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Lots of seasoned endurance racers have had a good crack at the WHW double, but most have failed as the route seems to play mind games. What is it that makes this so different to other big double attempts?
Genuine question, and not thinking of an attempt, just interested in what makes this route seemingly unachievable when the sdw double and PBW double have had numerous successful attempts.....
I thought the challenge was all about doing it in a very limited time window though?
And doing the hike a bike alongside Loch Lomond can't be too much fun. In armchair expert mode the WHW double has got to be tougher than the SDW double. Terrain, weather, midgies..... 😀
its in real mountains where conditions change hourly.
its remote
bail out points and other people on route are few and far between - as a cyclist you time your attack on it at a time when there will be few walkers for obvious reasons)
the hike a bike is shite the first time.... it killed me knowing i had to do it again.
the terrain is technical and if you hurt your self it wont be a case of call the support team as great chunks of it have no signal.
etc etc
crack on though.
[quote=trail_rat ]the hike a bike is shite the first time.... it killed me knowing i had to do it again.
Have no direct experience myself, but know people who've tried, and always had the impression that was the biggie.
Pretty sure the original challenge was to do the double in 24 hours or less. I'm not sure that's possible given the nature of the terrain.
There was someone on here who said he'd manage the double sub 24hrs, but that never happened - I think the one way record is around 12hrs at the moment, and the unsupported double record is 38hrs.
It's a tough route, the hike a bike is rubbish and takes a couple of hours or so, and the weather can turn pretty quickly from sunny day to deluge.
I'd still like to give the double a try myself one day, but with a single time of 23hrs a couple of years back I think I need to do some training...