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Ive never been up it an am hoping to in Feb. What is the best route up and down? Im not afraid to walk up and intend to take the full face for the way down.
I assume it is totally open to bikes in feb as it is a quiet month. Am I correct?
Thanks
Have a look at the "Rangers path" thread - that's may favourite route & all rideable.
Up Llanberis, down Rangers with a detour about 2/3 of the way down along Telegraph road which brings you back over to Llanberis.
That's the route I did, up Llanberis & down Rangers & then back over Telegraph valley. Will be def doing it again, some very nice bits down the Rangers.
Is the bottom bit of the Rangers worth doing ? (realise there would be a push back up for Telegraph Valley) or how does Rhyd du compare ?
Could be covered in Snow and Ice in Feb
Watch out for walkers on the way down
smeg - I've never ridden the bottom section but I've walked up it. From memory, there's nothing particularly technical/interesting to warrant the hike up.
Not ridden Rhyd Du but some friends have - I believe its good fun but more technical riding and you need to be a bit more careful with the weather as there are some very exposed sections.
up and down llanberis might be enough if its your first time - no need for pads or full face in my view - nor gears or suspension for that matter
I've done it on 3 different bikes and its always fun 😀
The rangers tail thread reminded me to ask.
I take it Llanberis is the easy route. The Rangers trail on the films looks quite rocky and good fun.
I guess like all trails the need for certain types of helmet or gloves comes from how fast you ride and how hard you crash. I tend to ride a reasonable pace and crash quite hard.
I did Snowdon solo last summer. Only extra stuff i wore were my leg and arm guards simply because i didn't know the trail but knew it was very rocky! Cleared all but one section of the Rangers path and even the climb up the Llanberis path was pretty easy.
Even with zero visibilty and driving rain it was awesome, scary but awesome 😀
This summer i'll be starting from the Rangers station car park, up as far as Telegraph Valley, down that and then over to Llanberis and then back down the Rangers.
Last time I did Rangers I was on a short travel bike and just had 661 knee pads & a XC helmet - I did feel a bit exposed though and would've rather had a full face on for the nadgery bits (elbow pads wouldn't hurt either - if you crash on those rocks it will hurt!). Big tyres are a must too.
Llanberis is the easier option yes - there's a fair bit of open fire-road type riding and not as steep/rocky but still some fun stuff. The other disadvantage is there tends to be a lot more walkers on that route (you should be ok in Feb 🙂 ).
[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/dartmoor-posse-welsh-do-snowdon-stuff-sunny-photos ]This thread has some good shots[/url] of the Llanberis climb/rangers decent when we did it in October 09
I wouldn't bother with the Llanberis as a decent - walkers every ten yards or so, we only saw 4 on the rangers!