Classic! Consett area always seems to get snow even if nowhere else in the region does – there’s even a couple of ‘ski slopes’ not far away.

@kayla1 – interesting… I wonder if it needs regrading – TBH it’s probably easily as challenging as anything on the black route.

We drove past Consett to get to Hamsterley..( Castleside ) ..and while it had a good two inches of snow on Saturday morning ..Tow Law had double that ..nothing to speak of at our destination ..and it had all cleared when we returned home ..

I’m originally from that area ( born in a house in Burnhope )..lived at Delves Lane ( Consett) with my grandparents until I was six ..then spent the next 23 years living in the Annfield Plain/ Stanley ( windy city ) area ..missing six months of school and later work due to being blocked in by snow ( a slight exaggeration !) ..each year

So did you do the  Bolts Law route OP?

@joemmo – Dunno, it’s a weird one. It’s not difficult to ride in a wet-roots-and-rocks-and-mud way but it can get fast quickly which is what I suppose caught/catches people out. Some of the lips on the jumps are pretty sendy.

K-Line isn’t hard but it’s easy to hurt yourself on. There’s a big difference between the two. The modern day six inches of skill compensation are getting people in to trouble rather than out of it.

There isn’t another section of trail at Hamsterley that comes close to putting a smile on my face as much as “Accelerator”..its over way too soon ( and your wheels dont leave the ground )..

There isn’t another section of trail at Hamsterley that comes close to putting a smile on my face as much as “Accelerator”..its over way too soon ( and your wheels dont leave the ground )..

+1 Accelerator is ace 🙂 We’ll go back up and do it again a few times on our way down.

@kayla1 – yes, there’s one lip that’s nearly got me a couple of times come to think of it.

@jon taylor – shouldn’t grading take both into account? difficulty of traversal and potential for injury?

@hogynd – agreed, one to pretend you’re riding on a starwars speeder bike… pew pew! no?.. just me?

out of interest, have any of you done the trail bike TT or the NDH Enduro (January?) at Hamsterley?

I have…

Yep, we’ve done the TT the last few years, it’s great fun and +1 to being on a speeder bike 😆

I can recommend the funduro at Chopwell too 🙂 Link here, nothing to do with me but the people who run the races are smashing-

http://northerndownhill.bigcartel.com/

yes I have that and the TT in my calendar, interested in the Enduro as well – have you done that @benpinnick or the TT?

So did you do the  Bolts Law route OP?

Yeah, at least in part 🙂

Cheers!

I.

nice. How was it on the stretch over the top west of Edmundbyers? Last time I was there the heather was smouldering. It’s probably a bit damper now

Not too damp. Just here and there little puddles. Not even too much mud.

Nice one, need to re-ride it is slightly less sub-optimal conditions 🙂

Cheers!

I.

hmm must do Bolts before that wet bit after a minute or so gets really wet…..I did a loop out from Whitley Chapel over the moors between Slaley Forest and Blanchland on Saturday, bone dry like summer, 0.8C and strong northerly wind was quite fresh however….

I normally go over Muggleswick from Edmundbuyers when doing Bolts. Has a long bit of the old railway in the middle but slightly less tedious than the road climb route above…… Oddly I was looking back at my rides from last December in Strava earlier, some good snow ones out over the moors, watch out for Ice…..one Bolts ride it was down to about 20m visibility when a snow storm hit so I re-routed off piste to short cut to the top in foot deep snow/heather. Good times 🙂

Now I remember the first time I tried the exact loop Ivan did above, also in snow, got to end of road section and too much snow to see the path to Bolts. Only had about 30 mins of daylight left so no way I was going to blindly follow the GPS having never ridden it before so I turned round and rolled back down the road way, that was quite annoying…