Help needed to put the mountains into mountain biking – riding the Munros

Nice thread. I’d be very keen to hear about anything in the Loch Lomond area other than Ben Lomond. I’ve tried Ben Narnain which was a bit much for me. There were a lot of loose boulders which I didn’t fancy riding as it was so cold and the consequences of injury could have been quite nasty. Very muddy in places too, lower down near the Cobbler.

Not a Munro either but Ben Venue looks good and I’ve ridden the Glen Ledard bit down from the track west of Creag a Bhealaich which is very nice (very rocky and rooty).

GiantJaunt, theres plenty around Ben Lomond area. Depends if you want monroes or not, as there’s plenty of good descents in/around Aberfoyle Ben Ledi/Ben A’an are great starters..check out my post on the 1st page for a decent monroe

eat_more_cheese – Member
GiantJaunt, theres plenty around Ben Lomond area. Depends if you want monroes or not, as there’s plenty of good descents in/around Aberfoyle Ben Ledi/Ben A’an are great starters..check out my post on the 1st page for a decent monroeMUNRO!!!!

Sheesh!

:). Thanks. I’ve done some of the Aberfoyle stuff and walked Ben A’an but not had a look at Ben Ledi yet.

Well chuffed to see this thread active again! Rode Ben A’an and Dumyat yesterday which although not Munros are fun in their own way. Ben A’an was pretty hardcore and had to walk some bits, but was great to experience the techy nature of that in the morning and the all-out speed of Dumyat in the afternoon.

So, the big question – of all the places mentioned so far, which offer the toughest descents?

In the meantime a video of Ben A’an ridden by Joe Barnes.

Ben A’an is is not a Munro, either…..

bedmaker – how technical are the descents on your strathfarrar route? Am thinking it looks like the kind of thing my wife might enjoy as long as she doesn’t have to push all of the downhills!

Another weekend, another few munros ridden. This time it was the Invervar horseshoe with an ex Royal Marines Commando Instructor. It was his first experience of biking in the mountains but he loved it. A great route as after the initial carry, subsequent carrys are short and the final descent is a joy!

As for tech, I rather fancy Corrie Fee off of Mayar. I carried up it a couple of weeks ago and I want to go back. Glas Alt Shiel off Lochnagar is lovely if you enjoy the techier side of things.

Ben Venue down to Forest Hills is ace. See http://www.gmbc.org.uk for a write up last week.

My favourite descent is probably off Beinn Ghlas and down the northern side. However, there are loads I’ve not ridden yet so there may be many more!

My favourite descent is probably off Beinn Ghlas and down the northern side

Really? I thought it was good, but only good….

Anyway, where are the pics of your Lawers epic?

Ben A’an is is not a Munro, either

Never said it was 🙄

decent monroeMUNRO!!!!

Guilty…sorry. Sir Hugh would never have accepted that!

Help needed to put the mountains into mountain biking – riding the Munros

Hi Matt

It’s my current favourite descent of the past few rides I’ve done in terms of a little bit of everything. It’s not the longest nor is it in any way very technical but combining the views with the flow of the trail and it’s a lot of fun.

Of course, my favourite changes every week! 😀 The descent off the Invervar Horseshoe on Saturday was ace fun. It’s too difficult to nail down one specific descent as there are so many good ones to choose from and so many more to explore.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55229898@N08/

A few pics on the Captain’s Flickr account. There will be more once I send them to him to upload.

Cheers for the info re An Stuc. That worked out really well for us.

Just waiting for the right day to try the Ring of Steall. The video posted earlier in this thread has had me psyched to give it a go this Spring.

Sanny, which route did you take for the Lawers group? Impressive that you knocked 7 tops in an outing, I doth my cap sir. As soon as this snow melts I’ll be following your trail. 😀

Help needed to put the mountains into mountain biking – riding the Munros[/u]

Sorry, forgot you couldn’t give advice on this forum 🙄

Hi eat more cheese

We headed up Lawers Burn onto the first munro. It’s a bit of a brutal carry as there is little path to speak of onto the first summit. After that, the track is easy to follow. An Stuc is the only real problem as we dropped down into the bowl to the north to take the bypass path to come round and up onto the summit as opposed to the grade 1 / 2 scramble. The path had a heavily corniced snow section so we dropped down further into the glen for super safety.

The path onto Meall Corranaich is a steep carry up and down. The exposure was just too high to try and ride down it to the bealach so we didn’t bother and walked for a few minutes. We took the path round the back of Beinn Ghlas and it is mint! If you want the highlights, I’d say try Ghlas, Lawers and possibly An Stuc as well.

Oh and seeing as I started this thread, I don’t care if you say munro or monroes or whatever. 😆 Oh and if we want to talk smaller hills, that’s fine by me too! It’s my ball and everyone can play!

We would have done Meall nan Tarmachan too if we hadn’t started to run out of light as both my mate Donald and I felt pretty fresh. One for another day.

Wow some beautiful scenery you’re seeing there. Very jealous!

grade 1 / 2 scramble

When you say grade 1/2 scramble, do you mean the main path from Meall Garbh to An Stuc? We followed this at the weekend, was interesting as there had just been a fresh fall of wet snow so everything was a bit wet and slippy.

The only reason I ask is that I’m still trying to figure out what grade I’m comfortable at, only have the Stuc a’chroin ‘scramble’ and the Ben Alder Long Leachas to compare with so far (oh, and the Tarmachan ridge ‘scrambly bit’ but we descended it so it was really just a bum scoot).

Has anyone ever looked at Slioch? Its been a good while since I climbed it but from what I remember I think it might be almost all ridable, and pretty spectacular..

Whilst not a Munro, The Merrick is well worth a ride. 3 of us had a dawn raid on it this morning – on the summit at 2700 feet for 9.30am!. Cracking descent, Starts off wide, wet and lumpy, turns to fast and loose chipped, then a lakeland style rocky-tech-bridleway type section through the trees. The final section from Culsharg bothy is really technical, off and on the bike lots.

Excellent winch and plummet, then back in time for a backshift 👿

I’ll post up some pics tomorrow.

Right then, I need a little bit of help please oh knowledgeable brothers from the land of heavenly trails…

Off up to Scotland for a full-on tech-fest of a weekend next week and have a day on the itinerary to fill. We’re staying at Culdees Bunkhouse on the North side of Loch Tay near to Kenmore and so far have 3 of the 4 days planned. They are:

Ben Lawers
Ben A’an & Ben Vorlich
Ben Lomond

Can anyone offer any advice on what we can do to fill the currently unfulfilled day? I have been keeping tabs on this thread and have noticed Schiehallion mentioned and it is not too far a drive from where we’re staying – is it worth a look? Is is enough for one day or will we need to combine it with something else? Any other hills within a 1-1.5hr vicinity that are worth considering?

Thanks!

Culdees? Have you stayed there before?

no. is there something wrong with it???? got me concerned now. i know there’s nowt there.

It has, err, character.

I’d rather not say any more else I spoil the experience for you 😛

haha we’ll see what happens. looks like some kind of hippy commune, but according to trip advisor its alright. got a keg and 9 mates with me so we’ll make our own atmosphere! 🙂

anyways, back to the mountains…

Invervar horseshoe in Glen Lyon is nice cl

Invervar horseshoe in Glen Lyon is nice clockwise.

For Lawers, we started at the hotel and went along the road, up Ghlas, across to Lawers and back on the trail behind Ghlas, down the road, up a Land Rover track that took us to the top of the Lawers Burn and descent to finish.

Vorlich is nice as a quick up and down.

Schiehallion is a bit of a one trick pony. It’s just an up and down. I rode it in March. Good but not quite a classic for a day pot!

Sanny sorry for being a complete bore, but do you think the Chlamain stalkers path will drain quite quickly, be ok in the wet.

Hi Fergal

Hard to say. I rode it last Nov and it was pretty dry. There were a couple of damp bits but nothing of any note. Give it a go, take photies and post them up here!

Cheers

Sannt

Hi Sanny,
Do you have a gpx file for the route you done on Dreish and Mayar ?

Jim

Re: Slioch
Bike would certainly ease the long approach walk! Only done it in winter though, so not sure whst’s beneath the snow higher up.

Just back from Ben Chonzie…a great day out (well about 2hours actually). Is one I’d certainly put in the ‘easy’ section of Munros if there is such a thing! I parked up in Invergeldie, which already puts you at 200ish metres so that only leaves you with a 730m climb up to the summit. Weather was awesome, still some snow at the top, but nothing of any significance. The track up is very rideable (depending on fitness)but I got a couple of hundred metres past the small dam and gave up, so pushing for 5mins then riding for 2. Once onto the shoulder of Chonzie it’s rideable all the way to the summit, except for the odd peat bog. Meant to take a vid for the way back down but my camera paused after 4 mins so missed the best bit 🙁
All in, nice fast dh no really techy bits though…it’s more of seeing how fast you can go before bottling it! Superb 😀

Pic from summit looking NW towards Lawers group

Jim

GPX? Ha ha ha ha ha! (he laughed maniacally). Sorry but I’m a bit old skool for that king of thing.

Route is simple. Park at the visitor centre. Ascend via Corrie Fee and onto the summit of Mayar. Drop down to the bealach and follow the obvious path for Dreish. Retrace steps down the Kilbo Path to just before the visitor centre then ride Jocks Road as an out and back.

Nice Chonzie pic. Rode it in January in stupidly high winds, snow and ice. It was a memorable day and the pics look great but it was a bit of a toughie.

Rode the Devils and Ciaran Path at the weekend. The Mamores are looking pretty close to being in nick for an attempt at the Ring of Steall. Whoop! Still lots of snow on the northern flanks of the likes of Ston Binean and Ben More

Looking across towards the Grampians there’s plenty of snow I’m guessing the majority from last weeks cold spell, so it’s still a no go for biking up that way. Shchiehallion and west looks fine for biking at the mo, think you’ll have an awesome time up the Mamores. Weather dependant I’m looking to do Stob Ghabhar/Stob a Choire Odhair on the Black mount next week 😀 happy days!

Eat more cheese

Post some pics when you do it eh?

The west was amazing on Sunday. Looks great for the rest of this week. Fingers crossed it holds thru the weekend!

Cheers

Sanny

northbound tomorrow afternoon. very excited.

Just back from a couple of days oop north feeding the rat, Carn a Chlamain on tuesday, a few patches of snow no problem, warm and sunny, the stalkers path descent, down to forest lodge is a real gem, very narrow rocky switch backs with some stream crossings, a little squelchy lower down but ace, northern Gorms still plastered, big descent on Ben Vorlich today put a huge grin on the face, the last 100m on the ridge has a deep snow drift, but the trail below this is in fine fettle, hope this helps.

Hi Fergal

Tiny patch of snow on the summit of Vorlich today. We did Stuc a Chroin then headed across. Great day out even though the original plan had been for the Ring of Steall. Great visibility and lots of sun. It’s amazing the number of walkers who called us mental. We nailed the descent of Vorlich top to bottom and got it on film. Good days! Did you live the rocky switchback gully part way down. What a terrific techy descent!

Stob Binean is clear after being White last weekend.

Sanny yep had a real goodun on Vorlich, the descent was a bit of a blur, all the features connecting to make a really good continuous descent, it was over ever so quickly, walking up i was a little skeptical about cleaning that whole gully section, but just commited on the descent and it went well, one of the highlights! Will you be posting pics/video of your descent,look forward to it.

Next for me the Kilbo path hopefully next week.

PS. Sanny how would you rate Vorlich as a descent, betterer than Lomond or just different, i must ride Lomond again, after a winter off i had forgotten how good this hike a bike lark is.

would love to see your video of vorlich sanny!

just back from our 4 day weekend in the area. ticked off ben lawers and beinn ghlas, ben lomond, ben a’an and rode the devil’s staircase & ciaran path again. great weekend. love this area. wish i lived a bit closer. 5.5hrs in the car from manc. crazy weather – sun, high winds, hail, snow but no rain. wore same shorts for 4 days and haven’t had to wash the bike once. perfect!!

Vorlich is looser than Lomond. I reckon it’s faster top to bottom. Both are great!

Peachos

Any pics? Which descent off Lawers did you do?

Once my mate posts his video, I’ll put a link up.

Cheers

Sanny

Peachos

Do you have a flickr account for your pics?

Fergal

I was talking to a walker on Stuc a Chroin on Saturday who said that Dreish and Mayar were fairly clear of snow last week when he was up there walking if that helps for a bit of conditions knowledge? However, the Gorms looked white from our vantage point.

I’m still laughing at the thought of the woman descending off Vorlich who was convinced that we were going to be carrying our bikes up and down. 😀

Right. Fingers crossed for good weather this weekend. More mountains require to be ridden!