[Closed] can`t see a puffer weather thread so here it is

Was going to say that avalanches in the woods don't seem very likely, but see you have edited your post Nobeeer!

yr.no agrees with the met office about precipitation.

MWIS only goes up to midnight on Saturday, but says showers dying out on Sat AM.

Raintoday seems to show only today, so no use for looking at Saturday and Sunday.

Walked around the top half of the course this morning with the dog.

Snow ankle deep, crisp.

Looks to me like it will be a fatbike course for the first few laps until a groove is established. That might happen during practise though.

If you're on skinnies you won't have a problem initially. However subzero in the night could mean random bits of slick ice in the grooves and descents. Ice tyres might be a good insurance policy.

One bonus - all the snow means even those of us using 8 year old lights won't be too disadvantaged.

It's looking to be the best 'Puffer yet. 🙂

yr.no agrees with the met office about precipitation.

MWIS only goes up to midnight on Saturday, but says showers dying out on Sat AM.

Raintoday seems to show only today, so no use for looking at Saturday and Sunday.

I try to use all 3 for a bit of a concensus, but never earlier than the day before - at the very earliest. It's so unpredictable up here, especially at this time of year.

Road are all completely clear now, M74, M8, M9 and A9 so no problems there. Roads around Strathpeffer will be fine. The forest road on the otherhand might not be. I'd advise snow chains as once it gets compacted by the first few vehicles.....

Mike Atkinson posted screenshot on puffer page on Facebook. Showed 6.8cm of precipitation between 1-2 am and a bit more before that

I'm almost tempted to do it now. Wait.........I'm over it. I'll be the heavy metal party with the cowbell cheering you all on with a beer (maybe a hot drink) during the night. First time in years I've not done it and I'm looking forward to not doing it 🙂

devs - Member
...First time in years I've not done it and I'm looking forward to not doing it

Enough snow to lighten the landscape but not clog the wheels. Cold enough, but not nasty with it. And dry.

You'll regret it if you miss it - there's team holes to be filled and a few solo places for sale.

Go on, next year might be back to the recent run of tropical 'Puffers. 🙂

I'd advise snow chains as once it gets compacted by the first few vehicles.....

If only someone was selling a set of Thule CB-12 090 chains 😉
Oh wait, I am. email in profile.

on the telly here this year,

Will have to make sure they get my best side!

I took a run round this afternoon.

Fire road climb looks like this
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and this
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There's a fair bit of snow up on the course, up to 6 - 8" on a fair bit of it.
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At the moment, a fatbike is an advantage. By raceday though, I think enough people will have gone through to pack down a line. The snow is nice and firm.
No real need for spikes currently, but I'd take them if I had them. Forecast is proper cold.

I'd seriously consider SS. It's going to be real cassette/mech/cable jamming conditions if the forecast is correct.

Parking could be a potential nightmare. Take a shovel, sand or grit, snow chains, socks, ..anything that may help really. The fireroad climb is probably going to polish up nicely.
I'm selling some unused chains which don't fit the car or van I now have, email in profile. 😉

One thing rarely mentioned is using a dropper. I'd definitely leave it on. The course is very uppy downy, dropping the seat on the slithery descents makes them much more fun, as well as safer and faster. It's also good just to have that bit of ball room on the rocky slippy pedally bits at the top of the course.

So bfg ats and snow chains might come in handy after all......even if it is just for if I venture off the fire road into something slightly green with a hint of moisture...... My bus doesn't do slippy shit.

Packing the fat bike. I guess the whole team might end up riding it if the snow comes as forecast.

I think it will be a mud tires year with possibly a front spike at certain times 🙂

If anyone needs a pair of 26" half-spiked Contis and is heading up the A9, let me know. I've a pair to get rid of for some beer tokens.

Ventured outside a few minutes ago.

Teeny bit more snow has fallen. Freezing on to the car.

Air feels lovely.

Just heard there's a lorry jacknifed on the A82 just North of Fort Augustus. Worth keeping an eye on trafficscotland and listening to MFR if you are heading up that way.

Loads of snow currently falling in South Loch Ness area this morning so the A82 looks like best avoided at the moment.

Also fresh snow on the A9 at Dalwhinnie.

Lorry only blocking one lane now.

I always enjoy the puffer talk on here every year. I'll take a look at the fb live feed above if I'm free. Good luck everyone.

munrobiker - Member

Swavis - are you "watching it live" with Devs and Roberta, or watching the results at home?

I'll be there with Devs and Rob to dispense moob rubs and/or abuse 😀

I also am looking forward to not doing it 8)

epicyclo - Member

You'll regret it if you miss it - there's team holes to be filled and a few solo places for sale.

Go on, next year might be back to the recent run of tropical 'Puffers.

I'm not fit enough this year, have injuries that need to rest and no suitable bikes. I think that covers it. I'm off to get beer 🙂

Is that live feed site safe. It's asking for a credit card for sign up and the site is giving off a dodgy vibe

Any photos from it yet to show conditions?

I'll be watching for Rich & Tom (richpips / Minipips) in the results.

Best Puffer ever.

More comment when sanity returns. 🙂

Crazy legs I put some on Instagram under hashtag strathpuffer24

Also. Agreed Brian best ever.

Not gonna lie was glad to have he van as a quad would have been a cold night huddled round a fire.

The truma never went off after dark. . Water pipes still froze up under the van.

Hit -13 outside at our camp and plus 20 inside 🙂 .... And thanks to adaquate ventilation very minimal condensation. 🙂

[img] [/img]

Superb day

Few Random Snaps

New course looked great!

Well done all!

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That looks like amazing conditions! I've seen the pics over the years of gazebos being blown away in the wind, hub deep mud, horizontal rain...

But crisp clear sub zero + snow... Fantastic!

My 6th Puffer and definitely the best. The new course is a great improvement, particularly the finish, and the weather was as about as close to perfect "Puffer weather" as it's possible to get. Fabulous weekend.

I still think they need to bring the numbers competing down a bit, but that's a minor point (slight constructive criticism if anyone's reading this). Overall the thing ran like clockwork. As usual, a massive thank you to all the marshals, volunteers and other folk who bring the thing together. It must be a huge amount of work.

Oh, and to top it all we squeezed our quad team into the top 30 for (I think) the first ever time, plus two top 30s for solo riders.

Anyone know what the story was with the mountain rescue helicopter that was buzzing around in the afternoon? Hope it wasn't someone badly hurt.

I drove up in the morning on Sat just to hang out with some friends, may have snuck in a lap too. It was amazing weather and the atmosphere was really good too. Well worth the trip - might even race next year...

Tbh I can see why they let so many competitors in. Course hardly gets crowded it seems a large proportion sack it after a short period 2-3 laps .

More sack it at dark

More sack it at midnight

Between 1-5am ....the number of bikes passing our pits drastically reduced. Nothing more depressing than a 24 hour racecourse with no one on it.

Stunning photos. That looks a great event and love the age range getting stuck in.

pedlad - Member
Stunning photos. That looks a great event and love the age range getting stuck in.

(I'm in Kbrembo's pics - rider with big yellow pogies, not a kid 🙂 )

Looks fantastic. I was in a quad last year and at the time I don't think I enjoyed too much of it after the excitement wore off after a few hours. Last years conditions were great but the snow this year just makes it look a bit more special. The pain of last year was soon forgotten as the jealousy of everyone competing this year kicked in.

Was tough, my first time up there. In a quad. Did the start and 2 laps, then out again at 1900 for 2 more, totally bonked on the second lap of that stint and became incredibly cold, and had to get a lift down with the med van. Learnt a lot!
A team member did 4 till 7 day and night, burnt 1200 calories doing 2 laps early on. Then 1200 cals doing one lap at 4am.
Well done to Marshalls, med teams especially, the kids banging out laps for fun! Just wow. And the solo guys..... I'm totally in awe.
I'll be back though!

I managed 13 laps up to 1.30 am and was feeling quite good until I had a nasty crash on a rock slab and landed hard on my coccyx. That completely took the wind out of my sails and I decided to bail.
Really enjoyed the event, although I thought that singlespeeding was especially hard this year. I would keep catching people up, but couldn't get round due to there only being one viable line (deep snow at the sides) then lose traction and end up pushing. Almost everything was rideable as long as I could get a run at it...
The snow consistency changed a lot during the night - it stopped balling up on my cleats and became very dry. This sugary snow seemed to form a nice lubricating layer on top of the ice and rocks which meant I had a lot of trouble keeping rubber side down. Maybe worn out non-spiked tyres were not the ideal choice!

It was an amazing event this year. Done it many times, and it’s always great, but this was the best. Conditions were unbelievable once the snow packed down. The opening lap was a bit interesting and binned it a couple of times in the soft snow. We managed 21st in the quads (best result so far), despite being a man down after he crashed on the icy water splash on the second lap and limped home without a chain and sprained wrist.

Massive thanks to the marshalls and all others involved in putting on such a great event. Looking forward to seeing what the Adventure Show coverage look like.

Very similar experience to Oblongbob above!

Such a great weekend and I am itching to enter next year. Then part of my brain says that you’ve had 2 good years- next year is bound to be 3C, rain and 40mph winds.

It was exactly what you hope for with the Puffer. Wee bit chilly between laps but just fantastic out on the course. Camelback was a bit useless when first the pipe and then the reservoir itself froze.

Bike hardly needed a wash- rinsed it to get any salt off and that’s it. Brake pads and drivetrain hardly used - compared to a muddy year when you end up using 3 sets of pads and needing to get to replace all the moving parts on your bike.

NewRetroTom - Member
...I would keep catching people up, but couldn't get round due to there only being one viable line (deep snow at the sides) then lose traction and end up pushing. Almost everything was rideable as long as I could get a run at it...

In the end when I saw riders coming I'd just jump off and push along in the porridgy mush until they were past. I reckon I must have walked/jogged ? of my race.

It was a proper 'Puffer.

were you solo euain ?

you were riding the bike and flying when i saw you Brian !

just been saying to my mate im not certain SS was the right choice - course was going so fast i think there was 4-5 minutes in having gears over the SS i was running.

we got 12th in quads in the end - we opted for bacon butties and getting thor back to aberedeen airport for his 18:00 flight to norway rather than doing the last lap.

does anyone know how the guy with the 16 plate transit near the top of the fire road got on with his flat battery ? we tried to jump start him but it wasnt working- i stuck my battery tester on and it showed 7 volts.... colin i think his name was ? hope they were not stuck for too long :S

I thought that singlespeeding was especially hard this year

+1

After 6 laps I felt like I'd done 16. I think the fellow singlespeeders I met were the only ones complaining about the conditions. Great weekend though, and pretty much perfect weather, just wrong bike.

To top it all off the drive over Drumochter in a whiteout on the way home was character building.

I was watching from the side of the course again this year, we were sitting where you turn left instead of right for the final wee climb then descent. We ran out of beer at 4am and decided to call it a night. Well done all, the course looked fantastic, I may even be tempted to ride it again if conditions were the same.

Extra kudos for those that gave us a wheelie! 😀

Oh and thank **** for down clothing, sitting in -13C for a few hours would've been a bit less enjoyable otherwise 😉

swavis was that you and roberta up there ? thought i recognised you mob as "not marshalls" going by the slagging i got for pushing up the muddy climb just past there 😀

good effort !

Ha ha, yeah that was us 😀

The beer may have helped too...

trail_rat - Member
...you were riding the bike and flying when i saw you Brian !...

It's the keeping out of the way of faster riders that costs me most time. Generally a Puffer lap takes me about 50% longer than when I have a clear run. That's why I look forward to the small hours.

It was tough on a SS this year, but almost everywhere that I was off and pushing (other than keeping out of the way) there was plenty company from folk with heaps of gears.

It's the keeping out of the way of faster riders that costs me most time. Generally a Puffer lap takes me about 50% longer than when I have a clear run. That's why I look forward to the small hours.

This is massively appreciated though. Although I obviously don't think anyone should move out of the way if it's narrow and they don't want to it is appreciated when you're in a quad and people do. As you say:

That was the biggest problem - the narrowness of the rideable line. I found that when I tried to move off it to let riders past it would catch my front wheel and a lot of the time I'd be off (got bruises to prove it ).

Good year this year, sitting around waiting in the cold was the worst bit. Descent was proper good fun and I imagine a lot of people have a few bruises to show for it. I kept thinking it was gonna end in tears for me but only one big off on a straight bit and I slid for about 20m. A giggle at 5am.

while i agree if your riding hold your line its the chasing riders responsibility to chose a safe place to pass

what was boiling my piss was the number of riders who were pushing the ridable line when you caught them.

no body died though - or at least i assume not ... .although i did see the red and white taxi arrive at one point ? what was that for ?