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This weekend I'm going to fort bill for the first time. This was never intended as a biking trip as I'm going with a different group of friends that I have convinced to take bikes with us.
Anyway I want to ride the DH runs but the gondola didn't open for the season till the following week. Is it possible to push up? Or is that out the question? What other trails are worth a visit in the area too please?
Of course you can push up. The top might still be in the snow though 😆
SSDT by any chance?
i'll be there with the bike along with OrangeCrush from here.
Nope not ssdt but after googling that I'd be interested in going to watch. I'm going up with some good mates for a cold camping and hiking weekend mainly. It will be the first time in the 12/14years we have known each other that we have all been away together so just going for a good weekend. I did the mega last year so snow should be ok. I'll also be on an orange (alpine) and possibly looking completey lost.
Read that wrong. Your going with orangecrush,not with an orange crush oops
Ha! Yep I'm taking an Orange 5 while OrangeCrush is on a Trek. 🙄
I'll be on a trek on Thursday though, off to the Corrour Lodge sections if the weather's decent.
Gondola usually shuts in November for maintenance - what makes you think you won't be able to use it next week? I can't see anything on the website.
DH track could be closed for a number of reasons like maintenance etc.
they won't let you on the gondola with your bike if the track is closed.
It's a very long ride/push to the top to find a man with a digger up there and a load of bits with holes in.
At that height the snow will probably end up being the unridable much that just makes you wet cold and miserable.
You could probably ride up part way for some fun.
I've seen it now. Gondola's going but no bike uplifts.
You can ride up fire roads and get up to the big road gap or visit scotland wall ride easily- which unfortunately doesn't get you up high enough for the good bits of the nevis red, but does get you some good (and very trailbikable) dh. I think personally I'd stop at the wallride rather than going up the extra bit to the road gap though as you just waste the extra height on about 4 wee drops and a jump.
I would not personally push up higher tbh, it's possible of course but just hard work. The DH and Nevis Red both use their height pretty carelessly, it's not like a trailcentre where every foot is usually earned and paid back miserly, they're designed for uplift. And I also personally wouldn't bother with the lower Nevis Red. The 4X track makes for a comical ride if you don't know what you're doing, like me, I don't think anything before or since has made me feel like quite such a tosser on the bike 😆
But there's bags of good riding lower down- the waymarked 10 under the ben route is abject pish sadly but the witches trails are good, and you can build the good bits of the 10UTB lap into an extended witches lap. Also you can add in the blue crane descent, it's very easy to find with strava etc.
There's wee bits of trails all through the forest but it's kind of hard to navigate that way, especially for a first time. Or you could do the wee loop out down the whw, back up the old military road and round cow hill loop out of the fort.
Coming down the World Cup course is fun. Riding up it, not so much......
Nevis Range are currently working on the DH tracks. They have been uplifting stuff by helicopter this week. So you might find a long hard push up results in coming across a work party in the middle of the track.
As Northwind says, there's plenty of good stuff lower down. Look out for the sneaky trails that pitch off the main tracks.
Drove down from Glen Coe today. Pretty complete fresh snow over 2000 feet. With the freezing level at 600-800M until Friday I'd guess you can expect soft snow and ice on the Nevis Range downhill at the weekend.
http://www.mwis.org.uk/scottish-forecast.asp?fa=WH&d=2015-05-01
Everything in the forest is fine, including whatever of the uplift tracks is in there. The work is going on above the trees on both. Nothing to stop you pushing up, but with the work ongoing it's 'not very rideable'. That's from my mate who works there.