There are soo many walkers on Snowdon, it isn’t enjoyable on a bike when its busy anyway. It isn’t really an enjoyable hike when its busy either!

I live in North Wales and was out getting some miles in last weekend on the Glyderau!!

Still a bit undecided with taking the MSR Hubba nx, the flysheet is quite high off the ground and with a mesh interior, it can get cold inside if it’s blowing a wind on the tops there.

How did you find it physically?

5.5kg base weight is very impressive. At the moment mine is closer to 10kg!

Thanks for the responses. You have to pre book the huts now, so a tent at around 1.2kg gives the flexibility of a day off if it rains. If we pre book a hut then we have to hike. I also prefer the privacy of a tent than an overcrowded hut, if I’m honest.

We also did the majorca gr221 in march this year. Stayed in the hut on the leg before the monestry, which was a nice hut if I’m honest. Don’t think the ones in Corsica are as luxurious!

The Cirque has now been shut, but replaced with an equally hard section which runs close to Monte Cinto, which well also climb as well.

We are doing the northern section over 9 days, flying from manchester to brussells and then to bastia. There is a direct flight back on a sunday with easyjet to manchester.

I don’t think the route is hikable in winter because of the snow, there is a ski resort along the route.

Think I will take the msr hubba nx tent, and deal with any high winds if we encounter them.

I’d go for the £60 Anker solar charger myself, think it had three solar panels. Obviously needs sun to work!

Ahhh….if your dogs werent at home then I’d let them know it couldn’t have been your dogs.

Are you sure your dogs are silent when you’re out though? There is a house near me that had a dog barking non stop last night from around 5;30 to 11pm – I guess they went out and left the dog outside.

We were there in March of this year, did the gr221 from Valldemossa to Lluc Monestry, over 4 days, plus the Puig de Balitx (in Soller) and the Torent de Pareis gorge.

The mountain hut is after Soller so you’ll miss this. Plus the hardest day on the gr221 was from Soller to the only mountain refuge, around 22km long with 1250m ascent.

Valldemossa to Deia is 15km long with 700m ascent, it will take around 5hrs to do.

Deia to Soller is also 15km but only 430m ascent, and will also take around 5 hrs.

I haven’t done the initial bit you are doing.

Haven’t had a chance today but will look at the air valve over the weekend to see if thats the issue then. Can you buy these over the counter?

How do you feel about going there tomorrow and demanding payment – making a bit of a scene as well. You have done nothing wrong!

That does sound like a lot hiking the route. Good to know the snow isn’t too bad on Ben Nevis either, looking forward to doing it.

I was reading somewhere that a lot start the route in a Saturday, so I was thinking of travelling up on Thursday and starting the walk on a Friday so I’d be ahead of the Saturday crowds.

thanks, I’ll look them up on youtube.

1) Hire a bike at beics betws and go family cycling up to llyn elsi in betws y coed on the forestry tracks, very nice there.

2) Go up snowdon from llanberis, or get a bus to pen y pass and go up the miners or pyg track, and then down on the llanberis path. If inexperienced id stay away from crib goch.

3) not cheap but the steam train from blaenau to porthmadog, or porthmadog to caernarfon is nice. Good one if the weather is wet.

3) antur stiniog for you, and the zip wire for the family? both in the same place.

4) black rock sands in nice near porthmadog.

However I am thinking road cycling, not gravel. Not sure where the gravel is!

The north is the hillier part where the mountains are. We stayed for a while in port soller, nice place with a very good bike shop on the front if you want to hire a bike.

Why wouldn’t you hire a road bike? I’ve just spent a week hiking there and there are some very good roads for road cycling. People seem to be tolerant of cyclists as well, from what I saw and compared to the UK. Sa Colabra looks very good in the north – that’s where I would go.

Thats at is really sad news.

I remember back to when he posted about his diagnosis. Very brave fella’.

RIP Mark.

Difficult one. So it seems the camera went kaput within a few weeks of buying it. She then sent it to fuji for repair and has been quoted €600 which is a massive amount.

You have the report from fuji. I assume its a very expensive camera?

tbh I can see her point as well and not everyone is a scammer. Difficult one.

No alternative but to always use my car, too far to cycle and publuc transport none existent!

Bit of an update, the garage will do the transfer fir me. I have left the v5c of my current car with the garage. They will then phone me when its done and the private plate will be on the new car for me. So we’ll see if its a few days, a week or a few weeks!!

OK so it seems it can’t be done in a day then. Probably best to take off the private plate first then as said above hopefully get a new v5c in a few days for my current car. Then purchase the new car. Wait for the new car v5c to come through. Then apply to put on the private plate. Phew – I thought it could have been done instantly with modern online tech!!!

Can you switch them if you don’t owe both cars though, can’t get my head around it.

I washed my jacket last week and the down seems to have clumped together in some seams, leaving other areas without down. This wad after shaking it well after washing!

I’d send it off to be washed myself!!

Thanks. I’d hope that the twinlock, fully open would not adversely affect the fork/shock – will see if I can find a proper demo from somewhere in n wales.

Do you think the twinlock affects the suspension settings then, or was it just your mate setting up the suspension wrong? I suppose it would be similar to a spark as well?

Wouldn’t put everything on Brexit though – you have some idiots in charge of some companies as well.

I used to have some shares in another airline, Flybe. The board turned down an offer of around 45p a share in March 2018. Six months later the company was on its knees and they are now recommending shareholders accept 1p a share from Branson. Some people in charge are totally inept.

The ones that I have done have a mixture of tarmaced roads, farm track type surfacing, grassy tracks, footpaths,forest fire roads, etc, nothing technical at all. The climbing is more difficult than the downhills.

Although I havent done the one your doing.

For something like the DyfiEnduro I’d recommend a short full suss though,

A hardtail 29 is what I would use. I once used a 29er giant anthem but the courses sre not generally rough enough imo.

I also wonder if a new Hightower and Tallboy is due this year? They’ll maybe morph the current hightower/tallboy into one 120mm ish bike and keep the 150mm hightower, seeing they now have a 100/110mm blur in their lineup. All speculation of course.

Is it 24.9 lb? Scott says they are 26.9lb?

Are they broken and do they need removing?

I’ve had it as well since last weekend. Had been taking cough mixture but have stopped that now. Also had a medical at work on Monday and they noted that my BP was raised! So need to get that checked again once the flu has cleared!!

I wouldn’t go around the coast as that’s even longer.

You can always get the train from Betws y Coed to Llandudno Junction.

The Marin and Penmachno in one day, including joining them up is some going, not including the cycle from CYB and onto Llandudno Junction!!

You have 1.5 days to cycle from CYB to Llandudno Junction, including Penmachno and Marin? That’s some going.

Near point 24 on the map turn right onto a quarry incline/track that takes you into Cwm Penmachno. After riding Penmachno, head over the hill towards Dolwyddelan, then take the Sarn Helen towards Ty Hyll, and start the Marin from Ty Hyll. From the Marin it is a B road (towards Trefriw) all the way up to Conwy and then onto Llandudno Junction.

Be careful if you have shorter legs though and upsizing to the next size bike with a dropper post.  If you have long legs then its not soo much an issue.

Be careful with sensors as cats and wildlife can set it off, especially if your lights are pointing or lighting towards other houses as well.

I’m surprised as well that a big unit like him didn’t whack the teenager back – seems to be some damage to his face.

For £200 I’d look on ebay for a TN Voyager (normal) version. You may have to pay a bit over £200. It weighs about 2kg, wouldn’t bother me about the extra 500g over your 1.5kg limit. The only disadvantage is that it pitches inner first, but with practice in wet weather you can get it up very quick.

The hilleberg pitches outer and inner together.

As the poster above mentioned, I have heard good things about lightwave tents as well, but have never owned one.

I have had my fair share of expensive lightweight tents as I used to be into wild camping. I could tell you a bit about camping stoves as well!

I currently have a Hilleberg Soulo and a TN Voyager. I wouldn’t put weight ahead of space as there is nothing worse than being ‘stuck’ in a very small tent when the weather turns. I have sold a TN Laser Comp and a Hilleberg Akto for this reason (very cramped). I like the space of the voyager, its bigger than the Soulo, but the Soulo will take more of a battering. I used to have the TN Voyager Superlite, but again, to me it was too flimsy for the 500g odd weight saving over the more robust standard TN Voyager.