Aonach Mor – Nevis Range – Red Downhill

May 18th, 2010 • Cycling, Mountainbiking • Somhairle

The day after the 10 under the ben, myself, Spad and Ed decided we would take the chance to have a blast on the Red DH route at nevis range. Despite being race fatigued and hung over. The price for one trip on the gondola is a bit steep at £12 but keeping these tracks on the hill plus running all the first aid and the gondola must cost a heap. So you cannae complain to much. The trail is superb, rough technically challenging with loads of drops, rock ladders and boardwalk. The first section out over the exposed hillside starts pretty smoothly with obstacles slowly ramping up in severity until you hit the boardwalk. The boardwalk is great fun, heaps of grip loads of wee drops interspersed with rocky outcrops whooping jumps and bermed corners it provides a real rush. Their is a proper drop off to the right hand side if you get it wrong so it gets the adrenalin pumping. Their is a sharp, short uphill before the boardwalk ends. Taking you over the brow of the hill, it then meanders around a relatively flat area with loads of granite rock obstacles which are marked with red arrows to show the best line. There a are a few more uphill sections here but nothing to spoil the flow. After this the real downhill starts in earnest, it is steep rough and speed is easy to accumulate, although some sections have to be treated with respect especially on a hard tail, as a bad line could result in a very nasty face plant. Once of the steeps and into the woods there is a couple of river crossings, the first of which challenges your momentum. You cross the black DH run then down some fire road for a bit before the last few berms into the car park. Is it worth £12 for one shot? I would say yes! we took our time and savoured it. I would definitely go back and get a day ticket for £28 and happily ride over and over again it would undoubtably improve my downhill technique and confidence. Although I would get some knee, elbow pads to do this as a fall at speed on this track would definitely hurt – a lot. Highly recommended, but remember this is a downhill route so you would need to be able to ride some black level xc routes to manage it all, the red tag does not equate to the skill level needed for a red xc. The addition of the downhill tag makes a big difference.

Tags: aonach mor, downhill, nevis range, red route

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