Walked around the top half of the course this morning with the dog.
Snow ankle deep, crisp.
Looks to me like it will be a fatbike course for the first few laps until a groove is established. That might happen during practise though.
If you’re on skinnies you won’t have a problem initially. However subzero in the night could mean random bits of slick ice in the grooves and descents. Ice tyres might be a good insurance policy.
One bonus – all the snow means even those of us using 8 year old lights won’t be too disadvantaged.
yr.no agrees with the met office about precipitation.
MWIS only goes up to midnight on Saturday, but says showers dying out on Sat AM.
Raintoday seems to show only today, so no use for looking at Saturday and Sunday.
I try to use all 3 for a bit of a concensus, but never earlier than the day before – at the very earliest. It’s so unpredictable up here, especially at this time of year.
Road are all completely clear now, M74, M8, M9 and A9 so no problems there. Roads around Strathpeffer will be fine. The forest road on the otherhand might not be. I’d advise snow chains as once it gets compacted by the first few vehicles…..
I’m almost tempted to do it now. Wait………I’m over it. I’ll be the heavy metal party with the cowbell cheering you all on with a beer (maybe a hot drink) during the night. First time in years I’ve not done it and I’m looking forward to not doing it 🙂
There’s a fair bit of snow up on the course, up to 6 – 8″ on a fair bit of it.
At the moment, a fatbike is an advantage. By raceday though, I think enough people will have gone through to pack down a line. The snow is nice and firm.
No real need for spikes currently, but I’d take them if I had them. Forecast is proper cold.
I’d seriously consider SS. It’s going to be real cassette/mech/cable jamming conditions if the forecast is correct.
Parking could be a potential nightmare. Take a shovel, sand or grit, snow chains, socks, ..anything that may help really. The fireroad climb is probably going to polish up nicely.
I’m selling some unused chains which don’t fit the car or van I now have, email in profile. 😉
One thing rarely mentioned is using a dropper. I’d definitely leave it on. The course is very uppy downy, dropping the seat on the slithery descents makes them much more fun, as well as safer and faster. It’s also good just to have that bit of ball room on the rocky slippy pedally bits at the top of the course.
So bfg ats and snow chains might come in handy after all……even if it is just for if I venture off the fire road into something slightly green with a hint of moisture…… My bus doesn’t do slippy shit.
Packing the fat bike. I guess the whole team might end up riding it if the snow comes as forecast.
I think it will be a mud tires year with possibly a front spike at certain times 🙂
Just heard there’s a lorry jacknifed on the A82 just North of Fort Augustus. Worth keeping an eye on trafficscotland and listening to MFR if you are heading up that way.
My 6th Puffer and definitely the best. The new course is a great improvement, particularly the finish, and the weather was as about as close to perfect “Puffer weather” as it’s possible to get. Fabulous weekend.
I still think they need to bring the numbers competing down a bit, but that’s a minor point (slight constructive criticism if anyone’s reading this). Overall the thing ran like clockwork. As usual, a massive thank you to all the marshals, volunteers and other folk who bring the thing together. It must be a huge amount of work.
Oh, and to top it all we squeezed our quad team into the top 30 for (I think) the first ever time, plus two top 30s for solo riders.
Anyone know what the story was with the mountain rescue helicopter that was buzzing around in the afternoon? Hope it wasn’t someone badly hurt.
I drove up in the morning on Sat just to hang out with some friends, may have snuck in a lap too. It was amazing weather and the atmosphere was really good too. Well worth the trip – might even race next year…
Looks fantastic. I was in a quad last year and at the time I don’t think I enjoyed too much of it after the excitement wore off after a few hours. Last years conditions were great but the snow this year just makes it look a bit more special. The pain of last year was soon forgotten as the jealousy of everyone competing this year kicked in.
Was tough, my first time up there. In a quad. Did the start and 2 laps, then out again at 1900 for 2 more, totally bonked on the second lap of that stint and became incredibly cold, and had to get a lift down with the med van. Learnt a lot!
A team member did 4 till 7 day and night, burnt 1200 calories doing 2 laps early on. Then 1200 cals doing one lap at 4am.
Well done to Marshalls, med teams especially, the kids banging out laps for fun! Just wow. And the solo guys….. I’m totally in awe.
I’ll be back though!
I managed 13 laps up to 1.30 am and was feeling quite good until I had a nasty crash on a rock slab and landed hard on my coccyx. That completely took the wind out of my sails and I decided to bail.
Really enjoyed the event, although I thought that singlespeeding was especially hard this year. I would keep catching people up, but couldn’t get round due to there only being one viable line (deep snow at the sides) then lose traction and end up pushing. Almost everything was rideable as long as I could get a run at it…
The snow consistency changed a lot during the night – it stopped balling up on my cleats and became very dry. This sugary snow seemed to form a nice lubricating layer on top of the ice and rocks which meant I had a lot of trouble keeping rubber side down. Maybe worn out non-spiked tyres were not the ideal choice!
It was an amazing event this year. Done it many times, and it’s always great, but this was the best. Conditions were unbelievable once the snow packed down. The opening lap was a bit interesting and binned it a couple of times in the soft snow. We managed 21st in the quads (best result so far), despite being a man down after he crashed on the icy water splash on the second lap and limped home without a chain and sprained wrist.
Massive thanks to the marshalls and all others involved in putting on such a great event. Looking forward to seeing what the Adventure Show coverage look like.