[Closed] Blue Doon Top Chief advice

On a similar vein, i have work in Ft William starting in April, can you get a half day, or single run lift passes for one or two runs before the drive back to the central belt?

Not tried Blue Doon, but consensus its a nice scenic way down the hill rather than a laugh a minute flow trail.

Top chief is definitely a black. How comfortable you are on it really depends on how you feel about riding long boardwalk sections with a bit of exposure and long rock sections. But all the features are either rollable or have alternative rollable lines, no mandatory air. But if you go for the day you have plenty of time to get your head around some of the trickier bits.

I'm thoroughly average but can generally pick my way down clean after a couple of runs

All the info you need

https://www.nevisrange.co.uk/activities/bike/

Nice to see they open the bike uplift earlier in the year. Used to be May which was a pain. They've started track repairs this week so should be good to go

I think (and I might be wrong in this, so feel free to correct me) but Top Chief is graded as a Black more due to the challenges involved in getting someone off the hill if they spangle themselves, rather than the technical challenge of the trail and obstacles, that and the risks of a bit of cold/exposure if you did tumble at the wrong time of year. Grading is supposed to be (at least partly) consequence based.

IIRC didn't 'Top Chief' used to be marked as a Red (and I reckon it's about in line with a "welsh Red" from a technical difficulty perspective) but due to a few people needing to be choppered out it was re-graded.

I rode it when it was a red and it was a very dark shade of red. I'd say maybe on a par with the upper end of technical features on a welsh red but more of it. Longer rocky sections, more bits you have to ride rather than roll over. I reckon you'll be fine, just go steady on the first run.

Top Chief was always a mis-rated black. Mostly for the bit in the middle. You could say there's no single part that's more than top-of-grade for red but when you put a lot of that together, you get a black. It's not that much easier than the downhill.

But, it's also very approachable- the sightlines are amazing, you ride down onto almost all of the bigger features with all the time in the world to decide what to do. And the uplift means that there's none of that "do it first time or miss out" thing, you can easily get 8 or so runs in so you can build on the last one and learn the track. It's a brilliant one for rider progression and leads really nicely over to the DH, which like I say isn't that much harder.

The Blue Doon I expect will have had some tweaks before reopening? It's alright- they've tried to pack in too much at the top where there's not that much gradient and tbh there's quite a bit that doesn't really work. But once you get to the descent into the woods it's much better. I think if it were a normal trail centre, I wouldn't ride up and do the top bit but I'd happily ride up and do that long final descent. But it's not, being uplifted makes most of my criticisms of the top pretty much moot.

It is quite a lot of effort though, especially if you're like me and want to do it all quickly and nonstop- I did a few runs in the morning and found that when I went over to the black I was way tireder than I expected and ended up completely busted. I've done 13 runs of the world cup in a day so I was pretty shocked to be so knackered after only about 8 on the other tracks.

Top Chief was always a mis-rated black.

I must admit that I thought it was originally red so that there's a black (the DH) option and a red (Top Chief) option, I've always though it was OK graded red  but likewise I can also see that it's pretty non stop and as Northwind points out "The middle bit" isn't really.

Blue doon is not worth the trip. Only good bit is the very bottom in the wood. Some people like it but others think it is pish.

Some people like it but others think it is pish.

Which camp do you belong to? 😆

I'd like to hope Blue Doon has been worked on over the winter given the feedback since it opened. Honestly I couldn't care (in the grand scheme) how well it flows but blind corners and ditches full of boulders don't fill me with joy at the thought of taking a novice down.

@Davesport from here was telling me earlier he is up there and they are doing helidrops of materials for Blue doon , Also the hotel building has started. World champs there next year so we will see big changes. I wasn't a fan of Blue doon but it did seem like it was rushed to get more visitors for the tail end of a covid year. Im sure it will be way better this year .

70 tons of building materials in 1 ton bags lifted up by helicopter yesterday. As mentioned further up the page, uplift is opening earlier than previous years. The hotel is taking shape very quickly, not sure when it's due to open. The lower trails are running great & the unsanctioned trails are drying due to the great weather. Rear mech had dust on it yesterday:o)

I’d like to hope Blue Doon has been worked on over the winter given the feedback since it opened. Honestly I couldn’t care (in the grand scheme) how well it flows but blind corners and ditches full of boulders don’t fill me with joy at the thought of taking a novice down.

So, revised my thoughts on this somewhat.

The flow is utterly awful, it seems to have been designed to mince down on the brakes as the corners are too flat and loose to do much else. I nearly wiped a couple of times after taking a corner too fast and I wasn't even shifting. As said the woods are better but by that point you're already most of the way down. Almost no features (jumps, kickers etc) that I can remember, just constant pumping trying to keep momentum before losing it all on a turn.

I absolutely wouldn't take a novice down that, the consequences of failure (over enthusiastic speed into a corner) are too great IMO. If it was tech enough to slow folk down that would be fine but honestly I can see it being enough to scare folk off.

Has the potential to be so much better but right now I'm firmly in the no camp, to sum it up in an STW way - Nano's or Terra Speed for Blue Doon?