twenty ninth November 2025 | Mike Richards, Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire, Wales..
Final modified on December 1st, 2025
Sure, you may have learn that proper. PlanetSKI reporter, Mike Richards, has taken benefit of the chilly snap and made some activates the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. Assisted by a conveyable ski elevate. NEW
Ski activates the Preseli Hills close to the Pembrokeshire village of Reynalton in November 2025.
Who’d have thought it?
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
To the north squalls catch the morning solar creating rainbows over this snowy panorama.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
There’s one thing magical about making turns in a spot which isn’t recognized for its snowboarding with views of the Irish Sea to at least one facet and bronze age burial mounds, rainbows, and inexperienced fields to the opposite.
I had reached the slope by driving so far as I used to be capable of.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Then strolling up the snow lined Cardigan to Haverfordwest street.
I handed a street signal alerting drivers to the presence of untamed mountain ponies and the necessity for further warning.
Somebody has cheekily added a horn to the horse’s brow turning it right into a unicorn.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
It was going to be that kind of day.
My common ski companion, Chris Morris, had been out right here the day earlier than to evaluate snow circumstances and debut his newest acquisition.
A transportable ‘ski elevate’.
The Zoa Engineering PL-1 Moveable Rope Tow System designed to take the huffing and puffing of ski touring out of the equation.
It was designed by a Canadian again nation skier, Robert Button.
See right here for extra in regards to the Zoa PL1.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
The rechargeable, lithium-ion battery is light-weight and highly effective, and the electrical ski elevate will be carried in a backpack and arrange in minutes.
Chris began from the roadside and for the primary ascent ski toured the 300m size of the para-cord uphill, the place he buried the anchor connected to at least one finish deep within the snow.
Then it was a cautious ski down trailing the para-cord behind.
Stopping when he bought to the top of the rope it was now the straightforward process of unpacking the PL-1 from his backpack.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Then feeding the para-cord by means of the pulley system, opening up the throttle, and being pulled again up the slope like a water skier off the again of a ship.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
The snow arrived mid-afternoon Wednesday and over the subsequent 36 hours a stable 40-50cm had blanketed the villages, fields and hills of North Pembrokeshire.
It got here courtesy of the legendary climate phenomenon peculiar to this a part of Wales, the ‘Pembrokeshire Dangler’.
It’s been seen ceaselessly sufficient over time to warrant being named.
How can the low mendacity hills overlooking Cardigan Bay and the Irish Sea flip white when the 800m peaks of Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons Nationwide Park two hours east stay inexperienced?
It’s all all the way down to ‘The Dangler’.
A line of steady showers aligned north-south throughout the Irish Sea the place heat sea temperatures and chilly Arctic air pressured between the Rhins of Galloway and the Antrim Plateau converge, leading to an intense interval of snowfall.
Even all the way down to sea degree.
Within the thirty years that I’ve been making ski activates the Welsh hills and mountains that is solely the second time I’ve been capable of take pleasure in ‘The Dangler’s’ bounty.
This ‘Sea Impact’ snow is a number of the finest I’ve seen in years.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
It’s exceptional how simple ski touring is in contrast with boot packing and post-holing and the way a lot faster and simpler being pulled up the hill is over human-propelled types of ascent.
We spent the subsequent couple of hours alternating between quick descents of the steeper pitches which run immediately from the stone trig level and orientation desk on the summit of Foel Eryr, and PL-1 assisted laps of the decrease angle slopes which run westwards to Cardigan Bay.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
The snow is deep and in step with no rocks lurking beneath the floor to wreck the bottom of the skis and catch one unawares.
We made turns from Foel Eryr all the best way again to the Greenway crossroads doing the ‘Snowman Slalom’ on the final pitch the place scores of locals are sledding, having snowball fights, and constructing snowmen.
We had hoped to take pleasure in après on the quirky Tafarn Sinc – The Tin Tavern – which has been the mainstay of social life for Rosebush and the encircling space since 1877.
Nonetheless the sunshine was fading and with a two hour drive to residence we saved it for the subsequent ‘Dangler’.
We’ll be again.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Snowboarding in Wales. Picture c/o Mike Richards/PlanetSKI.
Zoa Engineering : https://zoaeng.com/
The PL-1 Moveable Rope Tow System. Picture c/o Zoa Engineering.
Mike Richards has skied 155 resorts in 24 nations, throughout 5 continents.
He labored as a ski teacher in Japan for a few years and specialises in off-the-beaten-track experiences on snow.
To see extra snowboarding from Wales go to Mike’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikethesnow/
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