Anything harder than a black?

I ask the question because I think today’s Jacob’s Ladder was well up there….

Half the climbs unrideable due to 1″ thick ice covering the trail… 3″ deep snow in places… and various different types of ice on the downs!

I’m amazed our only accident was on the road coming back to Edale…

Ice near the start of the route, first climb coming out of Edale.

Near the top at Hollins Cross, nice bit of frost making the climb interesting.

The boss posing

Group photo in the snow…

Frost again on one of the descents

Wondering if perhaps we should have started earlier… Last climb towards Jacob’s Ladder

Anyone know where the trail went?

Thick ice shortly before the Ladder

A black what?

In skiing (US), double-black.

Looks like the best riding conditions there since the pootle!

Someone in your group is wearing shorts, did they forget their medication today?

Some bits were really good… Other bits were just plain scary, or patches of ice swallowed half your wheel…

lucien – Member
Someone in your group is wearing shorts, did they forget their medication today?

Apparently he struggles to keep cold… I had no problem with that!

Well stainburn Warren Bolder is a double black, and the stuff that’s scarier is graded GOLD, if that’s an official grading, or just the youf being groovy or what ever they do these days I don’t know.

That however looks like an awesome and highly entertaining and challenging ride and I am quite jealous.

Someone in your group is wearing shorts, did they forget their medication today?

I only ever wear shorts, only regret it when with people fannying about, though in the very cold I do go to 3/4 length shorts… tights are for girls… or group fannying. 😉

Plenty of fannying today… But it was understandable given the conditions!

unklehomered, that’s awesome – I live on the jay boy South Coast and always wear tights, leg warmers or the like

Southerners… 🙄

😉 😀

One day I’ll buy some and then I’ll prob. wear them all winter… but i get really warm when riding, winters the only time I’m not uncomfortably hot.

with you on the shorts, tho I do go to unlined 3/4s.

my rule of thumb is if I’m not cold for the first 5 minutes on a ride, I’m over-dressed. I run hot once I’m moving.

Looks stunning.
I’m a real fan of winter riding and, yes, I too only ever wear shorts (even a couple of years ago when we did a few -10/-12 degree night rides on the Malverns).

My group rides always start with a 3 minute fast roll down the hill into the village, by which time I’m bloody frozen. Turning around and 10 minutes winching up thehill back past my house normally warms me up though!!!

Actually, the coldest 10 minutes is coming back out of the pub into the rain to cycle home afterwards 😥

Actually, the coldest 10 minutes is coming back out of the pub into the rain to cycle home afterwards

pub legs

Looks good, as for harder than black Back Diamond then Black Double Diamond then ungraded…
Then Mountains lots of them not designed to be ridden, corners too tight, drops with no run out etc.

tights are for girls… or group fannying those of us who quite like to have functioning knees

FTFY

Looks like a bridal way to me, but then I am a southerner!!! 😉

How much ice on jacobs ladder itself? also Roych Clough, lower end (land rover wide rock gulley) of Rushop Edge?

“In skiing (US), double-black”

Also UK mountain biking
Double black graded trails springing to mind:
Stainburn – Warren Boulder trail
Laggan – ‘black’
Mabie – Kona Dark Side

there must be more

Some of the 2 and 3 ‘spot’ orange graded bikepark and downhill stuff must be harder than black too?

Orange is for freeride. As were the gold and purple at Stainburn. I believe Stiniog has a double-black run also.

freeride_frankie – Member

Looks like a bridal way to me, but then I am a southerner!!!

So which one are you contemplating proposing to?

Bleh you needed a fat bike it melts ice instantly, less walking! 😉

Some of the above may or may not be a load of bollocks.

Tons of stuff is harder than black trails. Some red trails, for example.

Sorry for muddying the pages of stw with my grammatical error. I think that as for proposing, it would have to be the one with the sexy pins out 😕

There’s life beyond trail centre grading!

Great pics lads looks like you had a good day,if a little testing…you should go up today,Sheffield & the likes are even worse..:-)

At least one of the group appears to have left home but is yet to find anywhere to keep all their stuff, so they’re carrying it around with them 🙂

So – RAF go out on the hill and surprisingly don’t need Search and Rescue to get them off again?

Take trail centre grading with a pinch of salt – even the ‘black’ runs are hardly challenging, as the centres have to be ridable by ‘average Joe’

Try the black at Haldon down in Devon. Most blue trails are harder than that 😛

The US double black thing isn’t a simple as that though. I think their grading is different to most European ski resort grading. In the US and Canada they have an ‘inbounds’ area where anything is fair game but it all needs grading, whereas in Europe alot of stuff that would be harder than a typical black run is not graded and considered out of bounds. I’ve snowboarded Canadian double blacks that were not as hard as some European reds, purely because of the conditions and that the grading is for Skiers.

How this translates to MTB is anyones guess, but grading only happens in trail centres and is mostly for guidance/insurance purposes.
Green – family, Blue – family with bumps, red – ok if you don’t get phased to easily and are not riding a BSO, black – only ride this if you are ok with the red stuff. Any harder than black is probably not insured so won’t be graded, then only the best/mentalist among us will have a go at it.

I remember riding a short black section at Dalby with some mates and none of us could understand why it had black markers at the start, I would have taken my 4 year son on it!!

I remember riding a short black section at Dalby with some mates and none of us could understand why it had black markers at the start, I would have taken my 4 year son on it!!

AFAIK as I know for ski runs there is no agreed standard on the colours so it’s resort-relative. The blacks at a resort are the hardest for that resort, not necessarily the same as blacks elsewhere.

Presumably the same applies to bike runs.

You may also have noticed skiing that there always seems to be a ‘blue’ to every restaurant, regardless of where it’s situated, and there always seems to be a black or 2 on every map regardless of the terrain.

Oh, I don’t know, I bet that first drop in at Holden catches a few people out.

james – Member
How much ice on jacobs ladder itself? also Roych Clough, lower end (land rover wide rock gulley) of Rushop Edge?

Basically, any bits that were not in direct sunlight for at least a couple of hours were covered in ice. This meant some descents were fantastically fast with loose rock etc, only to drop off onto a sheet of ice.

Jacob’s Ladder was fine for the first section (Gate to left hand turn), but half way down the second section it turned into 100m of sheet ice.

Rushop edge was icy/snowy. But you could ride the whole length without too much trouble… Comedy at some points when your front wheel rode a small patch of ice only for the rear to drop into it upto the axle!

You may also have noticed skiing that there always seems to be a ‘blue’ to every restaurant, regardless of where it’s situated, and there always seems to be a black or 2 on every map regardless of the terrain

This is very true. 🙂

xiphon – Member

Take trail centre grading with a pinch of salt – even the ‘black’ runs are hardly challenging, as the centres have to be ridable by ‘average Joe’

Depends on where you are tbh. Laggan and Golspie blacks are pretty challenging in places, certainly not rideable by average joe, and there’s not many people that can say they’ve cleared McMoab at Kirroughtree.