GRINLLWM

TREFRIW, CONWY

Be prepared, say the Scouts. On the approach to this climb, you’d do well to take their advice, as well as mine – click down to your lowest gear for this one. Rising fiercely away from the main road, it climbs steeper and steeper up to a 25%, 90-degree left-hand bend. Ouch, it’s hard. And the climb continues in this vein past some houses and up to the T-junction where you take a left. Here the slope eases slightly before you reach some trees and a battered 1-in-7 sign. This slightly undersells the gradient of the single track lane ramping up in front of you and taking off into the woods. With its crumbling stone wall separating you from a drop off to the left, it’s very tough up to a small passing point where you can take a breather. The respite is brief though, and then it’s back into more back-breaking climbing; writhing and twisting on the approach to the summit through a flourish of bends before the road peters out on the plateau.