Dean is King of the Mountains - on a Raleigh Chopper
It’s safe to say that Franco Pellizotti wouldn’t have taken the polka dot jersey in this year’s Tour de France if he was riding a Raleigh Chopper. But getting a cumbersome 37lb Chopper bike to the top of Wales’ tallest mountain was a challenge advertising agency copywriter Dean Brindley was prepared to accept for a good cause.
Dean said: “To celebrate 30 years of Stephen Talbot Advertising, we decided to organise a number of crazy activities themed around 30 years and in doing so raise money for St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice. My challenge was to get my 30 year old Raleigh Chopper bike to the 3,560 ft summit of Snowdon - without hitching a lift on the mountain train.”
The route began at the Pen-y-Pass café car park before continuing along the Miner’s track then up the screes and zigzags to the summit. From there, the railway track was followed down to the village of Llanberis followed by the arduous six mile pull up the Llanberis pass back to Pen-y-Pass.
“Apart from the initial mile to Llyn Llydaw, the whole route was really, really hard work” said Dean, “The scree slope above Lyn Glaslyn was a particularly tricky scramble and the zig zags were just one big hard slog, it was like heaving a shopping trolley up a never ending staircase”.
There were a few lighter moments though. A French couple suggested the Prime Minister should give Dean a medal and a group of walkers photographed him because they said no one would believe that they’d seen a bloke carrying a Raleigh Chopper up Snowdon.
“After a snack at the brand new summit café I had to push the bike virtually all the way down the five miles of path to Llanberis due to the steep gradient (1 in 7.6) and the number of people walking up”, said Dean, “My 3,500 ft of descent was regularly halted by walkers who wanted to talk to me about the bike and be photographed sitting on it.”
If that wasn’t enough, he then had to cycle six miles up the Llanberis pass back to the car park at Pen-y-Pass; climbing around twelve hundred feet in the process. “I was really shattered at the end but it was a tremendous experience and it’s good to know I’d raised money for a worthwhile cause”, Dean added.
Money raised by Dean and his colleagues throughout 2009 will support St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice to assist those affected by life threatening illness.
