Ride Snowdon Special Mountain Bike Tour

Our Ride Snowdonia Special Mountain Bike Tour is an awesome riding experience through one of the UK’s finest National Parks.

What to expect?

We’ll start the weekend by meeting at the accommodation at 12 pm on Friday ready to ride at 12:30 down into Coed y Brenin, where we’ll share our favourite trails, on and off-piste. The bonus here is that we can ride straight from the accommodation giving us all a chance to warm up as well as enjoy some huge views up over Snowdonia.

Saturday – we’ll ride Pont Schethin or the Dyfi forest weather dependant – training ground of the Athertons and a paradise of wild, unmarked trails as well as a few absolute gems that do follow arrows.

Sunday – after an early breakfast, we’ll drive up to Llanberis to start the huge ascent of Snowdon. The usual plan is an ascent of the Llanberis Path and a descent of the Ranger Path before we double back down the awesome Telegraph Valley. It won’t be a long day, even though it’s a tough one, so it’ll then be back to Old Skool for showers and lunch before starting the journey home. As always, the itinerary may change depending on weather and trail conditions.

Getting ready for 3 days of mountain biking in fairly full-on, remote locations can be a major task. With 10 riders (plus 2 guides!). These notes will help everybody know what to expect from the trip and what to bring. If there’s anything else you need to know or want to check, please don’t hesitate to ask.

This is only a sample itinerary and can change at any given date, we are always working to improve the trips and alterations are common to improve and adapt.

Day 1 – Ride from accommodation

Friday’s warm-up ride will start at 12:30 pm from the accommodation giving you plenty of time to travel before, a mix of the very best of Coed y Brenin’s waymarked trails, which are awesome, and a few sections of lesser-known singletrack. As an added bonus, we can ride here off-road from the accommodation giving us all a chance to warm up.

Day 2 – Pont Scethin or Dyfi Forest

Saturday is Pont Schethin or back to the forest, this time to the Dyfi Forest, where we can once again mix and match the best of the waymarked trails with some of the awesome off-piste singletracks that the Dyfi has become famous for.

Day 3 – Snowdon

And then Sunday, after an early breakfast, we’ll drive up to Llanberis to start the huge ascent of Snowdon. The usual plan is an ascent of the Llanberis Path and a descent of the Ranger Path before we double back down the awesome Telegraph Valley.

It won’t be a long day, even though it’s a tough one, so it’ll then be back to Old Skool for showers and lunch before starting the journey home. As always, the itinerary may change depending on weather and trail conditions.

What’s included?

• Accommodation – 2 nights full board in our luxury MTB lodge accommodation
  • Meals – Home-cooked breakfasts, 3-course evening meals, packed lunches and post-ride cake and coffee, beer, wine and soft drinks
• All guiding – 3 day’s guided riding with 2 BC Level 3 Guides – maximum client-to-guide ratio 8-1
• Transport – Travel to and from the trails in our own private minibus with a dedicated professional driver
• Safety Equipment – First aid kits and emergency shelters carried by our guides alongside your personal equipment packs
• Financial failure insurance – Ensuring your money is 100% protected from the second we receive it until we have delivered your trip of a lifetime.

It’s quite likely that no 2 days on this trip will be the same. But we can try…

We’ll have breakfast together at a time agreed the previous evening – usually quite early. Sorry, I know it’s a holiday but we have a lot to cram in. This usually includes a short final briefing and a check on how everybody’s feeling. After breakfast please be pretty much ready to ride at this stage so there’s no major faffing and we are off.

In the evenings, it will be ideal if we can meet for a pre-dinner drink and have a chat about
the plans for the next day.

Riding skills and fitness

Many people ask us about the riding and their skills and fitness. It’s a hard one to answer as difficulty is so subjective and we can have up to 10 different riders, all with different fitness levels and technical abilities.

Riding skills

Firstly, the riding isn’t as tough as it sounds. We’ve chosen routes that give a real Snowdonia flavour but still make for an enjoyable weekend without killing you.

There will however, be some long days (possibly 6-8 hours or more) and some technical downs (some of which probably everybody will walk a few metres). As long as you can keep smiling when you’re tired and pushing your bike then you’ll be fine.

In terms of riding ability, this trip won’t suit anyone who isn’t happy riding red / black grade trails in typical UK trail centres (please ask us if you would like more detail).

Fitness

It’s much more about stamina than speed or strength. There are some long days and we won’t be racing anywhere. On the bigger days, we’ll ride at a relaxed pace that can be kept up all day. We’ll also take more care than we would at a trail centre as a bad fall in a remote place is not good news.

The best training for this kind of trip is actually just getting out riding – preferably longer distances at a steady pace. 30km at a steady pace will be more useful than 15km at racing speed, so if your local trails are short, slow it down and do 2 laps!  Check out this blog by Matt Mooney of MTB Fitness regarding preparing for this kind of holiday https://mtbguiding.co.uk/uncategorised/guest-blog-6-top-training-tips-get-mtb-holiday/

I’m sure everybody will have their own strengths and weaknesses and everybody will have good days and off days. If we pull together as much as possible, a strong team will achieve way more than a bunch of fit individuals.

There is always the option to sit out a day at any point if your

Bike cleaning and maintenance

We’ll have secure storage for bikes overnight at the accommodation and a hose, brushes and a full cleaning kit, supplied by Fenwick’s Bike Products, so you can clean your bike after riding. We’ll also have a bike stand and some tools for fettling and repairs. Please bring any tools that are specific for your bike.

Maps

Yup, we’re guiding so you don’t need them. But if you like following routes on your own maps, it’s best to discuss that with us in Scotland in case plans change and you bring the wrong ones! If you just want printouts or GPX tracks of where we’ve been when we get home, let us know and we can sort it.

There’s no getting around it, 9 mountain bikers will be pretty conspicuous and we’ll have some impact on the landscape and other trail users. As a company, we’re 100% committed to minimising our impact in every way we can.

We operate a strict ‘pack it out’ policy for all litter (including banana skins and orange peel), and we try to leave as little trace of our passing as possible.While we’ll enjoy some epic descents and trails, please ride in control and at a speed that reflects your line of sight and abilities.

We’ll certainly meet walkers and we want any interactions to be as positive as possible. It’s important to give mountain bikers a good name. For more information check out Do the Ride Thing and also the websites listed at the end of these notes.

Weather

On this Southern Snowdonia Singletrack mountain bike tour we could experience everything from hot sunny days, wet and windy days to full on blizzards. We’ve made many trips to the Lakes throughout the year and had a real mix. When packing, please bring winter and summer clothing so we can make more informed decisions about what to wear and carry on the day or the night before.

Insurance

We don’t need medical insurance in the UK, but I strongly recommend travel insurance just to cover you should you get injured or fall ill before the trip or during it. Try YellowJersey and use the discount code – MTB75

Kit list

The weather can be very varied in the Snowdonia so we need to be prepared. We’ll have a briefing every evening to give you an up to date weather forecast and plan the next day. We can share some of the kit to keep packs as light as possible.

Riding kit

Please let us know if there’s anything you haven’t got that you may need.

Essential, please make sure you have the following

• Hydration pack big enough to carry everything in the list below – suggested size 15L to 20L
• Mini pump for your valve type
• Inner tube (even if you use tubeless)
• Tubeless repair kit (if you use tubeless)
• Puncture patches (if you don’t use tubeless)
• Tyre levers
• Multi-tool
• 1 set of spare brake pads
• Rear gear hanger for your bike
• Power link for your chain type and speed
• Any medication you need

Recommended

• Dry bag to keep everything dry inside your pack
• Cable ties
• Duct tape (we suggest wrapping 1m around your pump)
• Mobile phone – in a waterproof case or plastic bag
• Small personal first aid kit

You’ll also need the following

• Water and snacks – gels, energy bars, jelly babies etc
• Lunch (this will be provided but you’ll need to carry it)

Recommended clothing

Essential, please make sure you have the following..

• Helmet
• Waterproof jacket (a full-on waterproof is recommended)
• Insulated jacket or very warm emergency layer
• MTB shoes (you must be able to walk in them!)

Recommended

• Knee and elbow pads
• Cycling shorts and/or waterproof shorts (or trousers)
• Wicking base layer or cycling jersey
• Mid layer (fleece or soft shell)
• Woolly hat or buff
• Riding glasses
• Gloves (worth having a spare pair if it’s wet)
• Waterproof socks

Bikes

Your bike needs to be ready for the rigours of the mountains – steep and rocky climbs and very rough descents. A lightweight x-country bike probably won’t be strong enough for the descents and a downhill rig will be too heavy for the climbs. Just about everything in between will do the job.

Tyres are important too. Lightweight racing tyres are easily torn. We recommend good trail or all-mountain tyres such as Maxxis High Rollers/Minion DHR/DHF in a Double Down casing and possibly with inserts.

Please make sure your bike is ready for 4 days of hard riding. Anything that looks slightly suspect will almost certainly break.

There are good bike shops Wales along the route but nothing very convenient