Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)
  • Drop your tyre pressure. We're destroying the Cairngorm Plateau, apparently
  • belugabob
    Free Member

    It would appear that they do if only on a limited basis

    It appears that the riders are ‘guided’ so can’t escape and run amok on the Cairngorm plateau![/quote]which would tend to concentrate the riders in one place, surely?

    Spin
    Free Member

    which would tend to concentrate the riders in one place, surely?

    The idea is that they are concentrated in a sacrificial area (Coire Cas) which is already so screwed up that a few more bike tracks wont make any difference.

    poah
    Free Member

    “an area of fairly level high ground”

    why would a climber give a shit about it?

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    belugabob
    Free Member

    That makes sense, now you’ve explained it.

    chickenman
    Full Member

    The Cairngorm Plateau is an area of unique sub-artic flora and easily damaged. However, (and I must say my opinion on this has changed considerably over the last few years)the 10ft wide paths on the plateau are caused by walkers and a mtb tyre will actually leave less of a mark on the ground because constant pressure is applied rather than the series of impacts caused by boots (I run my tyres at 18psi anyway).
    I will get off and push if the ground is boggy or on a descent where I would lock the back wheel on eroded gravely ground (eg Ben Avon down to the Sneck).
    Andy Nisbet has done at least 3 rounds of Munros and can probably count the days he’s not been up a mountain each year on the fingers of one hand! I guess every interest group believes others are the problem, not themselves.
    PS Andy is a legend tho!

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    For clarification: the “guided” MTB rides are down the wide, gravel access track from the Ptarmigan restaurant and go nowhere near the summit plateau.

    Walkers are similarly coralled into groups up the big (mostly stone-built) path to the summit and back again.

    In theory, the only folk wandering about on the plateau have got there under their own steam. As a result the number of cyclists is minimal.

    bajsyckel
    Full Member

    RE access for bikes using ski infrastructure. As I understand it the ski area runs a “closed” system for users of the funicular railway, which is what the “guided” bike rides use. Users of the funicular are not permitted to access the plateau due to the conditions attached to its funding/planning. Whether this contravenes Scottish access law is another matter. Guided bike rides descend through the ski area on bulldozed tracks, and the environmental value of the area appears deemed to be negligible in any case as Spin suggests above. You can’t use the train to access the plateau, and you can’t take a bike up unless on a guided ride so that part of the discussion – unless the situation changes – is irrelevant.

    Spin – Member 

    To be fair most of the voices on that thread agree with cyclists right to access the plateau and some have come round to the idea after seeing the lack of evidence. Apart from one or two easily spotted and discredited muppets it’s a pretty reasonable thread.

    Agreed – it does seem fairly balanced. I was more surprised who the OP was, given his long association with the hills and the fact that people have been mtbing on the tops for as long as I can remember, albeit usually in a fairly discreet and conscientious way given the rabid reaction of many to the thought of any kind of activity on the plateau.

    poah – Member 
    “an area of fairly level high ground”
    why would a climber give a shit about it?

    I’m guessing you’ve never been up there, or if so are pretty ignorant of the broader context. Climbers tend to access the plateau a lot – walking over it when accessing climbs, topping out of routes that finish on the edges, snowholing or bivvying etc – so it’s hardly surprising they might care about what happens to it even out of narrow self-interest. I’d like to think that many climbers also might have wider reasons for giving a shit about it, but I could be wrong. “The plateau” is also something of a sacred cow, being both massively accessible/ visible, subject to a whole host of landscape designation/ protection, (not very usefully) seen as a “unique”/vulnerable landscape/ habitat …. etc, etc…. and has been the centre of many (often pretty hostile) conflicts between “conservation” lobbies and other groups over the years. So issues around it tend to attract a lot of attention that others wouldn’t.

    Maybe ironically I’ve always thought that mtbing could do with more of an explicit “ethics” around access in the way that climbing traditionally has. In Scotland we’re lucky that the Land Reform Act (Scotland) 2003 supports cycling access, and that we have responsibilities under the code (as do all users and managers of land). So long as access is responsible, there are few reasonable grounds for conflict. To me therefore the onus is on riders to be responsible and to me that includes not riding in ways that are likely to cause negative effects on the environment (erosion, damage or disturbance to local species etc.). The plateau is not a special case in this respect, and if it can’t be ridden responsibly then, in my opinion, it shouldn’t be ridden. However, in all my years of riding, running, skiing and climbing on the hills and the plateau itself, I don’t think this can be demonstrated to be the case. You can bike in the Cairngorms responsibly, accessing summits and plateau areas using a number of routes – but that doesn’t mean you can or should ride anywhere you like, whenever you like, however you like. Its all about common sense and respect for others and the environment innit.

    [edit] crossposting with scotroutes and chickenman makes most of that redundant anyway. Oh well…

    whitestone
    Free Member

    @bajsyckel A nice summary.

    Are there any numbers on usage within the national park by all groups? I suspect that the fuss is actually about very few numbers. I don’t know how hard it is to bike up to the summit area of Cairngorm, I’ve only ever walked up there from the top of the Fiacaill Ridge or when returning from Loch A’an, but I can’t imagine that there’d be many who be up for it, there’s no mega descent that’s shouted about like for example Carn Ban Mor.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I’m probably up there more than most (and mostly on foot) and I’ve never yet met another cyclist on the plateau. Seem some tracks right enough, but not so many as to think it’s a major problem.

    Superficial
    Free Member

    Most of the commenters on ukc seem fairly level -headed which is reassuring, and there are plenty of rational voices to balance the scales from within that forum. Of the people that seem to have a problem with mtbers, one has even stated he just doesn’t like them.

    It’s just narrow minded nimbyism by a vocal minority isn’t it?

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I’m not sure it’s even nimbyism, more like nisebyism.

    bedmaker
    Full Member

    It’s a total non isue IMO.
    Numbers biking on the plateau are tiny. The plateau is over 200 square miles, bikers ride on paths almost exclusively (apart from a few idiots on fatbikes, with their stupid grins). Those paths make up a tiny proportion of the area. The nature of the area and the effort involved in getting there means it really doesn’t attract many ‘skidders’.

    Superficial
    Free Member

    bikers? I hate the bastards (pure prejudice)

    Even the trolls seem to understand their position is based on predjudice.

    Scienceofficer
    Free Member

    Dirty biking nature rapists.

    We’ll all burn in hell I tell thee.

Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)

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