Lets do something fun. Or stupid, maybe stupid.

One of the things I like about living in Scotland is looking at the weather and selecting an appropriate outdoor activity. But sometimes it’s fun to go and do something wholly unsuitable for the prevailing conditions.

This is the tale of how a 90min ride can turn into a 6 hour epic.

Deep snow: fun but really, really, hard work

Red weather warnings had passed and the snow was thick on the ground. My boating plans had been called off, Laura’s flight to Paris had been cancelled. We were both at a loose end for the weekend, so why not go biking!
The plan: Try to get to the Pentlands and see what we could ride.

2 mins after leaving Laura’s house, we were stopped by a bloke in a 4WD: “you’ll not get much further up road, it’s only ploughed as far as the last house”. Undeterred we carried on, what did he know; we’d spent all winter training for the Puffer of course we can probably cope…

Harlaw Road, shortly after the last house

Pretty soon we reached the last house. Snow had drifted to handlebar-height in places, but there was a clear path where walkers had been through. We intermittently pushed and rode through the snow, the was just a taste of what was to come.

Harlaw Road: Definitely Not Ploughed

The ‘badgers’ path was totally snowed over, so we opted to stick on the ‘road’ to get to Harlaw reservoir. Shortly before the turnoff we bumbled into a digger trying to clear the road from the other direction. We had about 100m of cleared road to cycle on, little did we know this was most we cycle for the next couple of hours.

Maybe we'll not go this way

Turning in to the Harlaw car park, the folks living in the cottage were out clearing their path. They looked at us like we were mad. “What is this, the comedy winter Olympics?”, they laughed at us. I peddled full tilt at the on coming snow drift. Unsurprisingly, my front wheel stuck in the drift and I just about saved myself from going over the handle bars.

We pushed through to the car park exit. I’d suggested, we try to get back toward my house on the tracks. Once through the gate we discovered we couldn’t even see where the track was. Laura pointed out, you could see the sign post marking the next turning, that would give us something to aim for.

Evidence we did some actual riding

Intermittently cycling and pushing we set off, eventually we got to the turning to head back down towards my house. The normal option here is to continue through a gate and climb up the pass through Maidens Cleugh.  I pushed through the gate ‘just to see what it’s like’.  Laura looked at me, “I mean we’ve got all day…”.

Oh more pushing, fun

Before we knew what was happening we were pushing our bikes up the pass, every so often a wind swept piece of path offered 10-20 meters of riding. A group of fell runners passed us with a shout of “Hello fellow Nutters!”.

Two 'Nutters' and their spurious fashion choices

After a lot of pushing and a lot of giggles, we reached the top of the pass. Feeling like heroes we stopped for a quick chocolate break. (Side note: While the rest of Scotland has been panic buying bread and milk, the shops have had no shortage of my essential items. Chocolate, squirty cream and cheese have been available in abundance).

Top of the Pass. We are Heroes.

Since we’d made it to the top of the pass we figured we may as well continue down to Glencorse, and then if it was really bad we could always come home on the roads. The descent was much more rideable than the climb.  Although there were still some patches of deep snow, occasionally sinking up to our waists.  One particularly deep drift caught my front wheel, and I catapulted over the handle bars and landed in soft snow. After a solid minute of laughing, Laura recovered enough to pull my bike off of me.

Descent to Glencouse

Carrying on down hill I stopped to take photos, just as Laura disappeared out of sight I heard a woop and a scream. Gingerly rounding the bend, I found Laura face down in the snow sliding gently toward a gorse bush. Karma.

Pretty soon, some 3hours after setting off, we reached the tarmac road on the other side of the hill. We’d made it halfway round the loop. In for a penny - in for a pound, we might as well complete our usual Pentland loop.

Laura sinks over her wellies

Passing more groups of walkers (funnily no other bikers), we always aimed to be cycling as we passed them ‘looking cool’. Unsurprisingly this failed on most occasions. We did however manage to ride stylishly past one group, “Oh I will give that a round of Applause – well done!”. We rode on to the sound of clapping. Shortly afterwards I sunk up to my waist in another snow drift.

Woo track-stand! (much easier wedged into the snow)

Just as we were getting back to a road we met a rider on a plus bike coming in the opposite direction. He warned us we’d need to be prepared for pushing if we were to continue. We assured him we were now experts at pushing thorough snow.

Back on a tarmac road

On the descent I had my first ever attempt at the single track on the left hand side of the tarmac hill! (My usual right hand side trail was too snow covered as was the tarmac).

Coming to the path round the reservoirs we overtook a group of crosscountry skiers, and much to my surprise, stayed ahead of them. The paths through the trees were a lot more sheltered and mostly rideable through a few inches of soft powder.

The way is definitely blocked.

As we’d noted setting off, the return track was completely blocked. We created an alternative route pushing through the visitor garden, back to the Harlaw carpark. We’d made it! Returning home via freshly ploughed roads, I arrived exhausted, a mere 6 hours and 6 minutes after setting off.

What an experience!

(but maybe never again)

Top of Maidens Cleugh, feeling like a hero (and an idiot)

Winter Traverse 2018

The avalanche forecast was high, the weather looked ‘mixed’, it must be time for the annual winter traverse!

Stob a'Choire Odhair summit, (guess who has new waterproof trousers on!)

The full route, an ambitious 7 munro circuit. Never really a likely possibility, but y’know it’s good to have goals.

Original (ambitious) route Plan

Arriving at real food café as the doors opened we had a cheeky breakfast stop before heading to Bridge of Orchy station to meet the rest of the group off the sleeper train.

Beginning the ascent

Having collected team sleeper train, we headed up to the valley to begin the ascent of Stob a'Choire Odhair. Quickly we reached snow line, and easy steps turned into wading through snow, with the occasional comedy fall into a hidden hole.

Heading down into the col, the snow turned to ice pack. At least I wasn’t carrying my crampons for nothing! Fully winter kitted up, we continued our descent.

The original plan was to head along the Aonach Eagach ridge (not that Aonach Eagach!), this being likely to be corniced we changed our route. After much discussion half the group headed down a different way and the rest of us continued for the summit, with plans to join the groups again at camp.

Final climb of Stob Ghabhar

Choosing to contour around, we headed up onto a different ridge, it was alarmingly steep in places, but the snowpack was stable. The ascent was more of a game of mind over matter to make our way to the summit of Stob Ghabhar. The clouds came and went on the summit showing a tiny crack on a cornice near the summit. Staying away from the edge on the ascent was definitely a good call!

Summit selfie on Stob Ghabhar

Coming off the top we made our way along the boundary and into the col where we’d thought about setting up camp. A conspicuous lack of running water and rest of the group meant we needed to head further into the valley.

Descending, we were practically swimming through the snow in places. It was pretty was exhausting, and a bit of a race against sunset (especially as muggins forgot to pack her head torch). Just before nightfall, we found the second half of the group, camped where the stream emerged from the snowline.

Tents were pitched in the dark and it quickly began to rain. I scoffed my pot noodle (top hill food!) and hit the sack.

I fell asleep to the sound of a game of ‘top munro’ being politicised in the background. Tony Braeriach and Jeremy Corbett haunted my dreams.

Sunrise, not raining!

We woke up to glorious weather (as in not raining), and set off, but not before a lengthy game of king/queen of faff.

The plan was to contour round to the next valley dump bags and ascend Meall nan Eun. As it turned out the climb to summit was rather steep. After a quick Ice Axe 101 lesson, we began to ascend.

Views from the contouring

As we climbed chunks of snow started to fall from our footsteps, a few of these started to gain a bit of size. I began to feel a bit (a lot) out of my depth. With 300 m still to climb and feeling a bit nervous about the descent we decided it was time to make a sensible decision and abort the mission.

The actual route 

We had some top sledging action on the descent, (there may have been squealing), and we made our way to the valley floor intact.

Once off the slope we started to relax, I managed to show off my lack of throwing ability in the ensuing snowball fight. Other people with better aim showed off how it should be done, I took two direct hits to the head.

We then marched down the valley to get back to the cars asap, looking forward to café at the end. Perhaps the sketchiest part of the whole day was the crossing around the stream and border fence. Involving a climb around a loose peat cliff above a deep part of the river.

Sketchiest part of the whole day? (Photo: Jim)

Eventually we made it back to the cars and headed back to real food café to round out the trip before going our separate ways.

Winter traverse: Never a disappointing weekend! Great to catch up with everyone 😊

Now to hang up the mountain of wet kit…

Ladies of Balerno take on the Strathpuffer 2018

“Freezing temperatures. 17 hours of darkness. Miles upon miles of gruelling terrain. A brutal mix of ice, wind, hail, mud and snow, and maybe, just maybe, a glorious Scottish winter sunrise”.

Strathpuffer 2018 living up to expectations

The Strathpuffer. It sounded like the epitome of a type 2 fun event, (with a possibility of veering dangerously close to type 3). I wasn’t disappointed.

The Ladies of Balerno, (Caroline, Rachel, Laura and Tamsin) the 'before' picture

The Ladies of Balerno formed a crack team, with weekly team training rides in the Pentlands we went out in all conditions. On good weather weeks we met loads of other riders, on bad weather weeks not a soul (the Storm Caroline week was a definite ‘highlight’).

One from many LoB training rides in questionable weather

The original goal on signing up was to get on the podium, however since the summer our bodies did not always play ball. Between us we were plagues by: Back injury, nerve damage, concussion, norovirus and colds that just wouldn’t quit. By the time we got to the start to simply stick the course for 24 hours would be a victory, anything more would be a bonus.

Conditions deteriorate on the journey north 

 After a last minute bike-still-in-workshop panic, we left Edinburgh around midday and started our drive North. There was heaps of snow by the side of the A9 and occasional snow flurries giving us a taster of what was to come.

Race registration 

Arriving later than planned at the Puffer course the site was a snow-covered confusion of vehicles trying to find their ideal spot. The fire road up the course was way too icy to drive up without snow chains. Instead we found our pitch on the low road about 300m from transition.

Arriving on site in a blizzard on Friday afternoon

Once the van was parked we set about making a camp, including some serious snow shovelling to clear the tent area. Getting tour 100kg generator out of the van and safely sited, was actually was much easier than anticipated. 

How much kit do 4 ladies need for 1 race... A lot!

Back at the hostel we did our final bit of carb loading and caught an early night. The morning came all too quickly and with the car reading -8°C we set off to continue prerace prep. Russell set up a mechanic crew area, Tamsin got ready for lap 1 and Laura and I worked out how get the genny going (huge thanks to Stevie for the giant genny loan, it was a godsend).

Saturday morning driving to the course, yep that's ice in the car

Soon we heading down to transition for race briefing at the start. New snow had fallen overnight it was going to be a challenging course. Happily all the team were equipped with ice spike tyres we were going to need them!

Waiting for Tamsin at the start

Tamsin (aka The Snow Plow), was volunteered for the first lap, requiring a running start to the bike. Battling through the queues and snow Tamsin put in a great first lap transitioning to Caroline. Before I knew it was my turn standing in transition waiting. Caroline appeared on the final descent with a mighty woop. Russell pulled off my down jacket we switched over the dibber and I set off.

The course looked completely different from our practice weekend. Charging through the snow on the climb was tough, but I overtook plenty of people. The crews parked all the way along the climb were full of support, cheers and good tunes.

Tamsin The-Snow-Plow returning from lap 1

Soon I was on the single track, I was worried I’d be holding people up, but there were places to overtake, I even overtook a few people! The slab looked a bit sketchy covered in ice so I opted for running/slipping down the side. Soon onto the ‘new’ bits of the course. It was a bit rooty, summer sessions at Glentress with coach Laura had been time well spent. The extra sections made the course feel quite a bit longer, eventually I returned to transition. Then I was back to camp to write my time on the white board 1:12 – not too bad.

Beautiful weather, plowing through that snow was Tough work

Pretty soon the sun set and 17 hours of darkness followed. By my second lap the snow was compacted and the course running faster and icier, I was grateful of my ice tyres (thanks Tamsin!), we moved from 4^th team to 3rd and running well.

LoB base camp 

Waiting in transition for my third lap, Caroline came piling in “I’ve overtaken a Fandango, I think we’re in second”. Now to try and keep the lead, I had a few crashes on this lap trying to keep a good pace. Not the best. I was worried I might have lost our second place. Back at camp Alison arrived to help Russell with crew duties, she handed me a toasted bagel and tomato soup before I tried to get my head down for a couple of hours sleep.

Whiteboard of lap times

Far too soon it was time to get on with my fourth lap, 2:30am is not my favourite time to be riding. Happily I discovered we were still in second position with healthy lead over the Fandangos (but no chance of catching the Oban girls in 1^st). The smoke from all the fires was getting to my lungs and I was coughing like a smoker. I did a pretty slow lap at 1:20, but at this hour just keeping on moving is what counts. Back to camp I forced down some food and collapsed into a camp chair.

That 4am feeling (photo: caroline)

 Now strategic maths began, we definitely hadtime to get a 5^th lap each, but would we have enough time for one person to get a 6^th lap in, would we need to to keep our placing and was anybody keen enough to do it? 

Excitingly my final lap took in the sunrise. I set off in the dark, but with every pedal the sky got brighter. This was good because both my lights were about to die.

The mood on the course had shifted, the end was in sight. I passed the event photographer somewhere on the fire road “are you loving it” he shouted at me “YES” I replied, surprised to find this was actually true! The sunrise at the top of the climb was incredible, a splash of red across the sky interrupted by tiny puffy clouds. Spectacular. I passed another rider stopped to take a photo.

Sunrise lap (Other laps: not this smiley)

Coming down the final descent I was trying to pick up my speed. One mis-timed corner I wiped out and landed on my helmet putting a wee dent in it. Nothing could stop me now though scrambled back on and got to transition in a reasonable time, passed over to Laura.

We were fairly comfortably in second, nobody was required to do a sixth lap. This was a big relief for everyone. After getting changed and a cheeky cup of tea, we all headed to transition to wait for Laura to return. Just before she came in, Cat came careering in, completing her 15^th lap and confirming her win in the female solo category what an effort!

Laura finishes the final LoB lap

 With Laura back and big grins all round we finished second in the female quads. Way better that we thought we could achieve 24 hour earlier. The Ladies of Balerno are capable of more than they think they are! Camped packed away we headed over to the marquee for prize giving.

On the podium :-D

The snow was coming down hard as we drove home making it quite an ‘exciting’ journey. But that’s a story for another day…

Driving home 'exciting'

Immediately after my final lap I think I muttered ‘never-again’. But as the pain subsided and the win set in, maybe, just maybe, we’ll be back who knows?

Trophy !

Finally having Russell and Alison to crew for us probably made the difference between us coming third and second. I can’t thank them enough for giving up their weekends to help keep 4 dishevelled ladies on their bikes.

When your crew makes team medals!
(a genuine Rusty Nutz product!)

Winter is here!

After a death defying drive on unplowed snowy roads, I arrived in Corpach, a shivering nervous wreck. Ashley Phil and Ivanka having arrived a couple of days earlier, had no issues with the drives but had been out all day braving Storm Caroline.

The snow was still coming down as we tucked into fish and chips and hatched a plan for Saturday. The verdict Gulivan, the mountain of the long long walk in, and out.

Saturday morning was clearer than expected and setting off at dawn we saw the sun rise over clear skies on the mountains. Maybe the drive would be worth it afterall.

Phil heading up the beginning of the climb. The car is well beyond the trees in the furthest part of the valley

Poor Phil was rather broken from a fall the day before. Halfway up the  slope I heroically volunteered to carry his crampons (I didn’t expect him to say yes!)

Ashely and Phil at the trip point, the summit is still a ways off

Clearish skies on the Summit of Gulivan 

Returning along the ridge

 We still had to get to the summit with the trig point, we were really pushing the daylight. We reached the bottom of the slopes in good time, well just before it really started to get dark anyway. The walkout along the track seemed to go on forever, but eventually returned to the car and back to Corpach for victory pizza

Back to the trig point

The forecast for Sunday was brilliant, just brilliant. Unfortunately team London had a flight to catch, so the search was on for a ‘smash and grab’ Munro, just off the main road to get on the way home. The solution: Stob Coire Raineach (Buachaille Etive Beag). We arrived in the car park, vehicle  thermometers showing a balmy -9°C. Unlike Gulivan, where we hadn’t seen a soul, there were already quite a few other hikers out on the hill.

The hike up was almost entirely in the shade

Once we got into the sunshine though it was amazing!

The fresh snow and clear skies made for some excellent photo opportunities

Stob Coire Raineach: summit selfie

In fact we spent a hilarious half hour or so trying to perfect the ideal social media profile photo on the summit. I mean these sort of conditions don't come around often y'know!

This is my favourite I am the orange blob on the outcrop

Since we got off the hill in good time we popped into the Clachaig Inn for cheeky hot chocolates before Ashley Phil and Ivanka set off for their flight.

Hot chocolate in the Clachaig, always a winner

 I however was not in a rush to get home, and therefore did the double. Stopping off at Real food Cafe for cake before heading on down the road. 

Real Food Cafe, so many choices!

Driving home I stuck to the main roads, I've learned my leasson going over a 'short cut'  in bad weather

Finally some pano fun at the top!