Time wise how long is it going to take from the Ben Lomond car park to a place where it all starts to get rideable again? I’m riding the entire route this weekend in 24hours so need to plan my timescale as best as possible.
Cheers

the entire WHW ? have you looked at any weather forecasts during your planning phase snow forecast all this week for glencoe at least-

And pissing it down all weekend

That sounds like a great day on the bike have fun

this is relevant to my interests

Yes, entire WHW. I know long range forecast looking GRIM!! However looks like there’s a high pressure building so I’m hoping it’s going to improve a little. It’s for charity for a little girl with neuroblastoma so regardless of conditions I’m going to do it. Was planning on setting off from Mugdock about 10p.m so with any luck will be arriving in F.W sometime before this, but the only bit i’ve never done is the slog up the Loch Lomond side-so was after an idea of how long it’ll take us (bearing in mind it’ll be dark!)

Ok

i would not even consider setting off at that time. Guaranteeing you will be more tired than need be. Set off in the morning IMHO and give yourself the option of a few hours kip glencoe / kinlochleven way.

I take it you have a support car set up?

Yeah doesn’t seem best idea to tackle the worst part of the ride at night … everything else will be relatively straight forward even when dark and navigation is straight forward..

yep its well sign posted and id feel safer doing the Kinlochleven descent in the dark than walking along loch lomond – the path is full of steps / stones and crevices that will break your ankle if your not careful or doing ti in the dark

If you’re even vaguely fit, you don’t need 24 hrs. Did it in 19 on a 35lb bike years ago. So if that’s possible for you, you can afford to start c. 3-4am and get the easy miles in in the dark at the start and be onto relatively easy ground before it gets dark again. Gives you daylight to deal with all the interesting bit.

The bike lugging bit of Loch Lomond took us a couple of hours with the rest rideable. Steady pace was key. We got passed by others who burned out and quit whilst we plugged on.

It continues rideable well past the Ben lomond Car Park, it gets pretty techy near Inversnaid and unless you’re riding well/light you might be a bit stoppy starty. I’d then say ~2hrs from Inversnaid until where it starts getting rideable again, with the caveat that when it ‘starts’ getting rideable again, you’re immediately presented with a steep and slightly tricky climb, although then one of my favourite short sections which descends to Bein Glas farm.

Starting early early doors would see you doing the easy stuff in the dark and hitting the tricky stuff just as it gets light, leaving you the remainder of the day to enjoy the rideable stuff.

Support car kindly driven by the other half, but I really want to do it without needing her help, so it really is a last resort. My theory is that setting off 10p.m to midnight ish gives us daylight for the more interesting Glencoe/Devils Staircase section and hopefully arriving in FW before it becomes too dark again and arriving at a B&B at a decent hour in the late evening.
Working shifts means I can generally sleep at any time of the day, so i’m going to get some sleep during the day prior to setting off. Trail Rat, I share your concerns about the state of the track, so it’s going to be slow and steady, and i’ve got lots of lumens to light us up!

You’ll be riding as far as Inversnaid (bit beyond from memory)so I’d plan to leave at 03:00 which means you’ll be tackling the ‘bad bit’ in daylight. Circa 2 hrs for that… If you are reasonably fit you should clear the last of the technical riding in daylight at the other end (descent off the Devils Staircase into Kinlochleven)

Keep you wits about you leaving Milngavie – there can be some assholes around there at that time in the a.m

An early start, say 4 or 5 am, is definitely the way forward. The first section from Milngavie is steady away on wide tracks. Conic Hill is a carry up as the track is worn away by water running down it. Take the descent that goes off to the right as opposed to the main path down – much more fun.

Balmaha to Rowardennan is surprisingly up and downy in places with fireroad then tech until Inversnaid.

The advice to do the carry when it is light is sound.

Good on you for doing it. If the weather is grim, you’ll come to appreciate waterproof trousers and mudguards! Oh and Alpikit dry bags are a very good thing too. There’s nothing quite as nice as having dry gloves, base layer and a hat to change into when you get to the stage of feeling you’ve been riding in a shower for several hours. For me, having treats like jelly babies or a bottle of coke in the bag are always good as a pick me up mid ride when you are miles from shops. For pure energy food, Halva is really hard to beat for it’s small size. 😉

Good luck and post a report when you do it!

Cheers

Sanny

take a decent ammount of food for between meeting up with the support car – from memory there was only 2 real stops suitable for a manky MTB rider – 1 was a shop on a campsite that im sure will be shut for winter and the other at the green welly.

how ever glencoe cafe may be open at this time of year – was shut when i did it 🙁

can be a very lonely place up there and doesnt get much phone signal.

Good luck with this, Sanny’s advice is sound.

We rode the WHW in a day back in ’87 on rigid bikes, but we did it nearer mid summer so had lots of daylight.

A good benchmark is Rab Wardell, who’s a columnist for STW and Scottish elite xc racer did the WHW from end to end in 12hrs in the summer time last year. I’m not sure he had perfect conditions for it. He gives a wonderfully complete account of the experience here: http://kinesismorvelo-rab-wardell.posterous.com/west-highland-way-in-a-day Best of luck, and be careful, lack of phone signal put paid to Rich Rothwell’s double attempt at the 11th hour last year; it’s pretty remote up there!

Hi, thanks for the advice. I’ve read Rabs blog, and having seen him fly in the sxc races there’s no way i’ll be anywhere near 12 hours! I’m keeping a close eye on the weather/mountain forecast but i’m well aware this will probably be the wettest coldest WHW attempt for some time 😕

Well since aidans attempt last january on his pugsley 🙂

Is it rideable to Inversnaid on a singlespeed loaded with bivvy gear?

Planning on getting the ferry to Tarbert from there and continuing by road to Tyndrum myself.

Some of the Rowardennan – Inversnaid section will have you carrying. You can also avoid some of the trickier bits between Balmaha and Rowardennan by sticking to the road.

What you have to ask yourself is “at what point am I cycling between Glasgow and Fort William and not actually doing the WHW?“. For me, skipping the section north of Inversnaid would be cheating myself.

nick depends how much kit your taking for bivvy …. i took an incredibly minimal bivvy kit as a back up / my support vehicle 😉 and im glad i did as i ended up using it.

thats what i took and my normal riding kit in my camelback – in there is an ultralight parachute type material sleeping bag , a down vest , waterproof jacket and a rab bivy sack. Dont feel it hindered me at all when carrying bike.

What you have to ask yourself is “at what point am I cycling between Glasgow and Fort William and not actually doing the WHW?”.

I plan on doing it as part of an end-to-end so cycling between Glasgow and Fort William is all I’m doing anyway. Being able to ride a chunk, even if not all, of the WHW would be a nice bonus. TBH even if I started at Tyndrum I wouldn’t be disappointed.

Anyway I’ll be carrying more than that ^^^ though not much; a Viscacha and handlebar harness. No Camelbak ‘cos it’ll just get wearisome over the two weeks I have available.

nick3216 – Member
I plan on doing it as part of an end-to-end so cycling between Glasgow and Fort William is all I’m doing anyway. Being able to ride a chunk, even if not all, of the WHW would be a nice bonus. TBH even if I started at Tyndrum I wouldn’t be disappointed.

In that case, you might well want to miss out some of the bits between Balmaha and Rowardennan. Definitely worth doing the bit to Inversnaid though. There are some carries required over scrambly rocks but not enough to discourage me from doing that bit again.

why are you whispering?

how do you even do the small font thing?

🙂

That’s what happens if you use the Quote tags before and after the text !