Coed Llandegla trail centre resorts to selling snow!

20 comments
By James Costley-White | Thursday, Jan 14, 2010 12.40pm

Faced with a massive financial loss due to the recent freeze, the operators of Wales's Coed Llandegla trail centre have responded with good humour and are offering a 'car park worth of snow' for sale on eBay.

Bidding has already reached £10.50, with six days to go. But Oneplanet Adventure Ltd will have to hope for a bidding war if they are to get anywhere near to recouping the estimated £100,000 of trade they have missed out on since the first snowfall on 23 December.

The item description calls the lot a "once-in-a-lifetime offer to buy yourself a winter wonderland worth of snow" and suggests possible uses including building the world's biggest snowman, sledging and snowing yourself in so you don't have to go to work.

It adds: "The snow is unused and in perfect condition. (There are a couple of patches which have gone a bit yellow for some reason, but these are only very small areas.) This is the real McCoy, not the usual Chinese imitations you get on here. This offer won't last forever – well we hope not anyway. Viewing is welcomed – if you can get here that is."

Ian Owen, who co-owns OPA with Jim Gaffney, told BikeRadar: "We've been below zero since 20 December, and down to -20°C, and there's so much snow that we can't open, so we thought 'why not put it on eBay?'.

"The weight of the snow is snapping the trees so we can't let people go into the forest. The tracks are under about 15ft of snow. We had a couple of people go in on cross-country skis, but they said they almost got hit by a falling tree. This is the first day it's risen above zero, so we've got a ray of hope."

A huge cleanup operation will be needed to repair the centre's 40km of trails once the snow has thawed. Coed Llandegla's eight full-time staff are facing a bleak start to the new season while doing their best to keep the normally busy centre (visitor numbers in 2009 were close to 200,000) running.

Llandegla's blue route is unrecognisable:

Coed Llandegla's blue mountain bike route is unrecognisable

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User Comments

There are 20 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 20 of 20 comments

  • epic

  • I can't believe how much you Brits complain about a bit of snow and cold weather. Many other parts of the world put up with far worse every year. GET OVER IT!

  • I doubt they (the 'other parts of the world') could cope so well if you upped their population density to the second highest in the world and took away all their winter specific transport and services, and then told them to continue to working long hours travelling miles and miles every day. I think we do okay given that we are not set up to cope in the first place.

  • Dalby continued to operate with all the snow.

    In fact, it's all the snow that I went for!

    Shame it's all melting. I might have to go to work and leave the car park.

  • At least they have a sence of humour about it. Got shouted at this morning as I'd parked in the local shop carpark over night (our valleys village is very hilly, so pretty much the whole village has had to park in the pub carpark, or in the bus stops, these were all full, so I parked in pretty much the only free space left) the shop keeper complained that he was losing custom, despite the fact that he's been busier than normal as people can't get to Tesco!

    Left for work in a bad mood to find that most of the snow that was on the roof of the shop was now 3' deep infront of the shop. An hour digging and we could get in, although the last bit of snow on the roof then fell off and landed on my head. At that point my sence of humour returned for the day.

    Got to feel for people like llandegla whose whole livelyhood is threatened by the weather, but not for the grumpy people who might have lost out on a couple of sales.

  • Big deal.

  • tomj113: Second highest population density in the world? Where did you get that fact? That's not what this list says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

  • I'm with Smalltalker. tomj112, I don't think you understand what population density is. And it does seem like the UK is pretty rubbish at coping with snow, despite boasting about being 'prepared' for it this year...

  • That's because we don't have enough of it to get used to it, and won't invest in decent measures to combat it when it comes ie. snow ploughs etc.

  • Aye..... it's fine if you have a 4 wheel drive but when the option is:

    A Bike

    B: Train

    And the roads r icy the trains r cancelled and every motorist has dug out their driveways so u can't walk on the pavement its worth a good whine!

  • Good for them

  • Haha, im winning!!

  • cant see how you can ride a bike thru 2 feet of snow? and to get to the carpark, the access road was pretty much ICE for the entire length

    and the USA had 3 to 4 foot of snow over xmas, and they did NOT cope, not everyone wants a 4x4 or can afford winter tires

  • They could have used a motorcycle with a heavy sack tied to the back to flatten down the snow! Get a quad bike and stick a small plough on it. They do it in other parts of the world, they just get on with it.

  • year sure

  • Did the p*nct*re fairy visit you this morning or something, Monsieur La P? ;-)

  • Monsieur La Papadici, I salute you!

  • Amusing, that sale of snow, if nothing else.

    I run a seasonal business too i'ts my slack time of year. If these guys aren't prepared for that then to be honest, it's gonna be a tough learning curve.

    Good luck guys, but you really should have seen it coming.

  • Newsflash...its snowed..lots...sorry...

    Its melting...Hooray...lets move on.....

    Carry on

  • Has 15 feet of snow stopped you riding?

    If so contact the American's - they talk so much hot air and bollo@ks that you can bottle it and use it to melt the stuff.

    Get real shit for brains, 15 feet of snow and trees falling would even stop Rambo!

    And you didn't invent the sport; my 72 year old mum was riding XC in the Peak District in the 1950s when your dad was still wan@@@g!

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