Snowdon Epic

Sometimes things don’t quite work out as you’d planned. You will have all had something not happen quite as you had envisaged, planned a trip only to find the car won’t start or gone to pay in a cheque only to find you’ve left it at home. Whilst these things are annoying they can be sorted without much hassle, when it comes to mountain biking these little issues can escalate into serious problems. A simple little puncture can mean the difference between cruising on home and being helicoptered out with hypothermia. What I’m getting at is that even the most prepared bikers can encounter problems they couldn’t have foreseen and these apparently small problems can have varying consequences depending on the conditions, cheating these can give you a sense of satisfaction but also make you realise that your probably not as invincible as you think.

Living in Wales the winters get pretty harsh, and the days very short, so as soon as the sun decides to appear and stay out past its usual bedtime of 5pm it gives us the opportunity of after work rides. Whilst post work rides are a good thing, attempting Snowdon turned out to not have been a particularly good idea. The ride shouldn’t have taken more that 3 hours and with the sun disappearing just after 9pm we should have had plenty of time to get back before dark. The estimated 3 hour ride time was reliant on us having no problems and setting off on time. As if written in small print in the back of our minds there was no real worry that we wouldn’t make it down before 9pm.

Things started badly with us setting off 30 minutes behind time. The sun was beaming down and the trail bone dry, we didn’t have a care in the world as we pedalled upwards, soaking in the magnificent views. Around about ¾ of the way up the sun began to redden and lower in the sky. Suddenly a sense of pressure descended on us. It was now a race against time, not wanting to get caught out in the dark. Looking below the track was slowly being cast in shadow as the sun kreeped its way behind the mountain opposite. Nearing the top it would have been a shame to have come this far to turn around and go back, so we decided to make the final push.

The views were absolutely epic, the mountains covered in a warm red glow and the sun itself fighting to stay above the ridge line. Although beautiful and tranquil there was a sense of urgency to get down off the mountain before dark, ‘the descent shouldn’t take any longer than 20 minutes so there should be just enough time to get down before darkness’, the small print in the back of the mind still really failing to cause too much concern as we set off down the mountain in the warm glow. After a couple of near misses I decided that now would not be the time to break myself and slowed the pace down. The first half of the descent went smoothly, well, as smoothly as the loose rock would allow, but at one of the more gnarly rock sections Ali was punished with a pinch flat. This would have to be a record breaking puncture repair, Formula One pit stop style to leave us with any chance of getting down in daylight.

One tube and two duff pumps later we weren’t getting much air into the tube. Light fading quickly now we decided to cut our loses and head down slowly, Ali taking it especially easy to avoid dinging his rim and pinch flatting again. As pitch blackness got closer things got harder, the riding got slower and things got a tad more bumpy as any decision concerning line choice was thrown out of the window. Toward the bottom things got rockier, we were crouched over the bikes not knowing when or where the hits were going to come from, just trying to stay upright was the name of the game now. Thankfully the gate was in sight, more of a black silhouette now and we were all still alive. Nervous giggles exchanged I think we all breathed a sigh of relief and freewheeled back down to the tarmac and to the pub for a pint.