Snow Biking Adventure
The Matroosberg mountain nature reserve is situated 11km outside of Ceres, which is roughly a 2-hour drive from Cape Town. The mountain has an elevation of 2250m which makes it one of the best places to experience snow in the Western Cape during the winter months. A few years back, a couple of friends and I hiked to the top of Matroosberg for a full day of snowboarding. Since then I’ve vowed to return. On one cold September morning in 2018, a cold front had deposited a blanket of snow across many of the higher altitude regions of the Western Cape.
The impulsive decision was made to mountain-bike up to the top of the mountain and attempt to ride down the slopes in the snow. After a quick scout on Google Earth, the idea seemed fairly plausible and we quickly proceeded to load the car with bikes, backpacks and enough winter gear to survive the snow.
Normally, there are two ways up to the top of the mountain. One is a challenging 8km 4x4 track which, in the snow, you will need a fairly decent 4x4 along with the skills to handle it in such conditions (neither of which I had). The other is the hiking trail which we used on our snowboarding trip to get to the top. The trail starts at 1250m above sea level and will take you to the peak at 2250m. This trail, however, will take you a few hours to complete, and in order to maximize time at the top, its best to start early.
Sitting in Stellenbosch, which is 2 hours away, at 9 am, we had definitely missed that window. Mountain-biking the 4x4 trail was the only option.
This was one of those impulsive decisions that would either work out to be an epic adventure, or fail miserably, but either way, we were keen!
In the photo above, the upper half of the 4x4 trail is visible. When I scouted it out online, it seemed pretty manageable. I knew it would involve some elevation gain but 8km seemed pretty straightforward.
My analysis turned out to be quite wrong. For some reason in my mind, when I heard 4x4 trail, I had pictured a jeep track running up the mountain. Familiar territory for any avid mountain biker. What it turned out to be was a vertical never-ending maze of large rocks, ruts, and holes. This, combined with thick mud and half-melted snow, created a slushy riding surface covering the rocks. To make matters worse, most of the elevation gain occurred in the first half of the trail.
I think it is pretty safe to say that not much riding occurred for the first hour. We battled for grip as we tried to push our bikes up some of the steep sections of the track. As we progressed, the extreme gradient eventually subsided and we were able to get on our bikes and start riding. The higher we went the snow became thicker and less melted and the temperature started to drop.
The 8km took us just over 2 hrs to ride, a little longer than anticipated but we made it to the top. The views at the top were epic and made this effort all worthwhile. The entire area was covered in snow with beautiful sunshine and a bright blue sky. There was significantly less snow than what I had experienced on that previous snowboarding trip but ... as a South African.. snow is snow. After a few photos and refueling on some snacks, it was time to hit the slopes.
I am not going to lie, it was definitely a challenge to mountain bike in snow. You really have to focus on keeping your line and to maintain your speed. Many 4x4’s had been up to the top early in the morning thus the snow wasn’t as smooth. Nevertheless, it was a pretty unique and fun experience!
All in all, this impulsive decision lead to one of the most fun 1 day adventures we’ve had in a while. It certainly supports the spirit that when in doubt, you just have to go out and do it.
The view on the drive back was not bad either…
THE END
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