Snowden advice

Thinking about doing this soon.
Believe up llanberis path & down ranger path is the way to do it?
Are both paths we’ll sign posted?
Any advise greatly appreciated.

Don’t let the CIA get hold of your laptop, whatever you do.

Not really. Getting up is easy enough but you could easily miss the start of rangers and the right turn and up through the saddle for telegraph. Take a map and know how to use it. It’s a long boring road slog if you get it wrong.

Thanks onzadog, will study the map well

Yeah. Park in Llanberis, snatch a nice cup of something hot in Pete’s Eats, then up the mountain on the main path, probably 70% pedalling, 30% carrying. If the weathers nice, go all the way to the top for the view, then descend and as the main path leads away from the steep south side, look for the path cross the rail tracks and that’s the top of the Rangers. Down rangers (but not all the way to the bottom) and then back up and over to Llanberis via Telegraph valley. Have a nice large chip butty in Petes Eats to celebrate!

Use Google maps to familiarise yourself with the lay of the land and the obvious features, but the route is easy to find.

If you fancy more slow speed tech, then you can come down on the West side, on the Rhyd Ddu path, and pedal the short distance north along the road to the rangers station before up and over via Telegraph.

It’s obviously pretty weather dependent as the STW “a mountain a month” team found:

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Blimin spell check!!

LLanberis up is unmissable the railway crossing may be hard to see/find if foggy and low visibility

if you reach the zig zags on the descent you have gone to far.
TURN ROUND

Yep, sorry! Couldn’t resist! 😀

There’s a huge ‘Finger Stone’ about 8ft tall marking the junction of Rangers and Llanberis track. Much easier to see than the split in the path in poor vis.
After recent repair work the Rangers path has lost a lot of it’s character, and contains many more steps than it previously had.
The right turn uphill to Telegraph valley is easiest to spot by stopping at the metal gate/fence on Rangers. From here it’s a (hard) rideable grass climb to the col, or further down there’s a missable signpost from which you can hike.

I walked Snowdon, yesterday, up and back on the Ranger Path.
Weather conditions were atrocious . Viz at summit max 10metres and wind gusting maybe 40kts.
After setting off up, I’d made a mental note to look for Telegraph Valley junction, although I forgot to look in ernest, there was no obvious , ‘ oh that’s the junction’.
I had slipped and hurt my back on the way back down , shortly after crossing the railway, so again wasn’t really with it as we descended. again though, no truly obvious turn.
I’ve looked at the map again this morning and now know where it is, but in inclement weather it won’t just appear.
Check your map with what you see on the ground or you’ll be by the road in no time !

When’s the voluntary ban thing start? I want to do snowdon again this year, missed it last week due to terrible weather forecasts.

1st May, you’ve got a few weeks yet.

As above on directions etc what I’d say is if you are going to do it definitely go to the very top, it’s only another few 100m and it would seem a crime to not bag the peak. There is a video which has been posted here from a rider who went up after 5pm (from memory the bike ban runs from 9am to 5pm) bivi’d at the top then rode down the next morning. Also you can push up during the bike ban hours and ride down after 5pm. I am sure in the long evenings the fitter lads here could get up and down after 5 in the day light. FWIW I have only walked up / down (via miners/pyg footpath only) and have the ride on my bucket list.

Also worth noting that all the paths are so “armored” now, to prevent erosion they are real bike breakers if you’re not carefull with your line/speed choice! When we did it late last year, one of our party managed to shear the rear maxle clean in two on his Alpine160 😯

A friend managed to tear 2 long rips in brand new tyres on one water bar going down Rangers. Agreed that if you don’t respect the descent it will teach you a lesson! 😉 One of the best descents I’ve done though, love it. Just wish I could use the train to the top. 😉

@jambalaya – I think that might be Stuart Rider – video about halfway down this page: http://riderscyclecentre.com/rcc-gallery/

BTW, the finger stone is at the top of the PYG/Miners track, you can just see it at around the 5min mark in the video. Looks like there’s a smaller one at the rail crossing.