I'm a timid rider with some ok technical skill but not keen on jumping.
With a one day pass in Fort William at the end of May, how should I spend it and what should I know?
Blue doon, the blue trail from the top is closed for the season.
Top chief and the wc dh are rocky and technical, but perfectly OK if you take it steady and you are doing a gondola day. No jumping on either as you can easily divert around the wc motorway section onto blue adder
Otherwise, the lower trails are all fine
Personally I'd head up towards the CIC hut on the Ben. Also, if you like techy trails then there's some Enduro type off piste trails that you can combine with it.
If it's Nevis Range, I was going to suggest Blue Doon, if it's still closed, then IMO the WC track is less intimidating than Top Chief. The lower trails are all fun, but quite flowy IME. I'm sure there is more locally, but I don't know them.
If you are just looking for somewhere in the general FW area, then Laggan Wolftrax is good fun.
I Know its not Fort William but could you nip to Laggan instead? its maybe 45 minutes away.
*Edit* no idea how i missed the post by Ceept above
Based on your riding style, I'd say go to Laggan Wolftrax. Been there twice before and it's great.
Been to Nevis Range, before Blue Doon was completed, and for my riding style I preferred Wolftrax.
You don't have to jump on any of the uplift trails, as far as I can recall, certainly there's nothing that requires jumping skills because I don't have those, there's a ton of places where it's better to do a little jump or hop or drop though. For me the world cup dh basically ends at hip replacement, from then down it's pretty much a jump-avoiding trundle 🙂 But the rest is all ace. (there are opportunities to leave teh dh before the motorway if you want, I prefer to finish the job but badly)
The offpistes in the forest are good, too, and absolutely unjumpy, and if it's been wet at all in the week before generally harder.
It's all pretty intimidating tbf, I've seen people just get stressed out on the black by the woodwork, or by the sheer amount of battering over rocks- it's pretty constant, occasionally pretty committing and for most of it if you fall, it hurts. I wouldn't want to put people off, I love it, but it is definitely not for everyone. It's not "ok technical skills" that make me say that, that's enough, it's "timid"- mostly it's a confidence and mental durability thing I think
I can't jump either and I was fine on the WC DH, Top Chief, and the easier ones (obviously a lot slower than the pros but I got to the bottom intact several times) Jumping isn't compulsory, you will be faster if you can, especially the gap jump over the river, but you can still ride the trails without the need to jump at all.
I would still recommend at least knee pads and a full face for the WC course and TC though, they make it a lot less intimidating
Are you brave enough to try some skipping instead?