A quick heads-up for OM users who mix their walking and climbing with a
bit of mountain biking with the news that the latest volume in the
Vertebrate mountain
biking series is
Wales
Mountain Biking, a selection of 20 of the best routes
across the country.
Put
together by Tom Hutton who compiles mountain bike routes for MBR as
well as testing outdoors kit and clothing for Country Walking magazine,
the book follows Vertebrate's classic format. There are 20 routes
between 12km and 50km in length designed to cater for all levels of
experience.
In this case, the rides are grouped together on a regional basis in
three sections plus a 'bonus' Long Mynd extra and are all natural
routes rather than trail centre tracks. Most of the big Welsh classics
are present and correct including Snowdon, the Gap Road in the Beacons,
Doethie and the Elan Valley.
As usual, each ride includes a brief introduction, route details like
length, difficulty and timings and an overall summary of the
ride
- a general 'what's it like?' if you will - a detailed and numbered
point by point description and crucially, an Ordnance Survey 1:50,000
map showing the complete trail. Finally the guide is copiously
illustrated with colour photography showing the areas covered.
We're big fans of the Vertebrate Publishing guides, both biking,
walking and climbing. They're easy to use and nicely presented. A word
of caution though, MBR routes have a comedy reputation for being the
wrong way round, so you climb up the best descents and descend the best
climbs, so you might want to try reversing the direction suggested in
the book...
Wales Mountain Biking retails for £15.95, more details at
www.v-publishing.co.uk.
