Wish I could be in Ottawa - haven’t seen Snow in years !!
I just want to make sure that all you Snowdon riders are also aware of our upcoming meet at Rhyl. It’s planned for Saturday, 26 March at 10am at the train station in Rhyl. I’m only going to be in Wales for a few weeks, and that was the day and time that worked out best for my family. You can check out my info if you look at the other recent Wales thread, but in short, I’m the founder of the New York Unicycle Club and am a level 7 rider, and I’m bringing my 20" freestyle to Wales. I can’t ride on trails for several reasons but would warmly welcome anyone to join us in Rhyl.
David Stone
Update…
Well we made it. Three friends and four strangers meet, hiked up, and unicycled down Snowdon in North Wales.
The weather was simply stunning being idea for shorts & t-shirt.
According to my gps (which was playing up a little) we climbed 3509 ft with a 9 mile round trip.
I personally found the climb up harder than I would have liked but the views from the top were well worth it. The descent was interesting. Some parts were well above my technical ability but others I was pleased to see that I could ride.
The next morning bore tender muscles, cuts n bruises, painful sunburn and a smile I still haven’t managed to lose 
Thanks to the guys who I met for an excellent day and the opportunity to meet other unicyclist’s for the first time, and for Toby for letting me have my first go on a Coker.
I’ve uploaded my camera’s contents to…
http://www.norry.co.uk/gallery/snowdon/snowdon.htm
The pictures are resized by 40% as original file size is between 1.5/2 meg each. The video’s use divx for compression and are about 4-7meg in size.
Hopefully some of the other riders with camera’s will post their pictures soon too. My friends demand proof! as there’s none of me in the shots!
Neil
That looks great! So who were in the party?
I would never try something like this without a helmet. Not wanting to stir up another helmet discussion, just a comment.
Klaas Bil
WOW! That is the best weather I’ve ever seen in North Wales, let alone on the top of Snowdon. I’m starting to wish I came with you now.
Nice pictures Neil - loved the ones of the woman wearing the dog !!
If it’s any consolation to you, my legs hurt like hell too, but probably not much more than Phil’s chin 
I’m afraid my photographic exploits weren’t up to much - I only took a couple of Phil & Sam on the summit, I must have been too busy trying to take on oxygen for the ride to follow.
Hey, a climb up is always harder than one would like, but you made it up and down without recourse to Mountain Rescue. Especially considering you only started riding a few months ago, respec’. Next stop - Ben Nevis 
KlaasBil - the hatless rider was still-standing and playing to the assembled tourists with their cameras snapping merrily. He wore gear for the descent proper.
Chris
Owwww, oww, oww…
I am still in one piece. One battered, bruised and aching piece, but that’s good enough for me.
It was a great day. The weather was fantastic… the day before I had been riding in thick fog in South Wales; we were all sunburnt by the time we got to the top of Snowdon.
Lesson learnt from the day: don’t leave the muni unused in the garage for months and then expect to be able to match Sam (who by the way is a crazy madman who flies downhill at insane speeds and doesn’t seem to notice the rocky stuff) on the trickier parts. Just above the higher bridge under the railway I attempted a jump off a rock and paid the price for it… my face is enough to scare small children (moreso than normal), my left index finger is twice normal size, my right thigh is a weird colour and my right shin looks like it’s been used as a dartboard.
The chin looked bad but was superficial; most annoying was the battered finger, which ruled out the last day of biking at CyB on the Sunday. Bah humbug.
My photos here: http://gallery.unicyclist.com/phil
Again these are reduced to 66%, if anyone wants a full-size version let me know.
Phil
Yes, thanks to all you guys who came along, for making a brilliantly fun and memorable day. The weather was really spectacular and the folks we met were also pretty cool. I noted only one comment of “oi, where’s your other wheel?”, many, many more of “are you going down on those? You must be mad…”. As Phil noted, people say this so much you sometimes wonder if they might have a point.
The walk up to the top wasn’t as strenuous as I thought it might have been, considering that most people do it without several kilos of unicycle and safety equipment, and don’t intend to do anything more exciting than walking down.
Absolutely worth the hike though - it’s a simply magnificent ride down. Varying from just unrideablly lumpy, pointy rocks to swoopy, swooshy paths. Mostly a pleasant intermediate stage though, with plenty enough to keep it interesting, but consistantly ridable in 100M chunks between UPDs. There are few things as satisfying as launching yourself into a scary, boulder-strewn decent, barely aware of the prefered route so easily discerned from the sidelines, going from precarious teetering flop to forcefully compelled pedal revolution, then realising you’ve got to the level path below and are still above a wheel under your control. Wee 
Large amounts of kudos to Toby and friends, takling some pretty hardcore muni riding on what can favourably be described as antiques. Holding onto the gravel slides out of some of those drops, while riding on a street-slick tyre was beautiful.
What a work out too! The ride down took almost as long as the walk up - at least two hours, and as much of that is with one’s leg muscles under serious tension, it adds up to some virtually crippling stiffness at the café at the bottom. But well worth it I say.
Here are my photos from the day:
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/samsnowdon
Sorry about the colour being a bit on the rosey side - the camera’s not what it was.
So, now I can say “been there, done that”. Again, anyone?
Sam
Toby: This is Snowdon from the south-east, courtesy of the NASA World Wind program I mentioned (see here).
Phil
