Ben Lomond by Bike, Rib and Wrist.

June 26th, 2010 • Cycling, Mountainbiking • Somhairle

It all started with a good smattering of faff. Wrestling with spads rear axle trying to install a new freehub we hummed and hawed dismantling and re-assembling the thing, there was definitely something going a wry inside it. Never the less we pushed on chucking the bikes in the car and heading up to Rowardennan to meet Aidan who had come across from Seil – Oban. After more faff somehow missing the main path and then stopping several times to try and get spads wheel to that magic sweet spot between not spinning and flailing about haplessly behind.
The bottom part of the path is quite deceptive, very rough with huge rocks and steps, after the initial steep gnarlyness the path levels out a bit and there is a stretch that is pretty smooth and cyclable until you come onto the shoulder of the ben itself and everything gets steep and rocky again. We merrily clambered up through a combination of shouldering and pushing with passing walkers commenting on our craziness periodically. The path levels out again and cycling this part is fun, challenging trialsy coolness. We could see the summit beyond capped in cloud the wind was getting up and we were under no illusions we were on a munro in a Scottish summer. We stopped in a sheltered spot and got fuelled up, spad footered with his bike for a time and I installed the helmet camera on my bonce. Onwards and upwards. The summit was indeed shrouded in cloud when we got there although strangely sheltered from the wind, which we summised was due to some sort of thermal based aberration. There was a wily old fellow from Vancouver and we had a good yarn discussing his views on our country most of which were informed and true.
So to the descent… Seats were lowered camera turned on and off we went. Be under no illusions, this mountain is very rough; rideable (just) for the most part but very technical rocky gnar means it is seldom that you will find the line through at every juncture. I was loving it finding my stride and managing to find a path through the rocky assault. My speed was getting pretty high and I was able to straight line and hop a lot of the nasty parts, with my confidence rising I began to lay off the brakes more and more, i see a small rock drop there is a line to the left I would have to slow to make. I straight line it. The front wheel clears then the unmistakable ping of chainring alloy hitting rock, the bars fold away from my grasp and the ground rushes up to meet me. I flail around for a bit, I have definitely crashed and my right wrist does not want to support my weight. I sprachkle around until I am upright – for some reason i turn the camera off? I’m in pain, feels like a sprain, spad arrives, he has no notion I have crashed till I tell him. He helps me strap the offending wrist up, I gather myself and it feels okay but i can’t grip the bars. Badly sprained I repeat. I begin the walk down, the pain comes and goes and swinging the arm around takes the pain away. We meander down, taking a bike down ben Lomond with only your left hand can be tricky and takes a long time, we have certainly been lagging in every aspect of this trip except the ascent.  The pain is less by the bottom section I rode the last few hundred metres, un weighing the injury over the bumps.
At home the swelling is noticeable i stick some ice on it. It feels better still, I have a bath feels great. Go to bed, bit uncomfortable but I fall asleep. 2 in the morning I wake up, I try to move, I scream. The agony is palpable, something is wrong, very wrong. I take some pain killers wake in the morning and decide the hospital is calling. I spend some hours in casualty, I have one broken rib on the left side and a compound fracture in my wrist. I’m in a cast for four weeks. Just goes to show you can do serious damage without being able to acknowledge it. I had sprained it badly so this probably masked the underlying break. It’s hard to say what I have learned from this, my confidence on the descent was high but I have struggled with confidence before and it is a hard won attribute, knowing your limits is important but I was no where near my edge when I crashed, a simple misjudgement of the trail is all I can put it down to. What I will take from this is that eye balls out descending on big mountains is something that is always going to be fraught with danger and should be approached with a higher modicum of respect for the terrain and exposed nature of the environment.

Tags: big mountain riding, broken bone, crash

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