As above…Im on holiday this week and Ive got a new bike to exercise. Toying with going north on a roadtrip, does anyone know what the under-wheel conditions are like in Kinlochleven? I can happily ride all day in mud, but if theres snow on the lower slopes theres no point in me driving 3 hours to get there! I know Glencoe has a good covering of the white stuff, but Im not sure if that will extend down to the top of the Dudes Enduro trails. Can anybody from up there give me the lowdown?

Try asking on trailscotland forum.

I’ve not been near those trails anytime recently, but other stuff round here has been snow covered as soon as you gain any height above sea level. In the last 24-48 hours there has been a massive amount of snow melting so I would expect the snow to start a fair bit higher, and the ground be correspondingly soggy! Nevis Range on the bikes with the kids on Sunday was properly snowy still. Good fun mind. I haven’t looked at the forecast, but if it stays above zero it’s only going to get less snowy as the week goes on, so you may well be ok.

Cheers for that thegreatape, its too easy for me to sit in Campbeltown and expect everything else on the west coast to be as spring-like as it is here, it can be hard to guage what it will be like in comparison. As soon as you drive north of Lochgilphead its like a different country! Kinlochleven is always soggy, it rains so much theres almost no mud left…just wet rocks! I had noticed that the temperature was going to be above freezing for the next couple of days, might leave it til the boy is on his school holiday on Friday. Thanks for your advice!

Steady on there, I would call it speculation rather than advice 🙂

I should get out tomorrow and/or Wednesday so, while I still probably won’t be going down to Kinlochleven, I should be able to tell you roughly what height the snow is still at and what the ground is like, from which you might be able to decide if it’s worth a trip. I’ll post on here.

We were an hour south today, any height and you have a fair bit of snow. It was 8*c mind and not freezing now, so it *will* be melting a bit…
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qQakf3]Canoe Loch Tay Islands, Killin[/url] by matt_outandabout, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/r7EkqU]Canoe Loch Tay Islands, Killin[/url] by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

I was skiing at the ‘coe on Saturday. Looking over to the Devil’s Staircase, it is unlikely you’ll be enjoying the trails. It is still snowy, even on south facing aspects above 300m. Lower down towards KLL may be thawing, but it is a deep valley, and sheltered areas may not be getting much sun. The ground in Kinrossshire is still icy and frozen in the shade in places, so conditions may be tricky.

Looking out of the window today, there’s not much at all below 500m.

wcm – I don’t know why but I had the Ciaran path in my head as what you wanted to do, but I see nothing above about it! Perhaps it was used in the DoH stuff and that’s where I got that idea from?

Anyway, I did go to Kinloch today, and rode up from the village to the dam – tried the WHW but there was too much snow, and it was that shit thawed and refrozen snow, to be fun so I turned round at the first bridge.

The Ciaran path, from the other side, looked fine – certainly I couldn’t see any snow on it. I can’t say what the ground is like from across there, but the landy track and bits of the WHW that weren’t under snow were fine.

Knowing how wet it can be, is there still the likelihood of ice in the sheltered areas?

I suspect it would be, mainly, ok from that point of view, although I can’t say for certain. Up on the WHW, once off the landy track, the only ice was what was left under the snow, none on the bare path. On the landy track itself, there was some broken ice floating on puddles, but that was about it. I don’t know the CP well enough to predict though. It’s been pretty mild – +4/5 or more – for a good few days now.