MTB Coast to Coast

As promised earlier a non-climbing post!

Monday morning text from Nikki, "fancy doing the Fort William - Montrose MTB coast to coast, leaving early Sat and back on Monday?"
I was game, despite not knowing what this entailed other than the obvious, and had no time to find out due to a busy week on Flood Forecasting Duty.

I packed a light bag for the trip consisting of: - 1 change of clothes; 1 jumper; 1 waterproof jacket; repair kit, pump and map; 1 malt loaf; 8 chocolate bars; 1.5l of water; 2 mobiles (my smartphone acting as a replacement camera for the trip); and after catching the last train from Glasgow I turned up in Fort William at 10pm. Here I caught up with Nikki, Neil, Alex and Neil's friends 16 year old son (whom I forget the name of) in the curry house. After a bit of planning (the plan being the route in the MTB Scotland book which usually takes 4-7 days though we were doing it in 3 via nights in Newton Bridge and Ballater - full route here) and chat they all piled into the car to Glen Nevis Youth Hostel, and I raced them through the pitch black on the bike... ultimately loosing after they overtook me with much hollering and light flashing just after the Nevis car park! I also did nearly cycle into two people, but having no lights on them I can't be blamed for this!

Nikki and Alex somewhere near
the start of the Corriearick Pass

We set off at quickly at 7am, after a good breakfast and some pilfered coffee, and ended up in Fort Augustus by 11:30am, just in time for a pub lunch! To get here the route is ~40 miles of fast and flat riding, following much of the canal path the whole way. It was then onto the harder section of the day, the Corriearick Pass. This follows the old (1730's) General Wade’s military road (he did seem to like to build lots of roads!!!) with a big slog up to the top off the pass at 780m. This took us about 3 hours from lunch, and one mis-direction by me to this point and involved some pushing along the way as the ground is soft and sandy for much of it making the going hard, probably even with packs on.

Start of the decent - note the drainage ditch size!

We were all feeling a bit knackered after this (especially the young one) and were running low on water, but thankfully the hardest part of the day was done, with a massive rewarding 20km descent down into Laggan. Don't go too quick down this as the drainage ditches are massive, with quite a few being too big to pull or jump over! One puncture later we had passed over the pass and were into Laggan. The young lads parents picked him up where the road meets the pass and offered to take our bags to the pub in Laggan, where we could meet them and pick them up.

Puncture stop - the young one's first ever puncture
& lesson in bike maintenance

Midge Proof Nikki!

                                                   Tired, but happy


One thing we did learn, was despite however knackered you are don't give away your packs!!! As a result we were all running on empty energy wise only being pulled along by the sadistically pleasurable noise of knobbly tyres on tarmac. We were also caught out in a heavy downpour without our jackets, and had no phones which again proved costly once we finally reached Laggan as we didn't know what pub we were to meet at. Eventually after some inter-pub phone calls and a bit of luck they arrived around 1 hour having gone looking for us thinking we had an accident (we were in the other pub at this point!). A bit of leisurely nosh later and copious amounts of tea we then cycled to Newtonmore to get around 22:30.

Unfortunately by the time we arrived, having cycled the 70miles of the day, my knees were hurting as they had done around 6 months before. This wasn't good though I have now realised it is the angle set up of the SPDs which has caused this! Despite trying to sleep it off by the time we set off on the Saturday to Ballater I only made it as far as Kingussie (not far at all) where I jumped on the train back to Glasgow after pleading my way on by looking miserable. I knew there was a chance he wasn't going to let me on since I hadn't booked a bike on so when the train pulled up I overplayed my injury. Even then he took some convincing!
Some old guy gave me a pork pie though so its not all bad :-) (I must have looked miserable/gutted!)

I'm pretty gutted I didn't manage to get the whole 3 days done, especially given the route through Cairngorm via the lovely Lin of Dee, so I will have to go back and finish it off. I am however happy to report the other 3 did make it despite the washed out bridges on the descent from Mt Keen!


The decision to stop was the right one though given that its one of those injuries which can be exacerbated easily and take even long to heal up. It took a few months last time and sadly probably will do this time too. Plus if I would have carried on it would have slowed them down quite a bit and there is little chance of rescue at points, even without trying to get generously kind friends to come get you! (It would have been one of you Dundee guys though!)

Quad Rocks

I've been a bit lapse with the blog recently, with my only excuse being that the things I've been up to not being climbing related and therefore I don't have to do write it up. I do think that writing up helps when I look back on what I've been up to when people ask me! I'm therefore going to start writing up what else I get up to on the road and mountain bikes and stuff as well... well that's the theory!

So on that note the parents and Adam came up and stayed in Callender for the week. I therefore took long weekends both this and last weekend. The weather conditions were fluctuating all week but they still had a good time, where we went to the Fringe in Edinburgh on the Monday as well as doing quite a few walks and a bit of late evening  MTB around Callender Crags with Adam. They drove home yesterday, dropping me off around midday. By mid afternoon I was in Balloch with Rosie for a brisk walk as it was a super day, which ended up like all good days should with ice cream down by the Loch.

This afternoon Andy and Nathan picked me up after they finished work, and we headed to Quad Rocks in Largs via a scenic detour through Prestwick (we missed the turning!). I have to say I wasn't expecting much from the place having heard everything was super easy, however I found a few harder things (for me) to have a crack on. Plus there is a cracking view over to Arran, which was complemented by the moody weather we had at points. (free guide here)

Arran at the back with Cumbre and Largs in the foreground

Nathan happy after
his first HVS second

Andy wasn't up for leading as it had been a while and he still isn't too confident with trad yet, so I ended up leading all day which I didn't mind at all.We started on the Severe 'Big Corner', before moving onto Flake Wall (HVS), where I guessed the route and from the description it could be said I did a slight variant but at the grade climbing between the wall and the grassy crack, though not using this. Nathan put in an excellent performance following me up this before Andy stripped it.




I finished the day by doing the Severe 'Slab and Corner' and an arête on the lower crag on the way out before mideageddon! Anything on this lower crag would give some good easy solo's to go at, with everything in the guide being below VDiff or thereabouts.

The only other people at the crag on  Big Corner

                   Flake Wall - easy start good climbing further up

Quad Rocks Main Crag. Big Corner in centre picture

An Evening at Dumby

The weather this week has been unusually tropical for Glasgow, so I was eager to get out and get something done after work despite having a slightly sprained wrist from climbing too much at the wall the previous week...I think!

Billy from the wall informed me about his climbing club - "Scottish Hillwalking and Activities Group" (SHAG?!?!) - and sent me a text saying a group were heading up to Dumbarton after work today. Unfortunately his knee was playing up so couldn't make it. I still went up and after traversing and doing a few easy solos I met three folk from the club and got going sharing their pad. Even bumped into Mike and a few others and a guy from Chorley. Good to get a bit of Northern England again!

I should mention that despite living in Glasgow a year now this was my first trip climbing there! I'd cycled past three or four times, but being in the SPDs I'd just had a nosey around. 
 
Ticklist for the evening:

Rankin's Bajin	VB 4a	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Soixante Neuf	font 3+ *	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Pas Mal	font 3 *	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
No.1 Route	font 3+ *	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
The Blue Meanie	font 5 ***	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
PTO	font 5 *	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Left Edge	font 3 *	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Fridays Fill	font 3 *	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Friar's Mantle	font 4+ ***	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Ungava	font 4+	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Right Edge	font 3+	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Warmup Wall Low Traverse	font 5	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Hard Cheddar	font 5+ ***	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Hard Cheddar SS	font 6a	Sent		-	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock
Gorilla	font 6b ***	Sent dnf		Y	08/Aug/12	Dumbarton Rock

The bouldering at Dumby certainly lives up to its reputation of hard climbing on super compact rock which can get you super strong or dishearten you beyond belief! Thankfully I managed to get on relatively well by my standards, and have lots left to go at. I'll definitely be back to finish of the super cool "Gorilla" which involves a big pull off one good foot over a roof, into a side-pull match then lunge to the lip on the left. I fell at the last stage of this but didn't rest long enough to give it another good going, instead jumping on too quick and getting to this same point before running out of juice. Besides the Dumby 'locals' playing their old school dance tunes wasn't the most inspiring thing ever.

On a wider note there has been some debate recently in the national press about removing the graffiti off the boulders as it is an eyesore for the town. I agree the graffiti being removed, since it is unsightly, but I also agree that some should be left due to its being pretty cool and also significant in the climbs based around it and Scottish history (i.e. the home rule boulder/poem). One thing I don't get however it can be unsightly for the town as you can't see it from anywhere, even from the castle. The only way you could would be walk around to the boulders themselves or the river bank opposite. Nobody other than climbers and local youths would venture here anyway. If it does get removed it will be interesting to see how long the rock remains graffiti free. I hope I'm being pessimistic in expecting only a few weeks.

In all I had a great evening out, made friends with a few people and will more than likely be heading out with SHAG some more in the future. Dumby will be getting a fair few more visits too!