There's snow use moaning about it!

Date : 9th January 2010
Riders : Rich, Mark2, Dave2, Wilf, Dunnie, XC Tom, Andy
Area : Leith Hill

Given the weather conditions, we pushed back our usual meeting time to 0900, and decided to park at Milton Heath Car Park – the lowest point we could achieve. No way was Coldharbour going to be sensibly accessible today! Big turn out today, we congregated trying to keep warm, while Dunnie arrived and proceeded to put his bike together!!

We set off in the snowy conditions to head towards the tower. Making our way across the back of the houses at Westcott, it quickly became apparent that riding in snow this deep, was not going to be a walk in the park!! The snow afforded little traction in the snow, causing us to push our bikes on a number of occasions. We arrived at the bottom of the Rookery, fingers numb with cold and started the ascent. Hitting deep snow, the riding became too diffficult, and most of us dismounted. It was this point that Dunnie had just had enough... and called it a day – heading back to the car on his own. The rest of us ploughed on, up the rookery – which basically became the big push for all of us! Having completed the push up the rookery, we mounted again to try Wolverns Lane. This was a lot better – two nice ruts either side of the track gave adequate traction and allowed us to make quicker progress up the hill.

Arriving at the top of summer lightening, again through deep snow, XC Tom started to reduce pressure in his rear wheel for extra traction. We all followed suit, after he explained that an Austrian couple had died from not reducing their rear wheel tyre pressure enough!!!! (There is a story there... but for another day ;-) ).

Combination of riding and pushing saw us reach the bomb holes, and what a different riding experience that was! Most of us took some sort of tumble, and no-one made it to the top of the last rise. I can confirm that flattie 510s provide no grip in snow whatsoever, resulting in a number of hill climbing on all fours for those of us wearing them (Me, Rich and Mark2). A quick look at deliverance (and a look was all it was!), and onto the cricket pitch. A group photo with artistic placing of bikes, and Mark2 and Dave2 departed, for work and dad duties respectively.

This left Wilf, Rich, XC Tom and myself to continue to the tower. Sticking to the fire roads, the going was reasonable and we arrived at the bottom of “the hill” in on piece.

Wilf made a good attempt at the hill, but frankly the whole climb was never on the cards!!! Wilf and I pushed to the top, with Tom and Rich taking the longer, less steep route. The tower tea shop was open (thankfully), so a cup of tea and a slice of cake was on the cards. Huddled in the steps of the tower to stay out of what was a bitterly cold wind, we took a wee snifter from Rich's “bike drawer hip flask”.


It had taken us a good 2 hours to get to the top – so we decided that heading back to the car is all the riding we could achieve. Personal Hygiene beckoned, and we all made it with wheels a wobbling – Rich having to take a sliding fall to avoid continuing over the rise onto the trail!!

Back to the cricket pitch we took the road down to Coldharbour, as the easy option, and then left onto Wolverns lane. The ride down Wolverns lane was probably the best bit of riding all morning. Some speed was achieved, and the route flowed nicely. The came the rookery... a different story. Thick snow meant a constant fight with the front wheel, no matter how far you were sitting back on the bike!! Arriving at the main A25, we stuck to the road to get back to the car park – the sensible choice!

Snow way were any records being broken today!