Imagine taking your favourite bits of a trail centre (the descents) and removing the bits you’re not so keen on (the climbs). Then take that descent and drape it down one of the UK’s highest mountains and sprinkle on some awesome views. Sound too good be true? Well that’s what Nevis Range have created with their new Nevis Red route – a gondola accessed, red graded cross country mountain bike trail. Previously only accessible to seasoned downhillers tackling the Off Beat downhill track, the new route allows experienced trail centre riders and competent weekend enthusiasts to enjoy the thrill of riding the slopes of Aonach Mor.
Dougie and the other riders, gamely wearing full highland wear and evening dresses despite some awful weather conditions (even for a Scottish summer), rode a red carpeted section of trail to officially open the trail. Talk at the bun-fight afterwards was what an exciting addition the new route is to an already world class attraction, how the trail would attract thousands more visitors to the area and provide a training ground for up and coming riders – above all else there was a feeling that Nevis Range and their partners have built something really special.
The trail was funded to the tune of around £200,000 by Nevis Range, West Highland Wheelers, SportScotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Outdoor Capital of the UK. What does £200,000 buy you these days? 5.5km kilometres of singletrack dropping 543m down the mountain back to the gondola station, taking in sections of natural bedrock, paths and boardwalk, that’s what. The construction phase took almost a year for the small team from Hitrack to complete thanks to the rigours of a hard Scottish winter.
Sadly, the weather prevented your correspondent from trying out the trails, here’s some video of how they would have ridden it…
If you want to give the new route a go, then get pedalling – the last day of the season for the gondola accessed is 13th September and will open again mid-May 2010. Gondola tickets for an adult rider (and their bike) cost £11.50 for a single trip or £25.00 for a full day. Check out the Nevis Range bike website – http://bike.nevisrange.co.uk/ – for full details.
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Fan-bloomin’-tastic!
Looks to reward confidence and some speed.
Awesome scenery, wouldn’t fancy it in the wet or high winds, but one a day such as that, low sun, long shadows, it’d be a truely memorable ride.
No big jumps at the end then? just a boggy bit to make sure you slow down.
you can link up with the downhill route at the end if you want big jumps, be warned its no cross country route, its very steep and very fast but its an absolute blast, we did it on a cracking summers day, one of the best days biking ever. wear some protection though
looks good, is there the option of riding up to the top rather than take gondola?
You can walk up the path that’s alongside the DH track I guess..?
if you lugged a bike from the base station to the gondola you’d need to get the gondola back down – you’d be cream crackered before even riding anything….
I rode it the following weekend to the video when the nps downhill round was in town and the bottom was still unfinished hence the bog and diggers, Those wooden sections are murder in the often strong side winds you get up there. You can ride up to the intake and then hike up the path running near the dh course to get to the Gondola Station I saw a few hard tails being carried up alongside the downhill course during the NPS but to be honest who would want to hike up then ride down trying to draw breath with tired legs must be a masochist as well as a tight arse.
I would agree it’s misleading to call it an xc route .. it’s downhill lite, they could in my view have made a far better xc trail if they had bridged across towards the top of the World Cup XC joining above sandy brae
Hey guy’s if that trail is xc red then every other trail centre black needs to be down graded to red too!
I’m not trying to cause trouble but if you go up there thinking that it’s a xc red you will hurt yourself or have a pleasant walk down a mountain with your bike.
my 2p
How many runs do you reckon you could fit in, in a day? (comfortably I mean, not enduro DH stylee)
Mind you I just googled directions, estimated driving time 6 hours!
Might just have time to drive up do one run drive back 🙁
Prblem is that the last gondola ride is 15.45 so if you are going up try to get there early to make the most of it. Its quite funny wathing all the riders flying past the ticket office at 15.44 hoping to get one more ride in.
We started about 12.30 and got 5 runs in and that included snack stops
AJ:> I’ve noticed quite a big discrepancy between red’s north/south and east/west of the english border. I think those of us lucky enough to live in mountainous areas are just more used to these kinds of trails. for example: Compare the dalby red vs the wolftrax red, or compare the dalby black against whistler bike park’s view of a black.
The colour coding scheme probably needs a little bit of sorting out like they did with the ski colour schemes in the 80’s.
thought the saviours of MTB were supposed to be doing a safety review?
Or has that disappeared down the sofa like every other “strategy” they undertake?
What is that big black thing on the horizon at 1.20ish?
Looks like a giant heilan coo or a jawa sandcrawler?
Amazing route, best trail I’ve ever ridden and I’ve have ridden a few..
We rode it on hardtails early September and got 4 runs in starting at 12pm with a few breaks. We reckoned you could get 6 runs if you started earlier.
Photos here if you’re interested.