Barry Godin’s Snowdonia Adventure

In Barry Godin’s latest three-part video series, he and Andy tackle Snowdonia National Park in three days, taking in two of the parks premier peaks and a local mountain bike park. Watch all three videos below along with Barry’s words about the trip, and even find a map of their final ascent up Snowdon peak…

Words and video by Barry Godin (@barrygodin)

Welsh Adventure Day 1: Coed Y Brenin MTB bike park

Andy and I set off on a three-part trip to Snowdonia in Wales. The first day we started at the Coed Y Brenin trail centre to get our heads back into mountain biking and to get used to the riding technique on Welsh rock. For me, this was a huge eye opener and really helped my riding get back up to scratch before the crazy adventures we had coming up in the next few days. We rode the Beast Trail which is a Welsh black diamond, and then on to Tarw Du, which is the UK’s—and probably the world’s—first ever purpose built mountain bike trail. We all owe so much to this trail for the progression of our sport. It is a crazy rocky technical trail, and one everybody should ride!

Welsh Adventure Day 2: Bikepacking up Cadair Idris

After spending the morning at the Coed Y Brenin, we packed our bags with our camping kit and set off up Cadair Idris. As per usual, we were behind schedule. It was dark when we crested the pass two-thirds of the way up, so we decided to camp there. We’d leave the camping stuff behind a rock and summit in the morning which would enable us to ride the top section with lighter bags and we could grab the kit for the rest of the descent.

We woke to the most spectacular morning and the weather was sublime, fluffy clouds drifting over the summit. We also met the most friendly sheep, who rapidly became the most aggressive sheep we’d ever met. Whilst Andy was trying to have a snack, he started ramming him and finally grabbed half of Andys sandwich and ran away. Most entertaining.

Welsh Adventure Day 3: Bikepacking up Snowdon for a sunrise summit

After riding down Cadair Idris that morning, we set off to ride up and camp at the base of Snowdon that night. Andy refused to try and ride down Snowdon with a tent on his bike, so he brought a bin bag to sleep in. After a restless short sleep we woke at 4:30 AM. The only reason Andy got me out of my tent was to say that the summit was clear and the stars were out. It was a crisp and beautiful atmosphere, and felt so special to start hike up the rangers path using just the moonlight to guide our way.

We were chasing the sun rising, but as we started to get closer to the top the clouds flowed in. Still dreaming of the sunrise view we pushed on. After the railway line—which is a landmark to know you are getting close—the clouds parted for a moment as we crested the ridge and our jaws just dropped to the ground.

This was an once in a life time experience. We spent 45 minutes on an empty summit and watched the clouds ebb and flow around us. But it was a little silly to stand there that long, we completely lost our core temperature and with frozen figures tried to start riding down. It took along time for us to warm up, but I was still awestruck from the views and experience I had just encountered. We nibbled our way down the extreme Rhyd Ddu path along its knife edge ridge, but the bottom half was an incredible rock fest with just reward clearing small sections.

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