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2023 – A Year in Mountains
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Posted 11 months agoIt’s a little early but I’m laid up in bed with an illness and needed something to pass the time. And, looking at the forecasts and my calendar, I’m not going to fit any more hills in this year. It’s been an up and down one – a strong start, then in September I was knocked off my bike by a dog on a disused railway line of all things and the concussion that gave me wiped me out for a long time. As a result, there’s only eleven trips here while I normally aim for twelve a year. There’s been some crackers, though – the South Shiel Ridge was a really definitive moment, even if it wasn’t actually that much of a success as a bike ride, but I’ve not had any bad ones this year.I also had a new camera set up this year so results are a bit of a mixed bag but hopefully they’re enough to keep you entertained. As with previous years, I’ve had to split the thread up because as far as I’m aware STW still haven’t fixed the issue where it won’t publish a post with more than a few links in it.Please, add your own adventures to the thread.Glen Lyon Horseshoe
The first big hills of the year were pretty impromptu- over Easter weekend my wife had exhausted herself hillwalking and gravel riding, so on the Sunday she was too pooped to do whatever we had planned. Instead, I hotfooted it to Glen Lyon with a pal to ride the five Munros that make up the Glen Lyon Horseshoe.I’d walked them before so knew what I was getting myself into – a steep but relatively short feeling climb up Carn Gorm before a wild scree slope descent to bypass An Sgor. Then follows what should be a pleasant ride across the plateau, but when I was there the wind was in the high thirties and relentless. The second and third summits, Meall Garbh and Meall A’Bharr, were barely noticed but reaching the top of Carn Mairg we’d had enough.The descent off Carn Mairg I knew would be tricky and it turns out it wasn’t rideable – a very steep scree/boulder field. The last quarter of this is rideable, but it had me crashing. Fortunately, the descent off the final hill, Meall Na Aighean, is cracking. Not particularly hard, it’s fast flowing singletrack with some amazing turns and the odd technical feature. Mercifully, it was also in the shelter of the other hills and wind free.
Posted 11 months agoCorrieyairack PassThere’s not many of my big mountain rides that have started with a schlep along a canal, but to make a real day of the Corrieyairack Pass I started in Fort Augustus and rode a 100km loop taking in the Great Glen Way to Gairlochy, then the road to Roybridge and up Glen Roy.The first half is despatched pretty easily, especially with a big tailwind. The Great Glen’s a nice place to be on a sunny day with the wind at your back. The short stint along the A82 not so much but this is rewarded with the climb up Glen Roy. It’s a 25km steady climb, starting on the road, which eventually turns into a track and then into nothing at all. The last stretch is lumpy grass with a faint rocky trail. I could see a few people with gravel bikes had been through but it must have been hell – it was much easier to ride on an MTB. It’s also one for a dry spell – crunching over the grass was fine but if it was wet it’d be a bleak push.The Pass itself comes 4/5ths of the way round and I surprised myself by feeling good. I didn’t get any photos because I decided to be the type of bell-end that goes for a Strava time, so there’s nothing for your entertainment I’m afraid. I did get in the top ten so it’s surely worth it. All I can say is, this is just a fireroad with a reputation. It’s a cool place, but it’s not a big technical ride. It’s more in the “grand day out” style, and if you’re on an XC bike you’ll have a good time.
Ben WyvisA lesson in not underestimating the mountains, this one. Ben Wyvis is close to Inverness, has a nature reserve and a well built path and loads of folk go up it. It should be an easy one. Well, not on the day I did it. It was a bit wet when I set out but as I neared the summit of An Cabar, the first peak on the ridge at 950m, a snow storm rolled in. The wind was up, visibility was down and things were getting greasy. I’m not the guy from Grizzly Munro Diaries, I don’t like taking risks with the weather if I don’t have to, so I turned back.The descent off the south west is pretty good. There’s open rocky sections, then twisty very rocky but not mega gnadgery singletrack. Unfortunately, here I had probably the biggest crash I’ve had on a bike in the mountains – I fell about 4 metres down an edge while my bike tumbled end over end down the hill. It was like a small scale version of one of the crashes at Rampage where you wonder how they got away unhurt. Wondering how I’d stayed in one piece, my confidence was then knocked for the now very greasy rock steps that make up about a quarter of the hill so I can’t really comment further as I was too out of it. Should be good on a nicer day, though.
Posted 11 months agoSouth Glen Shiel RidgeThis has been on my to do list for aeons, but finding the right situation to do it, and the right company, was always going to be tricky. My prime candidate quit riding after his 8th concussion and I sure as hell wasn’t doing it alone. I got a message from @justinbeiber on day in May asking if it went, and having offered him all the advice I’d gathered over the years, I asked if I could gadge along.A group of 4 dwindled to 2 the night before and James was swithering but after I gave him a pep talk from a Burger King car park in Inverness (largely because I’d already had a nightmare getting myself up there) he was persuaded.Let’s not bugger about – this is bloody hard. Toughest day in the mountains I’ve ever had. With photos it took us 11 hours, moving for 6 of them. A lot of the descents aren’t rideable. There’s some rock climbing, which cruelly comes right at the end before the last descent. Mood swings happened. But what descents were rideable were exceptional. I enjoyed the last descent, James didn’t, but I was in prime XC race fitness at the time and I think I still had 1% left in the tank by then while he didn’t.I’d only recommend it to a few very select people. I think at the time I said it was “niche entertainment” and it really is. A brilliant day out, but for the love of god don’t do it.James took all the photos, since that’s his job, so I’ve posted my favourites here. The rest are in the latest issue of Singletrack (tHeRe’S a MaGaZinE???) and one even ended up on the cover of issue 150, which kinda vindicates my dragging bikes up munros for the past fifteen years. This first shot is my favourite of me on a bike ever – it really sums up why I do this, it’s like no other style of riding.
Sgurr a MhaoraichIn the same area but at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Short and sharp, I rattled this one off in 2 1/2 hours. Hidden off Loch Quoich, I think this is one that people just treat as one to tick off when bagging the munros but it makes a great ride. It’s easy to get up and has three distinct stages with very different feels. The top is rocky and exposed, and only partly rideable (probably entirely rideable if you have zero fear of exposure). This then levels off into a technical, rocky section which requires a good amount of thought and hopping the bike around. Then, it all opens up into a fast blast back to the bottom with some flat grassy turns to slam the bike around on. Great fun.
Posted 11 months agoNan BieldA good staple whenever I pass the Lakes, but I hadn’t done the northern descent since 2010. I last did it on a 26″ wheel hardcore hardtail in what was the peak of my riding career and I don’t remember being able to ride as much as I managed in 2023 despite the trail being unchanged. Seems big long wheelbases and tyres make a big difference when you’re confronted with a trail that’s made up almost entirely of big boulders with big holes between them. There’s some quite big moves on the way down that I mostly got away with, possibly with a foot or two down, and it’s still extremely technical. I’d say I still prefer this to the trail south which is so well trodden. I’ll not leave it so long next time.
Broad CairnThis was one that I should have ticked off when doing the Glen Callater Round back in 2021 but for whatever reason didn’t. Fortunately it tacks on nicely to a loop from Glen Clova taing in well known high quality trails like the drop to Loch Muick (I think called Lightning Bolt) and Capel Mounth. We met a few riders on our way up Broad Cairn who had already tried it and they said it didn’t go, and they were right. The top’s just boulders and the bit of descent you do get isn’t really worth tacking on to the loop – it’s just a load of steps and slabs. The rest of the ride is cracking, though, if a touch puncturey.
Posted 11 months agoIcelandI’ve been to Iceland before and my one regret was not riding a bike while I was there. We were visiting the in-laws on the other side of the Atlantic in September and the cheapest way to get there was via Reykjavik so I took the opportunity. It’s a tricky place to plan a ride – I was there for 24 hours and guides weren’t able to offer anything that fit with my flights. The landscape is very sensitive, with loads of lovely young mosses, and mountain biking is viewed with suspicion since it’s only been in the country for fifteen years or so.After a load of research I found some routes that didn’t look like jumped up gravel rides (of which there’s plenty), wouldn’t upset the natives and weren’t going to take 3 days. As you’d expect, it was like nothing else. The ground crunches beneath you like it’s icy because the rock is so aerated and brittle. The colours are either completely muted blacks and sages, or vibrant greens and yellows. It smells weird. Steam pops up from the ground around you. You can ride bare, exposed bedrock for hundreds of metres. And the riding is tough – it’s technical, the weather is often wild and some of the exposure on one ridge really gave me the willies, which doesn’t normally bother me. I couldn’t recommend it enough.
WhistlerA friend of a friend offered to show me around Whistler while I was over the pond. Given it’s such a mecca for riding I couldn’t turn it down – unfortunately, time was tight and he was photo-shy so there aren’t many shots, and those I got aren’t great as I didn’t spend any time setting up. It’s everything you’d expect – great variety, from groomed bike park trails to some real gnadgery stuff.A lot of it felt like riding in Scotland, but moreso. There’s grip on all the rocks for a start – everything’s so reassuring. You can pitch into massive rock slabs and know your front wheel isn’t going to wash out. It’s all beautifully well built, and long, and steep. What they don’t tell you in all the articles is how fit you have to be to get the most of a ride out here – the climbs are steep and sustained.You knew it already, but Whistler is a great place to ride.
Posted 11 months agoGrasmoor/Lad HowsI’ve been wanting to do this for ages. I’m regularly in the Lakes on a riding trip with a group of friends in early November but mixed abilities and this route’s reputation for being steep and technical meant it hadn’t worked out before but this year a reduced turnout meant two of us got to try it.Its reputation is true – it’s steep at the top, and loose with occasional rocky chutes. It’s not mega hard though – I’ve certainly ridden much tougher stuff in this lump of hills. I’d still not take a mixed abilities bunch down it, but it’s not Grisedale Pike. It starts off with steep switchbacks with loose gravel, then things get steeper still and down to bare bedrock. There’s often less traction than you need but there’s almost always a bank to catch you and it goes nicely. Then at the bottom it chills out into a ribbon of flowing singletrack to Crummock Water where you can rinse your melting brakes down.
Ben Lawers and Beinn GhlasThis is becoming a semi-regular season closer for me. It’s close by, far enough south that it doesn’t get smothered with snow and it’s always rewarding. A rare window of small amounts of snow and light winds were the golden ticket. Icy on the way up through the glen, the steeper descents down Lawers and Ghlas were largely ice free. These two are really the perfect pair – plenty of more chilled out sections interspersed with steep and mega-technical sections, rounded out with a last blast at the end that’s almost like a trail centre. And it’s really a wonderland in winter.
Posted 11 months agoMost excellent as always 👍
I did the South shiel ridge back in 2014 and I’ve been telling people not to take a bike there ever since 😅
Truly glorious and hideous in equal measure. I doubly botched it by doing the ridge starting at the Cluanie end, leading to the heartache of downhill hikeabike to finish. My bike was a lovely heavy custom steel Rohloff fatbike. Not light.
I kipped atop the first peak after heading up post work on Friday night.
Waking to grazing deer and a temperature inversion was memorable for the good though.
Riding back up the A87 to the van was seriously unpleasant too.
The most vulnerable I’ve ever felt on a bike was that or riding the road into Tbilisi from the North west. I can’t decide.
Iceland looks superb, that’s on the list of things I’d love to do but most likely never will.
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