Glentress Black

Triban Man

Is Glentress Black significantly more difficult and technical than Glentress Red? Have been told it is, essentially, a bit longer.

thistle_

Yes. I thought so anyway.

However you can mix up the red and the black quite a bit. I tend to go up the black (some good steep climbing) then take the shortcut down the fireroad to spooky wood and go back that way.

It was the very last few sections on the black (Double X and The Bitch) that I really struggled on, but you should be able to miss them out and go down the red instead. If you look on the map you'll see.

Triban Man

Steep climbing is good? 8)

Seriously, though, will give that a go. Sounds like you are getting the best of both worlds.

Do you come out at the top or bottom of Spooky Wood?

sofaboy73

not really, it's just longer which is why i suspect it's been graded as a black.

if you can ride the red, you'll have no problems on the black

Gibbo GTI

Longer route with a little more climbing but not much more technical, worth giving it a go if you are confident on the red route.

Yacoby

The bit of the black I have done, (Ewok village onwards) I seem to recall as being slightly more technical? Nothing crazy but slightly harder than the red.

peter413

Mostly it is just longer and at most other places the majority would be a red grade but as with any trail, even one feature that's unavoidable means it has to be graded black.

The climbing is a lot harder than the red, it's quite rough in places and has a few extended steep climbs but these can obviously be walked.

The descending is quite a bit different to the red IMO. It's a lot rougher, rockier and much more unforgiving. On the red you have plenty of run out space usually but the black has some narrower sections that have no space (The B!tch/Black Dog is a good example of this). There are some rocky chutes that you have to contend with and the descents are a lot longer than the red ones. Not to mention the fact you have a horrible steep climb right after about half an hour of mostly descending.

If you feel confident on the red then you should be ok on the majority of the black, just watch out for a few rocky chutes on the Boundary Trail (the trail after the mast) and then Double X (the one with the staircase at the beginning after Ewok Village) and The B!tch (the one after Double X). If you aren't comfortable on steeper trails I would suggest you ride The Matrix and Lombard Street instead then join back on to the black. To do that just keep going past Double X and you'll see the red after the big turning circle. Just follow those two trails and the road after until you get to The Wormhole which is the black (it's obviously all signposted with red and black arrows).

The B!tch is the one that does deserve the black grading the whole way down the trail, it's constantly quite steep, rocky and loose and has a big scree slope to ride down at the end (well it used to be covered in scree anyway, it's mostly all at the bottom now). The corners can be quite tight on it as well. All of the other trails a competent red route rider could ride down with just a few bits of bother on a few of the features.

Please, please, please though, if you aren't going to ride the rocks at the beginning of The Wormhole, don't ride the rest of the trail. Just follow the red arrows along to Magic Mushroom and follow the rest of the trail (the red and black merge at Magic Mushroom and stay that way until the end apart from one slight detour on the last descent, Falla Brae).

Northwind

Most of the black is pretty much red-grade-able, though as Peter says it has less margin for error, narrower trails etc. Mostly though while it can be tricky to ride fast it's not that hard just to ride. Once you get near the end, where it runs in parallel with the red down XX and the Bitch, it gets quite a bit harder!

I really like it but a lot of people reckon it's too much work for the reward.