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Short review - excellent. Do it.
Longer review. We finally got there on a day when the gondolas were running, so did a full day there yesterday. We did 5 runs, it could have been 6, but we were all knackered at the end. Started on Blue Doon. Far better than expected. Fast, quite dangerous if you’re going too fast, which I found out to my cost on the last run of the day. I think the marketing for this run is not too good. People see the ‘blue’ then think it is as easy as a blue forest trail. I’d be rating it as a red. There were people up there who had no clue, and were a danger to themselves and others on the trail. One guy just stopped dead on the trail on one of the steeper berms, luckily I just missed him, but still fell off avoiding him. He had no clue that he was causing a hazard. Then I followed his mate along a pretty much flat section, his front wheel hit a small stone and he fell off, cutting his hand, he had work boots on, jeans, no gloves, with an ill fitting helmet. We stopped at the bench, around 2/3 of the way down as our hands/arms were aching. Thats strange, as it didnt occur again through the day, probably just needed a warm up. Got to the bottom with a big smile. Longest continuous downhill I've ever done. Run 2 was Top Chief. Starts off pretty easily, lots of boardwalk with a medium sized drop off. Then the rocky section comes. I didnt like that at all, in fact I walked a good 100 metres of it. I think given a bit more time there to check it out, there would be a far better line available than I was taking. The rest of it was fine, and probably a bit less dangerous than Blue Doon, as the speeds we were doing were a lot less than on B.D.
The others then went onto the Downhill, which I opted out of, and I did B.D. again. They said the DH was nowhere near as hard as it was described. They did stop regularly to check out the drops/sections, then, strangely, ran blind to the river jump, with the Leader totally missing the jump and hitting the other bank as he landed, No real harm done,and a lesson learned. I really liked B.D. on my own. Got faster, and took better lines.
4th run was Top Chief again, and then we came across 3 people (possibly family members?) all walking along the boardwalk. They said they didnt realise it was so hard! We told them that section was the easy bit, and try to get off the trail asap. Not long after there, T.C. crosses B.D. so they could get down B.D. then. No incidents with us, I still didnt like the rock section.
5th run, I wanted to do B.D. again, one mate said he’d like to do that too, as he was sore after crashing on the DH, the two others again did the Downhill without incident. I wasnt so lucky on Blue Doon, near the top I was flying, around 20mph, when my front wheel slid away on a bend on the loose gravel, and I flew off to headbutt the ground. It was a bit of a shock, and took me 20 seconds or so to realise I wasnt badly hurt. I got up, my glasses were broken, my helmet felt loose, so took it off to see it had split through at the back, with the inner shell clips to the straps broken. Cuts and scrapes to the left side, but nothing to worry about. My head didnt hurt at all, so the helmet definitely helped me there. Back on, and I went down far more gingerly, there certainly wasnt going to be any Strava best for me on that run. Then, when checking my times, the last section was my fastest yet, but the rest was my slowest, so probably a timing error.
Off to the skills/jumps area then to practice a bit, and that area is great. Hidden away a little I think, go from under the gondola track toward the camper van site, and its around there. A really good practice area, which we should have done before starting the day.
We stayed at the Base Camp hotel, £120 for a double room. Ate and drank at the cafe there until 10pm. A little expensive there, but we all said we’d rather pay a little more than having to drive into Fort William. A bonus was staying at the hotel gives free on site parking (£6/day) and a 20% discount on the Gondola day pass - an £8 saving, so that paid for a main course meal at night. The hotel was fine, nothing special, but a perfect position, and with the cafe next door, you can have plenty of drinks in the evening, and just stagger back to your room. We’ve already said we’re doing it again next year, possibly twice as we enjoyed it so much. Oh, we did a few of the lower trails on Friday too, they are worthwhile as well.
Yep, wasn't keen on the TC rocky section in particular either - https://singletrackmag.com/forum/bike-forum/top-chief-no-fun/
I rode top chief the week it opened, back when it was allegedly a red and they'd not actually finished building some bits, it was hilarious carnage with all the people expecting an actual red. A stream of people in lycra and blood, walking down it with hired Hardrocks. Terrible really.
The blue definitely feels a bit of the same problem, they do clearly say it's "intermediate" on the website but every time I've been there at least half of all the people on it have been "can just about ride a bike", or the classic competent kids with parents who have absolutely no idea. The payment model doesn't work great either- the single run has to be more than the non-bike day pass which makes it not much less than a full day, most people would be best served with one or two runs like you get with other uplifts. Ultimately they need to sell tickets but there's people up there that shouldn't be, and it really could end badly some time.
It is definitely true that the world cup is comparably hard to the black. Harder in some ways, easier in some others, to the point that it depends on your skillset. It's more brutal and tiring, more constant for sure, there are huge long sections where you're basically always doing <something> with no brain reset time, it may not be hard but it's constant. But the most difficult bits are mostly short. So in your case I reckon you'd definitely walk some bits from the sound of it, but they'd probably be shorter and feel more like "I am walking a single feature" not "I am walking half this bloody track"
(ps the black used to have arrows on some sections to guide you, now it really does feel on the first couple of runs like "I have no idea where I'm supposed to go". The dh can have a little bit of this especially if you're looking for a "ride" line rather than a "send" line.)
Last time i was there was with a friend who is probably only a little bit above the competence/confidence level required to make a good fist of either, and she ended up way happier on the world cup. Me, I love them both but I <love> the bouldering problem stuff on the black.
There's a lot more going on in the woods than is obvious too, the witches trails can be used to link up a ton of other offpistes, some of which are quite spicy, some of which are incredibly shonky, but some are lovely. Further out at the other car park is a bunch more which is mostly harder.