid.

Never ridden there, but that is great to see.

Valuable lesson that could be useful when dealing with other land owners.

Marvellous and I didn’t realise NWMBA was still in existence. I used to ride with you guys in the 90s.

Marvellous and I didn’t realise NWMBA was still in existence. I used to ride with you guys in the 90s.

Hi mate, we don’t do much club riding nowadays which is a shame, but we are still around. We lurk more than enything else. 🙂
As a club we try and do an annual Snowdon ride before the ban so if you are around it would be good to meet up.

Thanks Monkeysfeet, I work in Llanberis so a few easily accessable DH trails opposite work would be possibly the best thing ever.

A positive story, well done to all involved

Thanks to the NWMBA for this, and particularly Adrian Walls the unsung hero of mountain bike development in north wales.

The Park Authorities are continuing to look at better access for cyclists in the future

*crosses fingers for uplift on the train* 😉

We rode Snowdon on Friday. amazing how many walkers still knocking about on a rainy weekday in November! would definitely be a nightmare in summer.
And, tbf every walker we did meet (bar one grumpy old bastard on the TeleV) was happy, chatty and encouraging.

I would just like the authorities & snowdon railway to look into the possibility of an occasional uplift maybe 10 riders, one train an hour, just on selected days of the off season? definitely wouldnt get over congested at that ratio. im sure MTBers would pay handsomely for the privilidge too.

Well the railway doesn’t really run much outside the “season” as it’s very much tourist led though as in other areas the season has become longer over the years. There’s a few pre-season runs after each winter to check that the track is OK, etc. and a few after the season has ended to do maintenance work. Paying handsomely might not be enough – a one way ticket was £20 during 2014 so I’d imagine a special would be a bit more 😳

Since the railway is a private company I wouldn’t have thought that the Park Authority had much say in the make up of their trains.

I was at that meeting too. And would like to echo what’s been said above about the excellent results – a real plus for the MTB community in general.

And I’d also like to echo what’s been said about Adrian Walls, who has worked bloody hard to keep mtbers on Snowdon in darker times.

I worked up there as an ML on many weekends over the summer and didn’t see a single mtber flouting the agreement – really good effort by all!

PS Do those asking for the train realise that it takes over an hour Anybody wanting to get the train up, do you realise it takes over an hour? Add that to the waiting time etc and it’s quicker to ride/push

The Park Authorities are continuing to look at better access for cyclists in the future and we welcome your thoughts and comments as our belief is that routes should remain open to all…”

Rather than build new trails, as they’ve decided we’re sensible, how about voluntary access to the footpath network.

Few. I worried that may a sarcastic “Thank you”.

I think the voluntary ban is a great idea, and a great example of self imposed moderation, I quite like the time challenge being added to a Snowdon trip, be it early doors and late night, makes it feel special. Well done peeps.

PS Do those asking for the train realise that it takes over an hour Anybody wanting to get the train up, do you realise it takes over an hour? Add that to the waiting time etc and it’s quicker to ride/push

Last but one trip I went up with a bunch who took 4 hours [!] to get up, such was the stopping. Train would have been welcome. Fair enough it would take a while, but you’d think one trip last thing would bring in some good money in summer for the line.

The General take up by you( MBT’ers) is exceptional and has meant access still will not be restricted.

Now, I’m obviously Mr glass-is-half-empty among the mutual congratulations but that doesn’t actually come across that positively at all the way I read it-

It suggests that the default position is “banned” when the legal position is currently the opposite – it’s not a permission of way, it’s a right.

We would be banned, but for the exceptional behaviour of mountain bikers? Note: not “good”, not “very good” take up, but exceptional, and that’s the only thing between us and a ban? So if, next year, the take up is only, say, “very good”, what then?

I wouldn’t have thought it would take many dickheads with no sympathy or understanding for the hills to tip the scales from “exceptional” to “not quite exceptional any more.” I’m not sure that uplifts make that scenario less likely btw.

Brilliant. Hope we can do the same.

I walked up Pyg track and down miners trail this Saturday with my boys (9yr & 6yr 11m = proud dad) and we saw plenty of bikers setting off from the top. Can’t blame them as weather was amazing. Included one guy who looked late 60s at least (no offence if anyone off here who is actually much younger!). I aspire to still be riding stuff like that then.

It really made me want to have a crack at it sometime but its a long way from home so would have to plan in advance and hope that the weather gods were smiling, doing it out of season.

The weather was pretty stunning on Saturday!

😉

Last time I was there the ramblers were great!

They all seemed entertained by the MTBers, one old girl walked it every week apparently, and was very happy to chat as I pushed up. Makes me wonder what the mardy redsocks problem is elsewhere, as coexistence seemed very pleasant for all concerned.

Indeed they were egging us on to ride down the steps near the top (hoping to smell blood?) which was a novel experience 🙂

@edlong. Yup… right now it is a legal right.

But Snowdon is an incredibly complex mountain to manage and as i understand it,it would be incredibly easy for that to change and a bylaw put in place to ban bikes. And this would make it a criminal not civil offence to ignore the ban.

The good news is that thanks to people like the aforementioned Adrian Walls (and others) this isn’t what anybody wants and as a result a lot of work is going in to keeping things as they are.

As the OP suggested, we should celebrate – we’ve done well and proved that compromises can work. Even on what is probably the world’s most climbed mountain…