A Rad Time in Radnor
Originally posted by Mutley, you can join in on the discussion by clicking HERE
We’ve been quite lucky lately really. This may be an odd concept considering the recent loss of 90% of our boarding grounds due to unfair restrictions placed upon us by the land owners. However this has not been a hindrance but more of a catalyst for our exploratory natures to search out new runs.
This weekends run was a spur of the moment expedition to Wales. Wales like Gloucestershire, is blessed with some fantastic geography however they actually have mountains. This is something GoofyMark and I have often joked about – the lack of mountains in mountainboarding. When GM mentioned a trip to an actual mountain I obviously became quite excited.
The night before boarding was peppered with the usual crying babies, dreams of boarding and hourly wakeups in case it was time to go! Eventually the alarm confirmed zero hour (actually 5 o clock) and I leapt from bed and raced downstairs faster than my daughter on xmas day. I packed up my bag and checked the deck just in time before Mark arrived.
The journey consisted of the general mix of boards/components that we wanted past rides, New runs etc..
It was halfway through one of these conversations as we were nearing the end of the journey that hills started to come into view and GM says… Ah….
I can kinda see what he’s ah’ing at. The Peaks of the hills that weren’t hidden in clouds were white, with snow. By the looks of them I was thinking GM may have regretted leaving his 9’s at home. The closer we drove toward the base of the mountain, the more the snow built up on the sides of the roads. Luckily all the roads except for the odd patch of ice had been cleared.
Eventually the mountain came into view and it looked sweet. A white mountain with swathes of darker forest patches down the sides.
We started to pad up in the frosty welsh air. GM carries two spare Twistars with tubes and tires in case the Rockstar Pros get a puncture. This is damn lucky; as we were loading them into the backpacks GM noticed he had a flat on his deck. After changing the wheel and inflating the wheel he got to be lucky all over again because the Twistar had a puncture!
Third wheel on the 16, and we began the walk to the base of the run. The road up to it was like a sheet of ice. Even to walk on it was slippery and we commented how we wouldn’t be boarding back down this bit.
Reaching the run I had a good chance to look at the 6km fire track we were going to attempt to board down. The snow had fallen quite heavily and ranged from 8 inches deep, to icy rocks which had been created from melting and refreezing snow. Luckily some tractors/4×4’s had been up the track and created boarding runs on either side of the track leaving a good central lane of snow and ice for scrubbing. We began the long walk to the top.
It was really difficult to resist the urge to try the run as we were walking up however due to the snow we did periodically test the surface to ensure we didn’t sink in too deep.
On the walk up we noted several side runs which all looked amazing in addition to the main run we were on. Plus there were runs which we called ‘Roger runs’ which are only suitable for leapb4ulook!
Unfortunately just over a third of the way up we reached a point where the tracks in the snow split off and the snow made it impossible to board from any higher so we strapped in for the ride back down.
The ride down was amazing. It started slow due to the snow. This was a good point as it allowed us to get used to the snow and compensate for the varying surface. As we sped up the surface began to get interesting. Smashing through the odd block of snow which had fallen into the track and struggling for grip on the cambered edges. The path weaves down through open parts where the snow was thicker then under canopies of trees where snow had melted from the branches and refrozen as ice on the floor. Every now and then the boards would snake under our legs and you had to fight for balance. Luckily you get rewarded with a nice surge of adrenaline at these points which slows down time enough for you to get back in the centre of the board before hitting the next icy obstruction. By the time we got to the bottom the concentration had frazzled my mind and my legs ached from controlling the board. We both decided this track will be mental when the snow melts!
We returned back up to the middle of the run and tried some of the steeper shorter looking runs before heading back down for a final time. We headed back down a slightly different way and started boarding down a small icy track we found. Hopping at the sides of the track we were surprised at the grip and speed control that can be gained on Ice. It wasn’t until we got to the bottom that we realised we had just come down the icy track from the start of our walk!
Back in the car we both agreed that we couldn’t wait to go back and ride the full 6km when the snow melts.
Radnor , more like Rad Gnar!
More pics here
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