Dan Bradley's avatar
06 February, 2012
By Dan Bradley

On the road to nowhere… getting back to fitness

I get asked a lot how to get fit or get better at climbing. Most of the time my answer is the same; unless you are prepared to start a specific training plan just do more. In May...

Alpkit's avatar
31 January, 2012
By Alpkit

Patagonia Expedition Race 2012 preparation

The 10th edition of the Patagonia Expedition Race gets underway on the 14th of Feb. Having undergone a selection process, of the 20 teams there will be one from the UK and they...

Alpkit's avatar
30 January, 2012
By Alpkit

Back to Antarctica

Antarctica season #1 saw Bethan Davies and team head out to James Ross Island back in 2011. In just over a weeks time she’ll be heading back out there with a slightly different...

Alpkit's avatar
23 January, 2012
By Alpkit

Arrowhead 135 - run

Arrowhead 135. Northern Minnesota USA. Deep Winter ultra-endurance, bike, ski or run. Paul Errington took it on by bike back in 2010, this year will see Lee Peyton heading out to...

Ramon Marin's avatar
23 January, 2012
By Ramon Marin

Cogne/Dobbiaco - part 2

...5 days to go, and no M11’s around… So what do we do? Change clothes, get the espresso maker going in the car park and start driving to the Dolomites in search of some hard...

Ramon Marin's avatar
23 January, 2012
By Ramon Marin

Cogne/Dobbiaco - part 1

This week I was called the “epitome of dedication”. I think they might be right. Kris and I have been training for a specific goal this winter, our first proper M11. I’ve climbed...

Anna Kennett's avatar
18 January, 2012
By Anna Kennett

Factory Diary Week 1

Exciting news from the AlpFactory; this week we finally, actually, properly start production (albeit tentatively - baby steps)! On Friday we finished the final production sample...

Ramon Marin's avatar
05 January, 2012
By Ramon Marin

Lip Project

A few days later we were driving again in the dense Welsh rain. Are we going climbing, really? Yes, drytooling will sort you out in the grimmest days. My day started with hardly...

Luke Tilley's avatar
03 January, 2012
By Luke Tilley

Leeds!

Wow hit in the face by University, international competition seems a doddle in comparison! I have begun a new challenging period; with a base in Leeds climbing has potential to be...

Ramon Marin's avatar
29 December, 2011
By Ramon Marin

The “Goods” bootcamp

Winter has finally arrived, time to dust off the ice axes. I have to admit I’ve been putting it off as much as I could, the summer has been way too good to let it go that easy....

Nicola Beeby's avatar
20 December, 2011
By Nicola Beeby

Getting my kayaking video skills up to scratch

Having a few big adventures planned for 2012 I’ve decided I want to get my video and editing skills up to scratch! With this in mind I thought I’d put my new Go-Pro to the test...

Pete Dollman's avatar
19 December, 2011
By Pete Dollman

Westway Christmas Party and drytooling extravaganza

Last Friday was the Westway climbing centre’s Christmas bash, featuring an open drytooling comp using Figfours on the Westway’s impressive outdoor lead wall to kick off the...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
13 December, 2011
By Nicola Beeby

Training has begun

For a while I’ve fancied the idea at having ago at adventure races, not sure why but they do look like fun, so I’ve signed up for one on the 1st April 2012 - The Haglofs open 5...

Ramon Marin's avatar
08 November, 2011
By Ramon Marin

8a with no spurs

Hardly a month goes by before hearing that some super-wad has climbed yet another 9a+ route. Young guns nowadays have it quite hard to make a name for themselves, the bar has...

Alpkit's avatar
07 November, 2011
By Alpkit

British Universities Kayaking Expedition Venezuela - Full Video

The Expedition went to the amazing South American country, Venezuela.  Based around 3 locations; the steep, boulder rivers in Merida, the 33,000 cumecs Rio Orinoco monster and...

Kenny's avatar
02 November, 2011
By Kenny

Reflecting on the Big Shakeout

We were well past the point of no return when we decided the Big Shakeout was a mistake. Everything was committed, but we were queueing up in line to bail.

Lemmings are born...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
24 October, 2011
By Nicola Beeby

Trying the Kangri

A few days before heading to Scotland for a kayaking trip I borrowed the new Kangri tent from Alpkit. I had been looking for a “proper” tent for a while as up until now i’ve been...

Anna Kennett's avatar
20 October, 2011
By Anna Kennett

Pick of the Big Shakeout

As the new girl in the Alpkit team I’m quite excited to be writing my first daring deed! Jim has asked us to write about our favourite bit of this weekend’s Big Shakeout...

Luke Tilley's avatar
20 October, 2011
By Luke Tilley

British Lead Climbing Championships 2011

There is still so much to tell about a complete shake up of my routines having started studying at Leeds University, but here is a quick update on the competition circuit!

I...

Alpkit's avatar
20 October, 2011
By Alpkit

Uniyakers Venezuela Sum Up

The Uniyakers are back from their expedition to Venezuela and here they sum up a great trip.

All photos © Rob Moffatt. Thanks Rob

In Venezuela, thousands of unknown rivers...

Luke Tilley's avatar
12 October, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Climbing in the Ariege

You must excuse my lack of updates, I know you have heard this many times from many people and I don’t deserve any sympathy but I have just been so busy! Hear me out, enjoy and...

Alpkit's avatar
12 October, 2011
By Alpkit

Made In Iceland

The Shipwrecked Rambler, Klara Harden embarked on a solo voyage across Iceland and to document the journey. Enjoy the photos. The film will be premiering at our Big Shakeout 15th...

Johnny's avatar
08 September, 2011
By Johnny

Ultra Tour of the Lake District - The Lakeland 100

Following my previous article, it has been a month of lounging around and not much running, except for an amazing day/night/day/bit-of-a-night out in the Lakes.

The Lakeland 100!...

Kenny's avatar
04 September, 2011
By Kenny

Giro di Monte Bianco

The Tour of Mont Blanc is an 11 day trek around Mont Blanc. I didn’t have 11 days, I wanted to keep a lunch appointment with a friend in 3 days time, but I did have a bike and...

Kenny's avatar
02 September, 2011
By Kenny

Work hard, canoe home

Over the years of commuting to and from work in Ilkeston team Alpkit has driven, cycled, bused, walked and run, but there was one mode of transport that we all participate in...

Nick's avatar
01 September, 2011
By Nick

Coasteering with Boulder Adventures

Messing about on rocks near the sea or as they call it now - Coasteering

Every year we try and get the most out of our company, our friends, our family and some dubious hangers...

Alpkit's avatar
30 August, 2011
By Alpkit

Team Sky Ropes

A crack team from Alpkit GHQ headed to Thornbridge Outdoors in order to see what they could throw at them.

The Big Shakeout weekend is all set to get the adrenaline pumping for...

Alpkit's avatar
25 August, 2011
By Alpkit

Learning on the road

Last month James and Adrian headed off on a 100 day tour of over 20 European countries. Although very familiar with the two wheeled type of transport, when it comes to cycle...

Alpkit's avatar
24 August, 2011
By Alpkit

Antarctic Season #2

At the beginning of the year Bethan Davies and crew spent a few months on James Ross Island, Antarctica. Well they are due to head back again in 2012. You can catch the first...

Alpkit's avatar
22 August, 2011
By Alpkit

Rain-stop-Sun-stop-Wind-stop

The Shipwrecked Rambler- first telegram from Iceland

Experience the horizontal rain, cross ice-cold rivers and climb up mountains. THIS IS WONDERFUL!

Back in Reykjavik for a...

Shaggy's avatar
22 August, 2011
By Shaggy

Detours, illness and the Colorado Trail race

Done! That was amazing. Super hard.

5 days 15hrs and 10th place, I think. Very ill the first few days but got myself sorted and nailed all the hard sections to make up a lot of...

Luke Tilley's avatar
22 August, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Triple Success

Three weeks at Ceuse and my time here draws to a close, what a trip it has been so far!

The end of last week saw a quick dispatch of Radote Joli Pepere a stunning line starting...

Jay's avatar
19 August, 2011
By Jay

Geo-Caching

A giant game of puzzles, gps and treasure hunting!!

So how easy is it to do and what do you need? Surprisingly little, a smartphone that can go on the net, some sort of gps...

Izzy Bolger's avatar
11 August, 2011
By Izzy Bolger

Canoe Safari teaser.

Water…it’s my biggest fear apart from wrists, but that’s another story completely. I can swim and have all my life saving awards, but give me the choice of land or sea and...

Alpkit's avatar
11 August, 2011
By Alpkit

Uni Kayakers in Venezuela

After arriving into the boiling heat of Caracas we started a long drive West to a rafting base near Barinas. Here we spent a few days finding our feet paddling the local rafting...

Colin's avatar
09 August, 2011
By Colin

Going Underground

I’d never been caving, never really having the inclination to venture into the belly of the Earth whilst the outer surface gave me ample space to run around waving my arms in a...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
05 August, 2011
By Nicola Beeby

Short trip to Slovenia

For my second trip to the alps this summer, I headed to Slovenia for what I guessed would be blue skies, clear emerald green water and good paddling, and it didn’t disappoint....

Nick's avatar
04 August, 2011
By Nick

Walking to work

Today I walked in to work, it took me 2 1/2 hours. I didn’t wake up any earlier and I got into work about 15 mins late. I decided to do it 39mins before I set off so I didn’t need...

Shaggy's avatar
31 July, 2011
By Shaggy

Colorado Trail Race

Tomorrow at 06:30 I’m setting off on the Colorado Trail Race.
Basically, I’m trying to ride just short of 500 miles with 65,000” climbing (twice up Everest or the 21 times up...

Johnny's avatar
28 July, 2011
By Johnny

The long and rocky road to the Lakeland 100… Part 2

Tracey, a supermotivated running friend of mine sent me a Facebook link to the Lakeland 100. It is a 105 mile round of the Lake District, with just short of 21000ft of climbing....

Johnny's avatar
28 July, 2011
By Johnny

The long and rocky road to the Lakeland 100… Part 1

You will rarely hear a runner say that they are in tiptop form, or running really well, especially on the start line of a race. (That is until the gun goes “bang” and everyone...

Luke Tilley's avatar
15 July, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Two classics fall to the flash

I am super psyched to have pushed my personal best with two flash ascents of routes graded 8a+. Femme Blanche is a super classic technical climb starting sustained on a slightly...

Paul Errington's avatar
15 July, 2011
By Paul Errington

The Grenzstein Experience Part 3

The start of day 3 was the same deal as day 2 ... 4.30am alarm and away by 5am.

This time we were straight onto the tank plate then off for a short while then back on for what...

Ramon Marin's avatar
14 July, 2011
By Ramon Marin

Schooled in Ceüse

A couple of weeks ago I booked some flights for a long weekend to Spain in the heat of the moment. I didn’t have a plan, just a vague idea to go and check my friend’s crag to be...

Ashleigh Naysmith's avatar
14 July, 2011
By Ashleigh Naysmith

Falling For the Fun of It

Hello again! It has been a while since my last Daring Deed - turns out my new miniature climbing buddy isn’t a great training partner- she would much rather eat the chalk and...

Luke Tilley's avatar
11 July, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Pushing things Forward

We have picked up the pace in camp Ceuse, the walk in is feeling easier everyday and the classics are falling one by one. We are working a two day on, one day off rotor and I have...

Paul Errington's avatar
08 July, 2011
By Paul Errington

The Grenzstein Experience Part 2

Day 2 was approached more business like… alarm at 4.30am.. we were packed and moving by 5.00am.

The riding in the morning featured a lot of equestrian trail, this means sand.....

Luke Tilley's avatar
08 July, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Settled in Ceuse

A camp above the white cliffs, mayhem through Paris, a night in the hammock and we are finally settled in with the Rig 7 tarpaulin set up with the snazziest tent pegs on the site....

Alpkit's avatar
01 July, 2011
By Alpkit

British Uni’s Kayak Expedition 2011 - Venezuela.

Since the first British University Kayak Expedition to Kyrgyzstan back in 2005 some of the best student kayakers have been chomping at the bit to secure a place on one. Running...

Luke Tilley's avatar
29 June, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Euro rock trip

My bags are packed to bursting, have I got everything? 2 days have passed since the weight of A levels was lifted mercifully from my shoulders. The euphoria has not yet subsided,...

Paul Errington's avatar
28 June, 2011
By Paul Errington

The Grenzstein Experience Part 1

The Grenzstein Experience
“A Political border does not take into consideration the topography of the land which it crosses, the surface upon which it travels or the need of a...

Pete Rhodes's avatar
21 June, 2011
By Pete Rhodes

Simply do fun things

Coming back from Troll Wall was an extremely disappointing event. Over the last few months I’ve gone through a whole host of different stages of motivation and am just now...

Kenny's avatar
21 June, 2011
By Kenny

Lord of the Loops Midnight Madness

The Dark Peak MTB guide had been on my shelf since last years Big Shakeout and now with the long evenings and a full moon it felt like the perfect opportunity to take on the...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
20 June, 2011
By Nicola Beeby

Simply Paddling

I’d heard levels in the alps were at a all time low, and the way people were talking you would think there wasn’t a drop to be found anywhere, So we set off for our 2 weeks in the...

Paul Errington's avatar
20 June, 2011
By Paul Errington

Grenzsteintrophy Monday Update

Sunday..
So far.. 195km on the first day, 230km yesterday but 1100m peak today so 125km ish. Need to average 140km a day from here to make the flight. Tough going from here, only...

Paul Errington's avatar
17 June, 2011
By Paul Errington

Grenzsteintrophy

Bike packed.. bag packed… feeling pretty stressed. The event starts today.. 800 miles to ride… got a schedule to ride too .. lets hope the legs and the mind decide to play ball...

Luke Tilley's avatar
13 June, 2011
By Luke Tilley

The Competition Season Kicks Off

Since being out in Austria my training has taken a turn towards peak performance. The trip marked the start of a short macro cycle in the run up to the first European Youth Cup...

Paul Errington's avatar
08 June, 2011
By Paul Errington

Welsh Ride Thing

Multi day mountain bike events usually involve marked race course and tents or even better hotels smile

The Welsh Ride Thing contained neither ... the event is best described by...

Luke Tilley's avatar
16 May, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Half term with Gourdon

I was introduced to Gourdon the week before Easter, Kenny left him at the climbing centre for me and the staff looked after him in his plastic bag. I instantly knew we would get...

Alpkit's avatar
11 May, 2011
By Alpkit

Climate Change Consortium of Wales

Bethan Davies attends a climate change conference in Aberystwyth

C3W Conference 27th-28th April 2011, Aberystwyth

Last week, in between the two long weekends, I attended and...

Beth Monks's avatar
21 April, 2011
By Beth Monks

Ski-Karting in Sweden

In January, when England was thawing out and after I’d been snowed into my uni room for a good week or two in the midst of November and December’s arctic weather, I was making...

Beth Monks's avatar
21 April, 2011
By Beth Monks

Paragliding over Keswick

Feeling exhausted after a week of sailing I thought it would be a good idea to spend a week learning to paraglide. This was also something completely new to me and I had no idea...

Beth Monks's avatar
20 April, 2011
By Beth Monks

Sailing on Bassenthwaite…

My 2010 was a year of re-establishment and discovery. After finally escaping institution and moving home in August I was ready for some excitement in my new reality. This began...

Alpkit's avatar
14 April, 2011
By Alpkit

Greenland - a dirtbag expedition

“we just want to go and climb big and make a statement for the everyday dirtbag climber”
Fed up with reading the same old stories of the proclaimed ‘rock stars’ doing this and...

Alpkit's avatar
04 April, 2011
By Alpkit

Team Antarctica - The Return

The team (Jonathan Carrivick, Neil Glasser, Bethan Davies, and Alan Hill) were deployed into the field early on 21st January by the RRS Ernest Shackleton after a decidedly rough...

Luke Tilley's avatar
29 March, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Nottingham Boulder League Final

I always look forward to the Nottingham Climbing Centre’s annual Bouldering league. With even more to look forward to this year being the first series in their brand new, bigger...

Luke Tilley's avatar
17 March, 2011
By Luke Tilley

FontaineFun

Home again, every time I go somewhere amazing it seems like no time has passed and I’m back to school. Fontainebleau is one of those places where my time there seems to go far...

Pete Rhodes's avatar
17 March, 2011
By Pete Rhodes

Troll Wall - A (very) short story

My hope by finally writing this up is there is a little catharsis for me once it’s finished. Never have I been more disappointed in my life than by the situations I had to face in...

Luke Tilley's avatar
11 March, 2011
By Luke Tilley

Care Project Performance

Poi-Sons did a very enjoyable voluntary performance on Friday for the Southwell Care Project. This is a local organisation that provide support for Adults with Learning...

Alpkit's avatar
10 March, 2011
By Alpkit

Yukon Arctic Ultra- Race report

The Breakingstrain, Lee and Garry, completed their first Yukon Arctic , here they run down how it went.

Race Day – Sunday 6th February – Whitehorse River Start line

...
2010 Till When?'s avatar
07 March, 2011
By 2010 Till When?

Forced to Rethink

It’s strange how things turn out sometimes isn’t it?

Since our last post for Alpkit we’ve cycled down through Spain, crossed via ferry from Malaga to Melilla and cycled south...

Dan Bradley's avatar
07 March, 2011
By Dan Bradley

Fontainebleau Coaching Week

So the annual trip to the bouldering Mecca Font has happened once again, on February 19th 12 young climbers and 8 Jurassics (older than young) hit the road in a van (boulder mat...

Ramon Marin's avatar
03 March, 2011
By Ramon Marin

Tomahawk M10+

You’ve gotta love climbing. And you gotta love Switzerland. Climbing takes you to stunning places that otherwise you wouldn’t know or even bother. Some local climbers find tucked...

Rob Gibson's avatar
03 March, 2011
By Rob Gibson

No Fondue!

After the initial flip upside down he kept falling.

W.t.f.?  Am I actually holding the ropes?  I remember trying to take in slack to stop his headfirst fall - unsuccessfully.

...
Pete Dollman's avatar
01 March, 2011
By Pete Dollman

1st Outdoor Leisure Show

Well, we’ve finally packed away the last of the stand, scrubbed the last bit of paint from our hair and had a chance to catch our breath to look back at the Outdoor Leisure Show...

Rob Gibson's avatar
17 February, 2011
By Rob Gibson

M12

Virtually no low level snow has made a couple of trips up to the Breitwangflu easier than normal partly because no skis are needed and partly because it is possible to drive up...

Ramon Marin's avatar
17 February, 2011
By Ramon Marin

Head in Gear

It feels that finally I’ve got my head in gear to do stuff, despite not at the level I expected due to many factors. Still, I’m having loads of fun despite the hard work and...

Dan Bradley's avatar
09 February, 2011
By Dan Bradley

Searching for ice on the Ben

So on Thursday evening me and the Captain (Alex Dalton) set off to beautiful rainy and warm Scotland for a smudging of ice climbing. Problem is that most of the snow is gone and...

Rob Gibson's avatar
08 February, 2011
By Rob Gibson

Back in the Saddle

Kandersteg is one of those clean cut Swiss Alpine villages, sheltered in a valley between steep mountains, large wooden chalets and a handful of expensive looking hotels spread...

Ramon Marin's avatar
08 February, 2011
By Ramon Marin

New trad route in Oeschinensee, Kandersteg

On Monday we went up to have another look at the unclimbed line we spotted after our retreat from “Buch Dich”. The good thing about the line is that it looked that it would go all...

Paul Pomfret's avatar
07 February, 2011
By Paul Pomfret

Welsh Ride Thing Part 3

For me the Welsh Ride Thing exceeded my expectations, for a lightweight office working southerner used to his home comforts this really was an adventure, the planning the...

Paul Pomfret's avatar
05 February, 2011
By Paul Pomfret

Welsh Ride Thing Part 2

I had covered far fewer miles than I had hoped on the 1st day and when I rose from my warm slumber into the cold damp morning I felt an overwhelming urge to pack up and go home. I...

Paul Pomfret's avatar
04 February, 2011
By Paul Pomfret

Welsh Ride Thing Part 1

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I always fancied the idea of ‘adventuring’, out in an apparent wilderness, overnight, protecting yourself from the elements, and fuelling...

Ramon Marin's avatar
01 February, 2011
By Ramon Marin

Looking up and Mixing it up.

It took a while to recover from the 3 pitch lead “Rise and Shine”, and not being able to finish the route left a sour after-taste. Trying to find what to do next, that’s good, in...

Alpkit's avatar
31 January, 2011
By Alpkit

Yukon Arctic Ultra

The Yukon Ultra is taking place from the 6th to the 19th of Feb, for Mountain bikers, XC-skiers and Runnners. The Breakingstrain will be taking our Hunka XL bivvy bag as they run...

Kenny's avatar
30 January, 2011
By Kenny

Kelsey Kerridge Reunited

We were a pretty close bunch of climbers and we liked to get our climbing fix on a regular basis. The Kelsey Kerridge wall in Cambridge was our home when we were not at either...

Ramon Marin's avatar
28 January, 2011
By Ramon Marin

First Impression in Kandersteg

It’s proving a slow start with the climbing here at Kandersteg. To start with the conditions are not brilliant, but there’s stuff about to do. When we got here we were feeling a...

Ramon Marin's avatar
27 January, 2011
By Ramon Marin

Alpkit team at the Ice Climbing World Cup

Ice climbing competitions are a funny thing, a whole lot of people get together to test against each other, but they all do it for different reasons. What caught my attention last...

Luke Tilley's avatar
27 January, 2011
By Luke Tilley

2011 - The Beggining

After a heavy dose of Christmas cheer and man flu January loomed ahead of me with the promise of shody weather, A level physics and University applications. Fortunately a meeting...

Alpkit's avatar
21 January, 2011
By Alpkit

Antarctica bound

Bethan Davies is en-route to James Ross Island, Antarctica. We managed to pick up some faint signals as she disappeared further South…

17 Jan 2011.

Please find enclosed a brief...

Dan Bradley's avatar
18 January, 2011
By Dan Bradley

British bouldering championships 2011

So it was an early start, I left Nottingham at 5.30am to go pick up Kenny, our aim was to get to London to watch the Nottingham Junior team in the British bouldering championships...

Pete Rhodes's avatar
14 January, 2011
By Pete Rhodes

Cairngorm Lonelies

Before xmas I walked in to Corie an t’Sneachda to try and rope solo a route. It was raining and whiteout then and by the time I got to the base of The Message my head was...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
14 January, 2011
By Nicola Beeby

Himalayan Peak UK Challenge 2010

For the final part of our trip around Nepal we headed to the Himalayan White Water Challenge 2010, held on the Trisuli river, this is conveniently placed half way between Pokara...

Ramon Marin's avatar
06 January, 2011
By Ramon Marin

Winter Wonderland: The Rob and Ramon Show

Winter has arrived early in Britain this year, and with a vengeance. A lot of people have been able to get out and climb early season routes, but for us southerners stuck at work,...

Luke Tilley's avatar
03 January, 2011
By Luke Tilley

A good 2010 season

After good results at the Europeans I unfortunatly slipped off at the second clip in the Open Youth competition in Ratho which forfeited my place in the World Championships. This...

Paul Errington's avatar
15 December, 2010
By Paul Errington

NECCL RD 6 - First top 3

Paul E has been keeping himself busy this Autumn and Winter competing in the NECCL. Here he hits the top three.

NECCL RD 6 - First top 3 smile

Its been 2 weeks since my last race… I...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
13 December, 2010
By Nicola Beeby

Fun in Pokara

After returning to Kathmandu we soon wanted to leave again and headed to Pokara to base ourselves there for 10 days or so, so we booked a 7 hour bus ride and off we went. Pokara...

Pete Rhodes's avatar
30 November, 2010
By Pete Rhodes

Scottish Tooling Series Round 5 - The Final Showdown.

The final round of the Scottish Tooling Series arrived at the grand arena of Ratho. Here Pete gives his run down of final proceedings.

Ratho was the perfect setting for the final...

Nicola Beeby's avatar
29 November, 2010
By Nicola Beeby

Nicky in Nepal

We arrived in Kathmandu and after spending a couple of days getting used to the pace of life here, and seeing the most amazing Devali celebrations, we headed of to the Karnali...

Pete Rhodes's avatar
17 November, 2010
By Pete Rhodes

Scottish Tooling Series Round 4 - Ice Factor

Pete was back in action again at the Ice Factor, this leaves him with just the final at Ratho to come! Get up there on the 27th!

The tooling series is becoming a very enjoyable...

A varied diet of trail and tar - The 3 Ways Saga

there were no serious climbs and there was some awesome descents..

The internet is definitely the root evil for most of my epic adventures… I see a link or I stumble across a blog, a seed is sown and the text messages/emails go out to see if any victims can be found to partake.

In this instance it was finding a small article on some site about the new East Highland Way in Scotland… a linking piece of trail that joined the West Highland way with the Speyside Way allowing a pretty sizeable coast to coast off road experience… a quick estimate was 240ish miles of off road riding.

After the texts went out the only taker was Mike Mcfarlane, I had met Mike through working at Ride Cycles and he was now working at a local outdoor store but had taken a big chunk of time out so was free for the trip.

Amazingly Mike didn’t seemed phased by my optimistic time scale of 2 and a bit days.. after some shifting of dates we decided to get the train on Sunday morning to start riding about 3pm in afternoon, then a return train at 10am on the Wednesday… with trains and times booked we had a rigid time-scale to work with.

I decided to go very light.. or as light as I could as from past experience I always ended up taking a world of crap I didn’t need. With all the gear on the bike it still felt pretty rideable.

As I left home on Sunday morning and the sun was shining. It looked like it was going to be a pretty warm adventure despite the forecasts predicting showers. As I arrived at the station Mike, his Wife Susan and dog were waiting. We had chosen fully rigid singlespeeds and after the good-byes we were on a train filled with alcohol fuelled Scots.. we lucked out with seats booked in the quiet carriage. smile

After 3 hours on the train we arrived at Milngavie and the start of the West Highland Way. It wasn’t long before the WHW signage had us circling Mudock Castle and looking for the way out. The first section was easy undulating bridle way and Tarmac, navigation was easy and the sun was shining, it wasn’t long till we reached the shores of Loch Lomond.

We made good use of the pub on the shores of the Loch to sink some fluids as the weather was still amazing and showed no signs of letting up. When the singletrack trail started proper it wasn’t long before we were into the hike a bike section that all who have ridden the WHW will remember. Progress became very slow as we rode short sections and carried longer ones.. just as we were both looking forward to a good feed and the light was fading we rolled into a campsite with a bar and a restaurant which although was closing still rustled up some lasagnes!!

The night’s accommodation was the campsite in the bivvi bags with a tarp rigged up from a fence as the weather definitely looked a lot more overcast. We woke and were on our way by 7am with an estimated 40 miles done on the first day we looked to do 100 miles a day for the next 2 days to get the job done. We rode to the top of the first rise and enjoyed a breakfast trail-side with the sun warming the air around us.

The trail now was pretty variable, double track, jeep track, singletrack, grassy, rocky, dirt, every trail was undulating but at least for the first part of the day there were no serious climbs and there were some awesome descents.

After some decent pushing we got to the first real rideable sustained climb of the trip up onto Rannoch Moor with a pretty long wide dirt track. Luckily it was just about right for our singlespeed gearing although I chose to sit and grind it out while Mike chose to get out the saddle. The trail levelled out and then eventually we got our reward with a great rocky descent.

We spun into the car park of a hotel in time for some wild deer who were mooching looking for a feed smile As we finished the descent the trail hugged the road on a grassy trail so we cheated and bashed some tarmac for a few miles till we headed right and onto the Devils Staircase… a full on hike a bike which would take us up and over then down to Kinlocheven.

After a snack at the top we began the more down than up trail to Kinlocheven. One feature of most Scottish trails are the water brakes, nice channels running across the trails formed out of bits of rock. These have to be hopped or rolled and just as I was hefting my rear wheel over one I unclipped a foot and to avoid a headfirst fall I chose to throw my weight back over and ended up coming off to the side with a pedal square to the calf muscle!! ouch.. Luckily no more damage than this, but now with an aching calf muscle I couldn’t stand to pedal. To make make matters worse I punctured a mile or so later on another water brake!!

Now time was getting on.. it was 4ish and I had expected to be in Fort William by now but we were only in Kinlocheven with another sizeable up/over/down to get under our belts to finish the WHW. All the tales of how hard this route was were proving accurate, still we carried on but I had doubts of my time-scale creeping in and had already started formulating plan b, c and d in my head. Getting out of Kinlocheven was another push and carry and where we thought we would top out and be able to see Fort William all we could see was more double track stretching as far as we could see. :(

The double track continued and every crest of a rise just allowed us to see more double track stretching out beyond us. This was starting to wear thin as I really wanted to put the WHW behind us knowing even when this was done we still had 150 miles to go.

Finally we descended to a junction where the WHW met a military road and the signboard indicated that the military road was a 2 mile shorter route, so we took it to try and start clawing back some time. Although tarmac, the road delivered some very cheeky climbs until it finally gave up and spat us out into Fort William at around 5pm. It had been a long time getting here.

When faced with huge distances to cover and limited time to do it in the only thing a rider can do is… buy fish and chips and sit in the sun and ponder the situation.

We had looked at plans b, c and d and all involved multiple trains and expense neither us wanted to get involved with, so we turned back to finishing what we had started. From experience on the WHW we decided that an attempt on the East Highland Way at this point would probably leave us miles from our destination as our train departed on Wednesday morning so we decided to take to the tar, and at the end of a 60 mile off road ride we decided the best course of action would be a 40 mile singlespeed road ride!!

Strangely although my calf was still aching the road riding was quite pleasurable. We had spent so many hours riding and hiking to only make the smallest amount of progress and now the miles were flying by. The first 12 miles to Spean Bridge went quickly then we set our sites on Laggan as a spot to stop for the night. We pedalled on and as I had the better road gearing Mike sat in and basked in the wind free environment. We soon were at Laggan Wolftrax although we both thought better of a quick lap and after this Laggan.

I had hoped for a scenario similar to the previous night where we would roll up to a bar or restaurant, but unfortunately Laggan could only offer a disabled toilet, playground and a picnic area… none of which were very appealing at all. We pressed on a further few miles down the road and headed off the tarmac up a trail to where we found a good spot for a bivvi and while I set out my gear Mike took up the role of chef and we dined on dehydrated meals and cups of tea. We woke on Tuesday morning with a more optimistic outlook on the whole adventure…

I don’t think Mikes belief in what we were doing had wavered but I am known for large bouts of negativity in the face of adversity. smile The plan now sat at more road work to Aviemore… good breakfast.. visit Bothy Bikes find the Speyside Way and ride to Keiths where we would find a good spot to sleep and then train Wednesday morning.

The morning was really cold and it took a fair few miles for the feeling to come into my hands. When it did the miles passed easily, I had a figure of about 30-40 miles to Aviemore in my head so when we saw the 12 miles to Aviemore sign spirits were at an all time high and I pressed the pedals even harder with the thought of a good breakfast within my grasp.

Getting to Aviemore we went first to visit Bothy Bikes. What a great shop, I had heard of them as they are a Genesis dealer but that’s not all they sell. They had such a good selection of bikes and parts and the guys were very friendly and you got a sense that they just rode, rode and rode bikes. I look forward to getting back and doing some local rides. A quick ride via a cash point saw us sat in a cafe enjoying a huge cooked breakfast. We didn’t even give prices a second glance as we filled our boots with great cooked food, orange juice and lattes!! We even stocked up on a cake each for later.

The Speyside Way started behind Aviemore station and after riding through the back streets of Aviemore and quieter roads started out on a very wide well groomed trail, fast and flowing it then dived into some woodland for some singletrack before out onto a quiet country lane then onto a nice grassy disused railway.

We knew that this was going to be the easy section of the trip with not a great deal of elevation to it and mainly well groomed trails, all rideable. It was not without its surprises as we found ourselves first in a field with 2 bulls shortly followed by a wood with no trail in sight as the person that had signed the route had overlooked a 4 way junction with the SW being the less obvious of the trails to follow. They did however manage to place a number of signs mid track when there was no option but the direction you were going in… not so helpful.

The route was punctuated by map boards indicating which section of the trail you were on and every time we stopped at one we had made much more progress than we had thought. Although I was not keen on giving up the idea of just going straight to the railway station to avoid any unnecessary missed trains… the alternative was ride to the beach then ride to the station but it is a little known fact I hate sand and therefore have no desire to be anywhere near it.

As we came off the official SW route we headed towards Keiths on the road again. This time a lot more hilly as we left our valley bottom behind and climbed out and over. Again progress was pretty quick and the ten miles on the road passed quickly with us arriving at Keiths around 6pm. We pedalled to where the campsite signs directed us but all we found was a park home site surrounded by some rather uninviting wastelands. We rode to the station and again nothing of worth there, we had never really planned any spots to sleep. I was getting a little fed up as I was ready for a pint and a good meal, Mike however was unfazed by my ever increasing bad mood and in a moment of extreme bravery suggested that we just ride to the beach and sleep there!!

Amazingly I agreed but under protest and said I would be getting myself there as quickly as possible which Mike let me do, and as I tortured my legs in an insane ten mile singlespeed-fully-loaded-with-luggage time trial it started to rain. Luckily is stopped as quickly as it started and I arrived at Buckie, the end of the SW. Unfortunately Mike headed for Spey Bay… after a few phone calls we managed to find each other and settled into a spot on Spey Bay (only as it’s a shingle beach with no sand!!). Dinner was a less than appetising pot shot noodle thing, each with some beef jerky. We rigged the tarp and bivvied for the night. As the wind picked up the tarp took on the form of a sail and threatened to carry our bikes down the beach so Mike took it down.

Wednesday morning only required a 14 mile ride back to Keiths and luckily they let us catch our first train early… the dirty riding clothes were packed and I rewarded myself with a fresh long sleeve. Aberdeen station was less so accommodating with earlier trains so we settled into a Costa coffee marathon punctuated by charging of iPhones in the Apple store. smile

All in all a great trip… my calf is still sore… my bike a little unridden since getting back. I had a lot of doubts as to whether living on a diet of only singlespeeding is healthy so I have come back with a fresh desire to get some gears and see what has changed.

Big thank you to Mike as he endured all my various moods and still came out smiling and pedalling at the other end. smile

Credit for all images to Mike Mcfarlane.

10 June, 2010 by Paul Errington
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