That was quick wasn’t it? 2016 fairly rattled by. It’s been a funny year for mountain biking in the mountains – for whatever reason the weather when I’ve been able to get up high has been sub-optimal. Not so bad as to write the day off but not good enough to be photogenic or have great views. Then when summer came I was struck down by a mystery illness that I’m still recovering from that meant I was unable to drive for the best part of the year. I also got a new camera which I’ve not really got to grips with yet.

Despite all this it’s been a productive year with 8 new hills, of which only one was a disappointment. As time goes by I’ve got a better handle on the knack for identifying what will be successful and what won’t, better at judging trails based on maps and photos and it means in general it’s been much more successful than some years where some hills have essentially been a bit of a trudge and a battle. It’s been a good year for more flowy trails rather than mega death-tech too.

I’ve cobbled together a video again, I hope you like it. My wife said it doesn’t contain any rubbish like previous years!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIjdf62ld4s&t=1s[/video]

Cadair Idris

The first mountain of the year and a disaster in terms of photography and a little tricky in terms of climbing. A Welsh riding friend of mine moved to Belgium this year and wanted to tick this off before he went. In honour of the event he treated his bike to a new chain. But not a new cassette. As a result one of the most rideable big mountain ascents was a long old push.

Idris is still a great mountain for an average rider. No majorly technical sections or tricky navigation make for an enjoyable, worry free day out. Unfortunately, because it’s in Wales, the weather seems to be constantly crap on the top- I’ve done it three times now and never seen the view! The trade off for this is wet weather bringing the grassy central part of the trail to live, making it a drifty, slippy challenge rather than a straightforward blast. I’m beginning to get curious about alternative ways off the summit, though- there must be a plausible rocky route down.

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Helvellyn (Sticks Pass West)

Four days touring in a campervan for the early May bank holiday was supposed to yield plenty of big mountains in the Trossachs, but the weather had other ideas. As a result we drove round the Yorkshire Dales, Scottish Borders and then on to the Lake District to follow the best of the weather. Finally on the Monday there was a break in the weather long enough to sneak up the side of Helvellyn.

I’d not been especially taken with the eastern descent of Sticks Pass into Patterdale. It just didn’t seem as exciting as the alternatives but I know some people love it. This western descent to Thirlmere is a good alternative, and easy to work into a big day out from Ullswater to Thirlmere and Back. It’s easily as good as the more popular Sticks Pass descent to the east, and has the advantage of being quick to climb. It starts off from the top of the pass with a warp speed singletrack with rocks before the gradient increases sharply and the trail plummets, hugging the hillside on a stoney singletrack. It’s a fast way to lose a lot of height but a lot of fun.

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Ben Lomond

Five months into the year and no trip to Scotland seemed a bit of a travesty but I finally snuck up on my own in late May and it was on finest form. Generally sunny with light winds I had intended to drive up and have a relaxed evening but passing Loch Lomond with two and a half hours of daylight left was too good an opportunity to miss. It did mean that I didn’t have much time for photos but I’m glad I did it.

The lower section of the track, below the last gate, is undergoing some changes and, as ever, they’re not being done with any thought for cyclists. New drainage bars and slabs are being placed and when I was there had just been helicoptered in. It’ll not be as good as it was but as far as I know for now the last nadgery bits in the woods after the unrideable rocky drop are the same, so get it done before they get meddled with. The remainder of the descent was, as ever, excellent.

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Binnean Mor

A Sanny special this, I’d never even heard of it but he said it was good craic. And, as ever, he was right- Binnean Mor is above Kinlochleven and the descent ties in well with the Dudes of Hazzard trails. The climb is straightforward, up the landrover track to the Mamore Lodge and Loch Eilde Mor before splitting off onto the mountain path. The last bit up to the summit is a grassy drag and not really worth it but once you reach the edge of Sgor Eilde Beag the trail becomes rocky again and loses height at a fair rate with very tight front wheel only switchbacks.

Once back down at the Lochan the trail feels a lot like those around Torridon, fast, flowy and rocky. It’s a descent that was a real highlight of the year, and it flows straight into the Kennels trail into Kinlochleven. This brutal little trail is utterly relentless in the number of boulders in the middle section but is just the right side of lively and challenging to be a great ride. Followed with a good night of folk and food in the Clachaig Inn and this was a great day in the hills.

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Ben More

The following day I woke up at about 4.30am to get up and down Ben More in time to get home before my wife’s dance show started in Chesterfield at 3.00pm. A rushed mountain is rarely a good mountain, but it wasn’t just the time on the hill that was rushed- it seems I’d rushed my research and, having seen on Strava that someone had ridden up and down the northern face of Ben More, I assumed it’d be a good ride. Top tip- Strava is no substitute for reading around a mountain, looking at the maps, looking at the photos and looking up other people’s experiences.

I got this all wrong, and hampered by a stinking cold that had come on overnight, this was a failure of a bike ride. I carried my bike up a grassy slope for a couple of hours, then walked it down for an hour. The trail is too steep when it’s wet to have any semblance of control, and the rocky sections are too lumpy and confused to ride through.

A bad day on the bike does not necessarily mean a bad day in the hills, though. Getting up at dawn meant there was a sterling temperature inversion that I had all to myself, and the sunshine meant I got a chance to see Brochenspectres, which is always a massive treat.

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Klosters

This came as a bit of a bolt from the blue. My old housemate from uni is Swiss and had recently moved back there from the US. She toured Switzerland on her arrival and loved Klosters in the winter. Needing an excuse to go back in the summer she asked me to come and show her mountain biking.

Now, I didn’t realise how posh Klosters was until a week before I went. It’s where the Royals go skiing. Our hotel had signed pictures from the likes of Fergie. But in the summer you get given a free lift and public transport pass, the hotels are cheap as they’re essentially just ticking over (mine was about £30 a night and it was really nice) and if you time it right, like we did, the Tour de Suisse might be passing through!

My friend didn’t take to mountain biking much- like a lot of Alpine cyclists she liked riding up the fire roads but the descents weren’t for her. After a couple of days and a big crash onto a ski net she told me to ride on my own in the mornings and we’d team up to do something else in the afternoon.
The riding in the area is good- it’s not like the French alpine resorts, there’s only really one downhill park trail. There are loads of longer distance flow trails though, and the highlight was the Alps Tour trail, around 35 miles of largely downhill riding with lifts and trains to take the strain uphill. Being a waymarked touring trail it is, like a lot of the local trails, a flowy sinuous route that descends into a mindboggling gorge, chasing the railway once it drops a few thousand feet. It’s a great place, and the whole lot only cost about £400 with flights from Heathrow for a week. Definitely worth a look if you’re after a self-guided riding holiday in the Alps.

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Carn An t’Sagairt Mor

For reasons that I’ve not quite fathomed (possibly something to do with inheritance stuff for my wife) my American in-laws have just got a share in a lodge in a resort in Ballater. Whatever their motivation it works perfectly for me when they come over- they’re less active than I am, I like riding bikes and it’s a great part of the world to do that. So when we went up there in July I’d leave them to snooze in the morning, ride my bike and then go about normal holiday duties.

Sagairt Mor is behind Lochnagar and the descent to Loch Callater had come highly recommended by a few on here. The climb from the A93 is pretty steady for a long way and a lot of height is gained easily. Then on the flanks of Lochnagar the path ramps up on a grassy slope before disappearing at the bealach. The descent from here is vague for a bit, before joining the main descent and turning into a top notch fast and flowing trail with occasional rock slabs and step sections. As you curve west around the peak magnificent views over Glen Callater open up. As a bonus this particular day the area was riddled with deer and hare.

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Ben Rinnes

While I was up there I thought I’d catch up with my old Stratpuffer race and support team, Pete (devilman on here) and Roberta. I knew they’d ridden Ben Rinnes a few times as it’s pretty local and I had a slot in an evening where I could sneak off and ride. As company was the goal rather than a long ride we just did a little loop taking in Rinnes itself but I suspect the best way to ride this is as part of a loop Pete described taking in a few local summits.
The climb up the landrover track is brutal, especially when you’re following a previous Strathpuffer winner in the form of her life. Steep and relentless it gradually led us up to this year’s favourite mountain topper- a thick fog. The descent you are rewarded with is mad in terms of speed. It’s just out and out fast, all the way. It starts with a well built hill walkers’ path that’s open, well sighted and gravelly with some rocky steps before turning into a rubbly wider track. The pace combined with the loose rocks led to a dinged downtube but it was totally worth it.

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Morrone

Morrone overlooks Braemar and is a popular little hill to walk. I got out there on a sunny weekday morning however and only saw a couple of hikers. This is another hill with a vicious landrover track ascent. Like Rinnes the start of the descent is mindwarpingly fast, a rock field with loose rocks strewn all over the places. With rocks clanging off the downtube, and occasionally shins, it takes determination to keep riding on the rocks rather than the peat to the side.

Halfway down the descent the trail changes into a great piece of twisty singletrack with some rocky features. It’s a really rewarding descent that delivers a lot of smiles, and because it’s a small hill it’s easy to sneak in on an evening if you lived somewhere between Aberdeen and Dundee. I suspect it would also be great added onto the Sagairt Mor and Glen Callater loop as a more interesting return to Braemar than through the woods.

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Hobcarton and Grizedale Pike

After my illness wiped out the remainder of the summer the first chance I had to get up a big hill again was in November. A remarkably warm and dry, if exceptionally windy, day was a great excuse to finally show Grizedale Pike to my friends. This was my highlight of last year, a truly epic descent. However the top section is very steep, very sketchy and with the strong winds buffeting the hill it was more sensible to go down Hobcarton and into Whinlatter then back up onto the ridge up to Grizedale Pike.

This creates a brilliant varied ride, from the fast straight line singletrack off Hobcarton, ending in a greasy grass slope after negotiating a few rocks, to the manicured trails in Whinlatter before the thrilling rocky and slabby descent off Grizedale Pike to Braithwaite. Everyone loved it, and it’s a reasonably big day in the hills.

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Ben Lawers

Another dawn raid on a Scottish hill, and another day with the top half in cloud. A thin layer of snow had been rapidly melting over the course of the weekend in mid-November and so the trail was on top form, even if the views were not. The bonus of doing it at this time of day and at this time of year were that no one was about, which meant we could really open the taps and tear down it. This meant that there wasn’t much opportunity for photos, but the trade off was a flat out blast after the bealach.

The trail has real flow, you don’t need to pedal much and the speed just builds and builds and builds, checked occasionally by a small chicane but because the trail is so grippy none of this slows you down. Once back in the nature reserve the trail drops into a little gully with some big old boulders poking out. Grip means the speed stays high, but this also meant that when my front wheel hit a wet wooden drainage ditch at the wrong angle the subsequent crash was huge. The first crash that has left me shaken for a couple of years, but the worst part was that the force of the impact on the bank knocked the pad material off one of my brake pads! Managing the brakes down the last half mile soon went out the window- it’s just too good a trail. And a perfect place to round off the mountain riding for the year, and hope that all in 2017 are as exciting.

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