xc loop at Nevis Range

Matt N

Before you tell me its under a foot or more of snow, i'm not thinking of going anytime soon. We're doing a tour of scottish trails (natural and man made) this summer and for a break halfway through the holiday we're going to have an uplift day on the red downhill at the Nevis Range, i know there is an xc loop but its hard to find info on it. Can anyone give a brief summary?

Thanks matt

covelove

the routes start directly behind the uplift station and are quite nice from what i remember, some nice singletarack sections. i think you can get trail maps locally and most trails are well signposted. i would miss out the very last part of the loop though, its all flat and boring. when you cross the downhill /4x track just head down and start again
worth a bash though!

If you are up that way you should definatly check out wolftrax IMO one of the best trail centres around and if you can be bothered driving even further check out golspie, the largest singletrack downhill in the u.k ,i think!

Paulie W

+1 on Golspie (the climb is also extremely entertaining!) but it is a long old drive from Fort Bill.

Magpie9

+1 on Wolftrax. It's definately the best trail centre I've ridden in the UK. The red loops are both amazing and the black is slightly insane but still great fun.

RichMTB

+1 for Wolftrax too. Awesome bit of trail.

The Fort william XC course is good in places but the full loop has far too much fireroad. Its definitely worth riding if you are there to do the Red downhill as well but I wouldn't make a specific trip to Fort William just for the XC route

passout

The world champ XC red loop at Nevis is great fun - really nice. The 10 under the Ben (the full thing) is a bit flat/boring in the second half but it's very easy to miss out. Never been to Laggan.

Northwind

There's some really nice riding on the posted 10 under the ben course but it's mostly very dull. The very first section, between the 2 car parks is ace... Nessie is worth riding too, but better as a diversion off the WC route rather than doing the whole fireroad bash to get there on the 10 under route.

The WC route feels longer and climbier than it actually is I think... Starts with a pretty nasty climb, then fire roads essentially FOREVER, including some fireroad descending, but the payoff is great... There's something pretty untrailcentrey about the descents, they feel nicely ripped out of the earth rather than painstakingly laid out with a theodolite and a tape measure, quite rough and ready. Brilliant fun...

Looking at the maps I reckon that rather than doing the full route you could plan a better (though probably quite evil) fireroad climb up from where witch's brew meets the blue (where the wall was), basically just cutting the whole eastern end off the route.

But, fort william's signposting is absolutely diabolical, it'd be better if there was none in some places, and the route layouts really are daft. Hopefully they'll be able to put some effort into it, maybe making some of the "off map" 10 under the ben parts more permanent, and removing the sodding fireroad descending. Right now, it's not worth the trip to ride it by itself but with the nevis red to ride as well it's a great location, and it could get better.

Oh, and the other advice I have is when you're doing the nevis red, don't follow the red route all the way down as it's unfinished, and the last section is just bad. Instead, when you cross over the DH route for the last time, just by the big wallride, do the last of the DH down to the car park. It's wasted on those DH boys. Don't get in their way though! It's tough but it's not dangerous. Though be careful of the 4X track, it's a bit more challenging.

sniper68

Good info here
http://www.ridefortwilliam.co.uk/trails ... illiam.asp