PRENTEG

PRENTEG, PORTHMADOG

You may have heard the saying ‘a short, sharp shock’. Well this climb is ‘a long, sharp shock’ – this Welsh monster just doesn’t give in. The base is situated next to the telephone box on the edge of the village playground; here you’re faced with a 1-in-6 sign and there’s another just like it at the top, and it’s pretty much 1-in-6 the whole way between the two. Set off, pass a small car park on the right, and you’re on to the climb, bending left, left again, right, and then left through the houses. The tough, snaking road carries on, lined either side by crumbling stone walls and continuing under the dark cover of trees. Push your way up into the daylight, where it becomes fractionally easier as it twists and turns across an open grassy plateau. Next comes the only rest, but it’s just 10m of flat before the steepest corner of the lot: a wall-like left-hander, which leads you to a cattle grid where you finish alongside a four-foot-high stone wall.