Black Mountain blast

At the beginning of February Justin and myself were invited to do a big winter epic ride in South Wales with a group of riders we know but our plans were to be scuppered by a week of torrential rain causing the river Wye to burst its banks flooding the main A40 road and numerous towns along its length including Crickhowell which was going to be our start point. The ride was cancelled on Saturday afternoon but we decided to reschedule to a couple of weeks later.

The weekend of the ride arrived and things were looking better with the weather being a lot calmer, after watching the forecast on Saturday afternoon it was decided the ride was a goer. Justin and myself had agreed to meet up with our mate Russ Pinder at Crickhowell at 10.30am along with Ian Whitley, Tim Wick, Alan Spencer, Mr Radders and Ken Foreman who all decided to join us when I mentioned the ride at the BOBs club night. Last but not least the Adams family Colin and his brother Simon had decided to join us after hearing about the ride on Saturday afternoon.

This ride is a toughie and not for the feint hearted, it consists of a remote 30 mile loop around the exposed hills of the Grwyne Fwar Valley in the Black Mountains situated at the east end of the Brecon Beacons National Park, it has some lung busting long climbs and long teeth rattling descents too. There are no cafes, pubs or visitor centres on this ride, you have to carry all the food and drink you need for the day with you.

After the usual faffing about and waiting for Adrian and Ken to fix the punctures they had both managed to acquire in the car on the journey down we set off into the hills along a tiny undulating Welsh road for the first 3 miles or so. Eventually the road turned into a track then over a quaint little river bridge where we paused for a quick layer removal ready for the 2.5 mile 350 meter off road climb that lay ahead of us. The climb was a killer due to the first 2 miles being extremely boggy and as we climbed up the valley I noticed the macabre sight of numerous sheep skeletons on the steep hillside next to the trail. It gets steeper but more rocky near the top and the last steep section had a few of us walking. At the top we sat down on the ridge to enjoy the awesome views across the Brecons and eat lunch.

Knackered Ken halfway up

Now the fun really began with the first descent of the day and what corker it was too. We began descending down the western flank of the hill picking up speed, hopping over gullies and dodging the rocks then just as I was reaching warp speed the trail turned sharply dropping down over a small stream, thank god for disk brakes! Then up to top speed again this time on grass, over a few big gullies then some whoopy bits at the end which caught most of us off guard. We regrouped by a farm at the bottom, this was Ken and Ian's first experience of long descending on mountain bikes and both had ear to ear grins and were pumped full of adrenalin, it's a great feeling and one I never tire of.

The next few miles were on the tarmac and much to our amusement Radders fell off the road into a ditch. We also passed an old rusty dumped Cavalier which was covered in moss, Justin looked at it and said "I didn't realise you drove down here Kev" cheeky git!

Eventually we turned off the road onto a very steep and muddy bridleway which had us all slipping, sliding and eventually pushing, the thick red gloopy mud offered no traction at all. On the left hand side of the track was the most severe rain gully I have ever seen, it was a couple of foot wide and at least 4 foot deep. I am glad we didn't come here when we the floods were in full flow.

Tim's line choice could have been better

At the top Colin pushed his Kona Stinky up a very steep hillside then much to our amusement blasted back down again getting the biggest air I have seen for a long time half way down. We all agreed he is a mentalist and carried on along a whoopy muddy trail. Tim took a bad line and ended up sinking up to his hubs in mud, we laughed as he tried to get his stuck steed out of the gloop.

"This is not the blast I had in mind" - Radders in cyclo-cross mode

After a few more road miles it was time to climb again up the mile long 350meter steep slope of Y Das. What a killer, it started off gently but it wasn't long before we were pushing our steeds up a very steep grassy hill, which turned into a deep, steep rock gully and I can tell you it was not pleasant, The only good thing was the fantastic views we enjoyed on the way up. After a 40 minutes slog we were at the summit just inside the cloud base and it was freezing so no hope of a long rest. We had a quick munch on Nutrigrain bars and were soon off again along the very boggy moor top of Y Das towards the next long down hill section.

On the bleak moor top there were lots of gullies going off in all directions and these were ridden in the clouds, thank god Russ had the route programmed into his GPS, it would have been so easy to take the wrong route up there. We then began the 6 miles of descending down the northern flank of the Grwyne Fwar Valley. The descent began on a nice rocky R.U.P.P. and crossed a fairly wide stream, then as we came out of the clouds the trail was visible as far as the eye can see, mile upon mile of down hill mayhem ensued passing the Grwyne Fwar Reservoir at the half way point. As I desperately tried to keep up with the full susser riders in the group I was nearly bounced off my hardtail at high speed, I just couldn't compete with the 5 inches of rear travel some of these bikes have.

Eventually we regrouped at the bottom with ear to ear grins and aching arms from all the braking and trail judder we had put up with for the last 10 minutes. We rode into the Mynydd Du Forest to begin the last big climb of the day. It was here that Justin bonked big time. I was also suffering with cramp so we decided to bug out and ride back to Crickhowell along the tarmac. This turned out to be a complete nightmare as most of the many tiny roads in the area were closed off due to landslides that had happened in the floods a couple of weeks earlier.

We eventually managed to pick our way back to the car park 7 hours after we set off that morning and I can tell you we were absolutely knackered! 10 minutes later the rest of the posse pulled into the car park and they looked done in too. From what they were saying Justin and myself missed out on an hours climbing followed by the mother of all rock gully descents.

Like I said at the beginning this ride is not for the feint hearted, it's a great leveller and you can get some idea of how tough it is by the fact that it took us 7 hours to ride a 30 mile loop. We were all cold, achy and absolutely knackered by the end and I struggled to keep my eyes open on the usual nightmare that is the M4 on a Sunday evening.

What a fantastic start to what is looking a like being another brilliant year of riding, good friends, great trails and big Welsh countryside. Bring on the summer!

You can find more details of this classic route at the following websites:

Ride photos at the MTB Goats

MTB Britain

Offroad Adventures

Article & photos: Kevin Hargreaves

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