The Black Mountain Challenge, Wales
The Black Mountain Challenge, a 150-mile (240 km) bikepacking adventure around the Black Mountains in Wales. It’s steep, tough, and rewarding. This is a route created by All Mountain Adventures and will be an organized self-supported bikepacking event in September 2024. (And following years possibly) The Black Mountain Challenge is a 150-mile (240 km) bikepacking route around the Black Mountains in Wales. It is going to be an organized event starting in September 2024 by All Mountain Adventures. This route will test you, excite you, and might make you wonder what you got yourself into at times. With over 15,000 ft (ca. 4,572 m) of elevation gain, you will certainly be testing yourself and your legs. With all that elevation gain, you will get incredible views and fast descending. Wales is either up or down, and the downs are often very steep. This route will let you discover what Wales has to offer on a bikepacking adventure. Sometimes that’s epic views, and sometimes it’s eye-watering steep terrain. But as you make your way around the Black Mountain Challenge bikepacking route, you will experience what makes Wales.
This route is called the Black Mountain Challenge for a reason, and it’s not because it’s a doddle. It’s quite literally in the name—it’s a challenge. It has a lot of very steep terrain and lots of technical trails where good bike handling skills are needed. As you can see from the pictures just above, some trails are indeed incredibly steep rocky and quite technical. So, you don’t want to be riding this route if you don’t have a good level of fitness and bike handling skills. If you enjoy steep technical descending though then you will enjoy this route a lot as there is plenty. Don’t worry though, there is definitely some more tame stuff as well and some road slogs to get some easy miles. Use them miles as a little recovery, I’d suggest. It can be very remote, so you need to have a good amount of experience in handling yourself and the ever-changing conditions on a ride like this. Remember, you are in Wales, where you can have all four seasons in the space of minutes. And with some steep terrain in can be very easy to roll and ankle or just flat out crash.
Although this route is on the harder side, I found it to be very rewarding. The route tests you for a while but does have some easy miles for you to enjoy, enjoy for wales anyway, you will need nice and easy gears all the way around this route that’s for sure. Some of the views from the top of the steep climbs, though, really are incredible. There is one trail on this route that in my experience is never that fun though, but to be fair if it’s a nice day the views are quite nice, and it can make a great camp spot. And that is the Black mountain crossing bridal way, the last real challenge on this route. Not the last climb, really the penultimate, but it’s probably the hardest.
The Black mountain crossing bridal way can be pretty hard to follow and for the most part there isn’t really a defined trail to follow, there kind of is, but it comes and goes and can be pretty boggy up the top. This crossing is probably the slowest going and depending on the weather can go from it is OK, to I just want to get down from here. There are a few rivers and stream crossing up here too which can be a little awkward and slippy so do take care. I’d say that you will spend the majority of your time hiking over this crossing, there are sections that are ridable, but they can feel few and far between. I’d recommend using this section though for a wild camp spot. Plenty of spots up here.
The choice of bike is going to be crucial for how much enjoyment you have on this route. One thing is for sure: get the easiest gearing you can and pack light to give yourself the best possible chance of getting up as much as possible. You won’t want to be lugging the kitchen sink on this one. While weight is an important factor for enjoyment, so is the actual bike. I would not recommend taking this on with a gravel bike; the trails are steep and rugged, so your best bet is probably a hardtail with a little suspension on the front or even a full-suspension XC bike. I took this on with a rigid bike and 2.6-inch tires, and it was manageable for the most part, but there were definitely a few trails that were a little too much for me. You will still want fast-rolling tires, as there are a few road sections here and there. One thing is for sure: make sure your brakes are working well and bring a spare set of pads just in case.
