Do you think all the great lines have been ridden in the mountains of Scotland, surely there is descent lurking somewhere on an unpronounceble peak somewhere just waiting to be discovered, i would like to think so.
Any ideas, i have a few projects in mind and such little time to put in the ground work to see if they are feasable, such as the five sisters of Kintail for starters.
The surface hasnt even been scratched in that regard.
Why waste the effort when you've got the 7 Stains ?
That is the impression i get, it would be great to find a line that had all the great elements of a great ride, flow, technicality, unrivaled outlook, there must be dozens, perhaps there are hombres out riding them as we speak, but keeping quite, unlikely considering the weather!
j_me I find the trail center experience fun, but to predictable, get off the beaten track, who knows whats to be found, there is gold in them far off hills.
sorry I was being sarcastic 😉
yes the potential is massive, good luck with the 5 sisters 🙂
I've got two or three lines that look awesome, a couple may have been ridden, but I've not heard of anyone riding the other.
Am willing to share if you're ever organising any expeditions!
I have the medical kit(champagne) and know a good doctor called prone!.
Ahhh Doodle on the isle of Rhum by any chance?
Are you allowed to include descents that feature short uphills, are as hard work as the climbs and <gasp> aren't 100% rideable by weekend warriors head-to-toe in body armour raised on wide smooth paths with artificial features added to stop you falling asleep?
j_me yep perhaps 13floormonk will be lead rider on the Kintail excursion ?
Bloody hell, how did you know I was thinking Kintail?
But guys joking aside i am deadly serious about seeking out great lines, another area i'm sure has mega descents is the Mamores, anyone been high there.
Every munro in Scotland has certainly been ridden by bike. How many would be enjoyable outings by most peoples measures I don't know but my guess is 10-20%. There are plenty of mountain routes out there that aren't in the STW domain thats for sure. I think half the fun is finding the unknown ones.
Every munro in Scotland has certainly been ridden by bike.
Even the Inn Pinn? That I would pay to see! 😀
Even the Inn Pinn? That I would pay to see!
Yup. I've seen photographic evidence! The odd dab was involved 😛
Edit: A quick google gives a pic [url= http://www.john.macpherson.btinternet.co.uk/fullimagepeopleg.html ]here[/url] though not the one I had seen.
Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs! 🙂
But guys joking aside i am deadly serious about seeking out great lines, another area i'm sure has mega descents is the Mamores, anyone been high there.
Yep, at the weekend actually. There were some entertaining lines off Mullach nan Coirean down to the Polldubh cottage car park, one was very muddy and rooty but looked like it would go, the other looked like a lot of fun but t.h.b. could have been straight out of a trail centre.
There's a very interesting looking stalker's path leading up from Mamore Lodge, would be worth investigating but a lot of stalker's paths I've ridden of a similar ilk are just straight - sharp rutted switchback - straight - sharp rutted switchback etc. etc. Not bad but not always worth the grief to get to the top.
So you have been higher than most eh!
Is that the stalkers path up onto Na Gruagaichean via the west ridge, i wonder if the final section to the summit is quartz scree boulders, there is also the stalkers path up to Sgurr Elide Beag, you could then continue onto the summit of Binnein Mor, potential for sure, i must check these out some time.
The S Claunie ridge would be a nice ride. I recall coming down off it by an undistinguished route, but you would have a lot of options for descent to try and find a good one. Easy enough up at the E end. Hiking routes up to the 5 sisters are steep - you'd have some committed descents there if that's what you're after.
Depends what you like really - Munro biking appeals to me if it's mainly a ride. Hairy-arsed MTB riding out in the hills. If it's a big hike up and rag it down I'm not interested.
Sorry, quick hijack: Garry Lager, do you still want those brakes? sorry I never caught up with you last week, frantic last minute packing overwhelmed me a little!
Thats the one, looked very well made beneath the ridge at least, above the ridge it would probably be steep and rocky, I was only walking and found a lot of the paths there pretty steep!Is that the stalkers path up onto Na Gruagaichean via the west ridge, i wonder if the final section to the summit is quartz scree boulders
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I've forgotten where one of those is, the other is above Glen ******* and descends off the side of an 800m ridge.
Hey Iain that's no problem - I got some sorted in the end. Thanks for the offer though.
Nice work, is that top one Na Grua....whats the surface like on these.
Nah, they're both Kintail area, and I've ridden neither so couldn't comment, although the top one joins on to a fairly well known descent in the area (described by a mate as one of the best he'd ever ridden).
How about Bealach Duibh Leach, east of Sgur na Sgine for the bottom one getting hot?
Garry Lager do you know The five sisters reasonably well was thinking the ridge NW of Sgurr nan Saighead, then down from the col below point 576m.
Don't know it all that well Fergal, just walked it twice and that was 5 years ago. I remember that descent you describe, I got briefly separated from my wife in the mist there and we had a massive argument about it. Doesn't stand out as a good biking descent - just bog and heather I think.
You'd still need to know how best to exploit the steep drop down to the valley from below the col at 576.
There is a rough path up to the Bealach an lapain at the other end that might have some potential. From memory it's a steep, ardous hike up though that you'd probably need to be DH-skilled to ride back down in any fluent fashion.
Every munro in Scotland has certainly been ridden by bike
I wouldn't class walkers carrying a bike up to the top of each being ridden 'properly' 🙂
I always chuckle when I read UK downhillers complaining that there aren't any mountains in the UK. There are plenty, it just takes a bit of effort! There are years and years worth of exploring the proper big hills and mountains up there.
Cheers Lagers, while your online, do you you reckon the south Cluanie ridge would be a goer then, a big traverse, would the downs inbetween summits be doable, been looking at photo's to try and get some pointers, will shut up now.
Probably doable for long stretches, but tbh it might be inferior to hiking it - unless you uncovered an absolute top drawer descent. Long day as well.
This is how it looks on top:
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I wouldn't class walkers carrying a bike up to the top of each being ridden 'properly'
What exactly do you define as properly? You either ride down it the mountain or you don't. Maybe its only properly if you have full body armour and a 6" radcore bike. 😛
Well those guys managed the Aonach Eagach with their bikes, strapped to their rucsacs for most of it apparently, does that count as riding it?
What about the traverse from Stob Ghabhar to Glencoe ski centre? Perhaps take the lift up and do any out and back.
Nice little ridge which can be ridden.
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What exactly do you define as properly? You either ride down it the mountain or you don't. Maybe its only properly if you have full body armour and a 6" radcore bike
I got the impression that the bikes were carried a lot, and an experienced mountain biker would ride a bit more than someone who is more of a walker that is carrying a bike. I guess you are right, a lot of trails in the highlands would benefit from a big bike to come down too, though I wouldn't fancy dragging one up!
Messiah "one of the narrowest ridges in the Cairngorms" 😉 i see the Devils point peeking out in the corner, do you know if anyone has ridden the path from Corrour bothy to DP.
Letting the cat out of the bag but one of my prospective rides, possibly this summer, is Cairn Toul down to the col on DP, then path to Corrour bothy (this path is good and could be a peach of a descent, although the upper section maybe a little hairy), what is putting me off is the trail of tears back along the ghru to get back to Aviemore.
Why go out to the north unless it's part of a longer route? You can loop in and out via Glens Luibeg and Dee (probably in that order) which are quite pleasant, rather than an out and back.
The lower section of the CoireOdhar path was repaired reasonably recently, the upper has been under snow every time I've been up recently (its a good winter access route which is generally when I've been). The upper section is pretty steep in any case and I wouldn't think of biking it if it was anything like it was back in the day (remember it as too steep to contemplate with V's and rocky/eroded). Either way from the bealach the tops are pretty bouldery and will likely see you carrying though some paths have emerged in places.
Thanks for the input, would approach Carn Toul via Glen Einich so need to get back north. The DP path i am sure would be very technical at the top but doable, was up there last summer, but even now i cannot really remember what the path at the headwall is like.
>what is putting me off is the trail of tears back along the ghru to get back to Aviemore.<
Nothing difficult about that - not half as bad as the trail of tears if you go CT, DP Corrour 😉
Well those guys managed the Aonach Eagach with their bikes, strapped to their rucsacs for most of it apparently, does that count as riding it?
Not much else a sane person could do on the ridge proper though. Its not like its ever going to get ridden fully. Those guys are not the only people who have ridden/taken bikes up all the munros either. I have utmost respect for anyone that has done it. Just my 2p though.
@Heatherbash well the plan was to ride down to corrour bothy, well as much as possibe, the ghru is surely a push/hike boulderfest. I have never heard any one extoling the virtues of riding the ghru, apart from the last descent, you know otherwise?
PS i will concede perhaps you do know otherwise, i'm fully aware it maybe a duffer, but it is only recently persons latched on to the likes of Etchachan on Macdui no?
It's all relative...
What you are proposing really isnt worth the considerable exertion required to get up there (and across) in the first place.
>but it is only recently persons latched on to the likes of Etchachan on Macdui no?<
No and there's hundreds of others that were bagged many moons ago - they're just not repeated on here.
I'm sure there are hundreds that were bagged many moons ago, if they were good, i want to know where they are!
Braeriach next on the list.
I'm a walker/skier/biker, so I've been up most of these so I know which ones I'll bother to take a bike round and which I'd rather do with feet/ski's. I really don't see the point in humphing a bike up something when the reward is to humph it back down. I'll leave ticking boxes to when my biking days are done and it's time for bingo.
😆 @ bingo playing (must remember that) - pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.
Messiah I hear you got bingo wings already 😯
I live in a land south of the misty mountains in a place called England, hence my inquisitive nature for all things mtb north of the border, if you don't want to share knowledge don't post.
messiah - Member
... I really don't see the point in humphing a bike up something when the reward is to humph it back down.
Completely agree. I have no issue humping my bike up Munros providing they are 90% ridable on the way down. I've done 5 Munro descents that I don't know of anybody having done before. 2 probably have been done and the other three probably haven't, and another couple of probable virgins planned for July if the weather holds.
IMO don't see the point of doing them just to tick the box, but if they are good descents, the satisfaction of getting the bike to the top plus the long, long descent is a real buzz that keeps me going for days.
>but it is only recently persons latched on to the likes of Etchachan on Macdui no?<No and there's hundreds of others that were bagged many moons ago - they're just not repeated on here.
Exactly that
Hold your horses a god damn minute, who said anything about going cycling in the mountains to tick boxes other than Messiah?
I am merely trying to discover good rides/descents and am totaly of the opinion that the descents are as near as 90% ridable, why do you think i am asking on here to glean whether they are worthwhile ffs.
THE RIDES I AM ASKING ABOUT I HAVE NOT DONE! (deep breath)
And breathe.
fergal, I don't think anybody was aiming the tick box comments at you, but at unspecified people who may do such a thing. Looks like there is general agreement on the fact that the downhill rideability needs to be comensurate with the uphill effort
Ok agreed. 😳
So... I'm living in Kinlochleven for the moment~ anyone willing to share experiences of rides in the area~ in particular, got my eye on the Na Gruagaichean ridge.
the south cluanie ridge was ok, we did it a few years ago now and like a lot of similar rides I doubt i'd ever repeat it. We went up from the inn, up the old tarmac road to the highest point then started carrying. There are some lovely sections on the way but essentially it was carry/push the ups, roll the downs. The final off was ok, long but nowhere near the best scotland has to offer. There are a ton of variants though, the trail into the glen to the south looks interesting.
Like others have said, if you walk or climb a lot you come across gems all the time. The tipping point is something like 70% rideable, 30% push i think, maybe less if the descent is spectacular but i guess it depends on you misery threshold. The liatach ben eighe descent is a good example of that...
On the other hand if you are off on a mission i always try and remember its about getting somewhere awesome, and maybe having a decent ride on the way.