The team that set off from Bangor, from the left, Gareth Griffiths, Ralph Page, Glyn Jones, James Cox, Peter Linfield, David Irwin, Nick Cranston, Charlie Humphreys, Kevin Emm, Adam Linfield, Tim Longman

A big thank you to parents and friends after the Snowdon challenge bike ride this weekend. 12 of us set off on Saturday morning, 7 raising money for Claire House and 5 for the light project. Arriva trains were very kind to donate return tickets to Bangor, a big thank you to Karen at Chester station, but insisted that only 2 bikes could be carried per train….. so much for the governments campaign to get us onto bikes (as long as you stay local). Anyway thankfully Kevin Emm was kind enough to offer his van, trailer and services to get our bikes over to Bangor.

Bike loading at Chester

Once at Bangor we soon got split up with Glyn and David missing a turning and ending up at Tescos a mile down the road…… 30mins later we had used up all our contingency time and set off again to meet Alan King at Llanberis for 11am. After a quick cream tea (refreshments being all important on this trip) we split into two groups with the touring group consisting of Glyn, Kevin, Peter and Adam rounding snowdon via the Llanberis pass and the mountain group heading up the hill, joined by Alan King, niece and her friend.

The all important refreshments at Llanberis

Again we hadn’t gone 15 mins when Tim rode over a rock which flipped up and bent his derailer. Fearing a trip back to Llanberis for a repair Alan the mechanic stepped in with his screwdriver and got it going again. It soon became apparant that the Snowdon path is not meant for bikes. The road quickly gave way to steps, steps and more steps and where there weren’t steps the national park are putting more in.

We were soon carrying the bikes all the way and mutiny was brewing in the ranks due to perceived lack of research by the leader (me!). At this point we discovered that the trains are still not going to the top of the mountain so we got on the tracks and pushed the bikes on the cog path in the middle. A nice even gradient for the final 1/3, thankfully I was off the spot!

Dave gratefully shows the way to do it.

A final effort and we were there and we have the video to prove it!

Very crowded up here. Does anyone go anywhere else in the Welsh mountains?

Alan takes his bike to the very top.

The Claire House fundraisers who remembered their t-shirts.

The way down was a different way with far less steps, but unlike Alan’s niece and friend, we knew how fragile our bones are and took a lot longer coming down…. That evening after discovering the YHA has a strict rule about no alcohol being brought in (since when did that happen?) we had a great bolognaise courtesy of Glyn before a few rounds of Poker then bed. The morning dawned and 4 of us decided the lake opposite the YHA had to be dipped.

Come on in the water's lovely....

After that it was a relaxing ride back to Bangor via the cycle way that goes all the way from Porthmadog to Bangor via Canaerfon.

An armchair road side bank for a relaxing ride back

Ralph and Nick reach the end of the pier in Bangor

A big thank you to everyone who sponsored us. So far the Claire House appeal has raised £1800 with the Light Project not far behind. In particular a big thank you to RBS Sempra, Charlie’s Dad’s company who donated £500. See you next year?