Snow dump at Glentress/Innerleithen - Wed 31st Mar

Glentress trailhead Wednesday morning!

Wed 31st Mar. Like much of Scotland we've had a big dump of snow through the night and most of Wednesday. Wet snow at all levels here at Glentress, same for Innerleithen. Newcastleton trails also have snow on most trails. Red Squirrel and Buzzards Nest car parks at Glentress are closed. Lots of branches down and likely trees also. Hub cafe and bikeshop were closed Wednesday.

The snow means the trails here are unrideable at present. The conditions are likely to change quickly though - we'll try to keep you bang up to date with the latest but updates might be a little slow as our net connection was down at work today. You can always call the duty ranger for the latest on 07834 435380.

cheers,

andy (mtb ranger).

Glentrool / Kirroughtree conditions

The weather has been pretty bad in Galloway over the past 24 hours and we've been unable to get an update on the conditions on the 7stanes trails there. The Forestry Commission Scotland offices in Newton Stewart (covering Glentrool / Kirroughtree) have been closed today and there have been a lot of power cuts. 

To which end, if you're heading for Glentrool or Kirroughtree, it's probably best to expect to find snow in the car parks and on the trails. It may well be deep on high parts of the black trail at Kirroughtree and parts of the big country trail in Glentrool. Watch out too for windblown trees - these are currently affecting Ae.  If you find anything blocking the trails or spot any damage, please email us the details at: 7stanes@forestry.gsi.gov.uk.

We'll try to get an update prior to the Easter weekend but unfortunately can't guarantee it at the moment.  So if you're heading out make sure you're prepared for the conditions.

Ae Green and Blue Trail Closures

Hey all,

Me again!! Just to let you all know that we've had to close the green and blue trails at Ae today due to a serious amount of windblow. Several sections are blocked by fallen trees and are un-passable.

The red route has also been affected and has a diversion at post 9 (start of Rabs Slippy One) and here's why!!

We're still inspecting other sections of the trails and will keep you all posted if we discover any more. We have guys on the ground working their way through it but it could take a week or so to get the trails cleared. Hopefully we should be able to open sections of the blue/green tomorrow.
Cheers

Conditions at Ae, Mabie and Dalbeattie

Hey all,

The good old Scottish weather is up to its tricks on this side of the district as well! The snow is falling heavily at the offices at Ae here, and is lying on some of the higher more exposed parts of the trails. Windchill is pretty bad as well, so if you are a hardy soul and are heading out then make sure that you take adequate clothing and provisions.

Mabie and Dalbeattie are also getting some abuse from the weather, the snow is falling there as well but due to the amount of rain last night its not lying just as heavily.

Please do check the weather forecasts before you head out!

Cheers

GT Trail Conditions - Tue 30th Mar

We've got a fresh covering of (wettish) snow on most middle and upper level trails at Glentress, although it's not settling lower down and it's just rain here at the trailhead (though the wind is bringing it in sideways!!) . Buzzards Nest car park remains open at the moment.

Here's a few pics to give you a better idea:

Cardie Hill Climb, just down from Buzzards Nest car park. Yep - we should finally have the skinnies open this spring, will post more on this soon.

Start of Unnamed Freeride Trail

Exit of Spookywood Descent (1-2 inches of snow at the mo')

Conditions are similar just down the valley at Innerleithen.

Hopefully this snow wont stick around very long. For the latest on the conditions, please contact the duty mtb ranger on 07834 435380.

cheers,

andy (mtb ranger)

snow drift!

Thankfully all the trails at Glentress are now pretty much clear of snow and ice. The trails at Innerleithen are now totally clear, even up on Minch Moor on the XC Route. The previous trail update mentioned that the only snow/ice left at Glentress was on the very highest trails on the Black Route.

This still stands but what I didn't realise was there is the mother of all snow drifts across the trail at post 74 on the Boundary Trail on the Black Route! This is likely due to this point being open to the north and east as the snow fell/winds blew in, the stone dyke for the drift to develop over and then the line of conifers capturing the snow in this natural funnel.

You'll not miss it! Looks like much of the Boundary Trail is affected by this drifting snow. If you want to avoid this, there's a natural path that links up to Spookywood Descent on the Red Route which starts just before post 74 and runs down the open strip of ground.

If you do venture down the Boundary Trail look out for fallen trees. Fellow Ranger's Ross and Brian were up yesterday to cut these but they are still trapped beneath the snow drifts!

cheers,

Andy

BUSC National Student Champs

Hey all,

Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw roughly 600 students descend on Ae Forest for the national student MTB champs. 60 universities and colleges fielded teams in both the downhill competition and the XC races.

The downhill competition was, eh, entertaining! The newly refreshed section at the top was only completed on the tuesday before the event, but proved very popular with the more experienced riders. a grassy, rooty section at the bottom of the track was the spectators favourite spot, mostly due to the amount of tumbles.

The XC races were held on the sunday with the sport class completing 3 laps of the 10km XC loop. A wide, wide variety of abilities in this class. Then after that the championship race was held over 5 laps. The girls race started 5 minutes after the mens, however by the end of the 1st lap the field was pretty well mixed - some pretty fast guys and girls!



All in all a very successful weekend, even the weather held out for them! Results will be posted on the BUSC website shortly.

Glentress Trail Conditions Update, Fri 19th Mar

Good news! Nearly all the trails at Glentress are now clear of snow and ice (same will apply for Innerleithen, though there may still be the odd patch of snow on the trails up on Minch Moor).

The only snow/ice that is left on the trails at Glentress is at the very highest levels on the Black Route (Kipps, Britney Spears, Mustard Snake and Boundary Trail) and very occasional small patches on Spookywood Descent at sheltered spots in the trees. Even these bits are shifting pretty quick with the milder air, sunshine and gusty winds we've had the past couple of days.

Spookywood Descent ~1/3 down from viewpoint.

Start of Boundary Trail on Black Route looking back towards mast

The trails are in good shape just now and riding well.

Extra good news! The rock jumps at the top of Spookywood Descent that have been barried off for a good while due to the snow/ice/frost, are now reopen. I got up today and finished off compacting the surfaces of the take off and landings (and nearly got blown away in the wind!)

Rock jumps at top of Spookywood Descent, Red Route

Have a great weekend!

andy (mtb ranger)

SXC at Kirroughtree This Weekend

The first round of the Scottish XC race series at Kirroughtree this weekend. This means the blue route will be closed both Saturday and Sunday and the red route will be diverted to start and finish at the Anniversary Cairn (post 34). Access to and from this point will be via the forest road. This will cut out about a third of the red route.


This is part of two new sections for this years event and is a lot steeper than it looks, the route goes up it!

It is expected that over 350 riders will be taking part but the event car parking is separate to the normal parking so if you want to ride you should get parked OK.


Mabie or Dalbeattie would be a better option though if your looking for a relaxed atmosphere.





Chris

Student Championships at Ae this weekend

Hey All,

Just to let everyone know that this weekend sees the BUCS Student MTB Championships coming to Ae. There will be 57 universities and colleges (over 400 entrants) fielding teams in both downhill and xc races. The downhill course will be used for practice on the Friday, then racing on the Saturday.

The XC course will affect the red, blue and green trails and will close large sections of all the trails during the practice on the Saturday and the races on the Sunday. There will be marshals on the course, and some fairly large diversions.

Parking at Ae will be difficult due to the sheer volume of people expected to both compete and spectate at the weekend. If you do come, note there will be a diversion on the red route: basically follow the main forest road right up to post 28 and re-join the trail as it heads up towards Nil Desperandum. There may be times at the start and the finish where members of the public may be asked to wait until race marshals let them through.

The Ae valley road will be closed off at the Plough Museum whilst the XC Race is on as well. Walks will also be slightly affected.

We would recommend possibly visiting Mabie or Dalbeattie this weekend instead. Both trail centres are pretty much open and riding well, especially the new Red Ridge section at Mabie!

Timetable:

THURSDAY 18th

All trails will be open to the public. Marshals may be out on the course.

FRIDAY 19th

Downhill practice 10am - 4pm. Exceptionally heavy amount of traffic on the downhill course. Shredder still fully open to the public.

SATURDAY 20th

Downhill Races from 9.00am - 5.30pm. Again, exceptionally heavy amount of traffic on the course. Shredder still open to the public.

XC practice from 10am - 5.00pm. THIS WILL AFFECT GREEN, BLUE AND RED TRAILS.

SUNDAY 21st

Downhill fully open to the public

XC races. Practice starts at 9.00am, first race at 10.00am, second race at 1.00pm. Completed by 4.00pm, then immediately re-opened to the public.

The 'Darkest Challenge on Earth'

Last Saturday, seven teams of mountain bikers competed in the Darkest Challenge on Earth, an astronomically-themed night race at 7stanes Kirroughtree, organised by the Breakpad to help celebrate Galloway Forest Park achieving Dark Sky Status. (See www.forestry.gov.uk/darkskygalloway).

Starting just as the light was beginning to go, and lasting about 6 hours, riders had to tackle a challenging 5k loop, making as many circuits as possible, then solve a series of astronomical puzzles.

On hand to help the riders with the questions was the Dark Sky Scotland team from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. Handily they had brought along a planetarium, which proved to be a welcome introduction to the sky above. And while the riders did their thing, the team kept spectators thoroughly entertained by building and launching rockets.

Meanwhile, most of the riders spent several hours riding the 5k loop (with one team managing to ride 11 laps) before using the final hour to work on the astronomy puzzles, venturing out of the tents to look at Galloway's star filled sky to identify the different constellations.

We've had lots of positive feedback about the event (and the 5k loop), so thanks to everyone who took part and to the Dark Sky Scotland team.

Results

1st - Team 9: D. Allison and K Fisher from Creetown.
2nd – Team 15: G. McKie and J. McCreath from Newton Stewart and Gatehouse.
3rd – Team 8: S. Landers and D Proudlock from Newton Stewart and Gatehouse.

The Winners received Hawke Classic 10 x 50 binoculars.

Winners of the race alone were Anthony and Sam.

demo day goodness!

Here's a few pics courtesy of professional photographer/bike journo Joolze Dymond from the recent British Mountain Bike Series Demo Day at Glentress:

You can check more of Joolzes work at: http://www.joolzedymond.com

As you can see the weather gods were kind to us and despite the snow higher up in the forest, we managed to put together an ace (snow free) demo loop on the trails lower down the hill and had a good turn out. Thanks to all the riders who came along.

If you missed this demo - fear not! There are two more demo events at Glentress this spring:

First up is the Bike Radar Demo Day on Sunday 18th April. There'll be bikes to test ride for free from Lapierre, Saracen, Bionicon, Norco, Scott, Rose, Ragley, Tomac, Ghost, Lynskey and Red Bull. You can pre book bikes on their website.

Then on Sat 22nd & Sun 23rd May the Premier Demo Series crew will be on hand between 10am and 4pm each day with bikes available to demo for free from Cove, Intense, Mondraker, Titus, Turner and Rocky Mountain. No booking is required for this one.

And remember along with their standard hire bikes, the Hub Bike here at Glentress always have an extensive range of higher end demo bikes that can be hired (costs vary), all year round.

build trails, eat cake, ride trails, eat cake

...perfectly sums the Trailfairies up, Glentress's very own volunteer trailbuilding group. There have been some fine cakes produced for 'fairy sessions so far this year - homebaked blueberry muffins, chocolate marmalade cake, chocolate brownies and this masterpiece of a chocolate cake made by Kenneth:

The snow and frost meant that the first 2 volunteer sessions of 2010 had to be cancelled. But since then the 'fairies have been out in force with some of our best turn outs ever - over 20 volunteers coming along to help out! Great to see lots of new faces too.

The fairies have been working on a project on Magic Mushroom around 1/3 the way along the trail. We're doing some resurfacing work, reshaping of the trail surfaces improvements to the drainage and completing a short reroute (the Darkroom!). It's shaping up very nicely and will be make a huge difference to how this section rides and holds up. As we've had the diversion up for a number of weeks we're very keen to get this work completed and the section of trail reopened.

Hand brashing the planned line, Black option entry reroute, Falla Brae

Alas, frost scuppered us at the last session (6th March) so we started on a new project - rerouting the entry to the Black option on Falla Brae. This will involve around 70m of handbuild black grade trail. Technically challenging but lots of flow is the aim. With 24 fairies out we soon got the planned line fully brashed (tree branches pruned) and got a good deal of digging out of the line done too, exposing some very tasty roots!

Clearing off the organic top layer and starting to dig out the line

Our next session is this Saturday coming, 20th March. We'll be back working on Magic Mushroom, meeting up at the FC Ranger's Office at the Trailhead at 9am and finishing up at 1pm. New Trailfairies are always most welcome, no experience is needed. To find out more have a look at the Trailfairies website or contact Andy at: andy.wardman@forestry.gsi.gov.uk or 07900 138901.

cheers,

andy

"The Darkest Challenge on Earth" Kirroughtree 13/3/2010

You still have time to enter so follow the link for event info and entry form
http://www.thebreakpad.com/darkskieschallen.html

Glentress trail conditions update, Fri 12th March

With milder temperatures this week, the snow and ice is continuing to thaw albeit slower than we'd like! The light frosts we've had some nights this week haven't helped.

Along with the low level trails, many middle level trails at Glentress are also now clear of snow and ice, except for odd patches (e.g. Hit Squad Hill on Red Route). The higher level trails such as Spookywood Descent on the Red Route, top sections of the Black Route and highest point on the Blue Route, are still affected by snow/ice - and very slippy in places!

So you'll get a good ride in on the lower and middle level trails but the higher trails will still involve a good deal of pushing and slip sliding around.

The Short Duathlon Race is going ahead this Sunday (yay!). The race start/finish/HQ is at the Buzzards Nest car park - parking will be v.busy here, if coming riding i'd would recommend parking at one of the lower car parks if possible. The race will run from 12pm to 1.30pm (approx.) with the run first then bike. No trails are closed for the race but please look out for racers and give them a cheer on! Marshals will be on hand to advise. www.glentressduathlon.com

Have an ace weekend,

andy (mtb ranger)

WICKED filming at Glentress

A crew from the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust and Remark! Productions made the long trip up to Glentress from London in their trusty camper to do a days filming on Sat 6th March, for series 3 of their travelling magazine show, WICKED. And it was a long day filming for them too - I met them as I pedalled into work at just before 7am and they were just finishing up when I left work at 5.30pm!

They were here making a programme about Deaf mountain bikers and also having a go themselves, with local mountain bike legend Crawford Carrick Anderson helping out and demonstrating his considerable mountain bike skills (under statement)!

The programme is presented entirely in British Sign Language (BSL) and will be shown on Monday 5th April via the Community Channel available at:

Freeview (87) Monday 5th April, 8am
Sky (539) Monday 5th April 8am, Wednesday 7th April 2pm, Sunday 11th April 8pm
Virgin TV (233) Monday 5th April 8am, Wednesday 7th April 2pm, Sunday 11th April 8pm

or alternatively at http://www.bslbt.co.uk/wicked/ from Mon 5th April.

Check it out.

cheers,

andy (mtb ranger)

Glentress trail conditions and Demo Day route

Paul and Sara from SIP Events have arrived at Glentress this afternoon and are busy getting things ready for the demo day here at Glentress tomorrow (10am - 4pm). The demo HQ will be in the Osprey car park next to Hub Bike Shop. There's a sweet demo loop lined up too:

All the trails on the demo loop are clear of snow/ice and riding really well (except a tiny bit of ice near the end of Dougie Bank Climb and on the road to the start of Falla Brae).

Other than this most of the trails are still affected by snow and ice, but it's been slightly milder today, so the snow is slowly starting to thaw. At the Buzzards Nest carpark for example there is still a couple of inches of snow, but some clear patches are developing.

There is still alot of snow around though especially on middle and higer level trails. Look out too for compacted, icy ride lines on the trails, especially in the trees - it's very slippy in places.

The Red Squirrel car park is now open again but the Buzzards Nest car park remains closed due to the snow.

As always at this time of year, conditions are likely to change quickly from this. For the latest please contact the Duty Ranger on 07834 435380.

Enjoy your weekend!

Ae, Mabie and Dalbeattie Conditions

Hey all,

The snow at Ae, Mabie, and Dalbeattie is clearing!! There are still pockets in shaded areas, under trees and the like, and icy patches here and there so please still take care!!

Trail Conditions Update for Glentress, Tue 2nd March

After the last update on Friday afternoon we got a little more snow through the night into Saturday morning. Snow is still sitting on most trails, only the lowest ones are clear (or mostly clear): Dougie Bank Climb, Falla Brae and Good Game. We'll hopefully be using these trails for the demo loop at the British Mountain Bike Series Demo Day this Saturday with the demo HQ at the trailhead. Will confirm this soon.

Currently there's approx. 4-6 inches of snow at Buzzards Nest car park height, more at higher elevations.

With the clear, cold weather we're experiencing this week the snow looks likely to hang around unfortunately and become increasingly icy with successive frosts, making the trails very slippy in places.

Red Squirrel car park

Start of Pie Run (being used for diversion on Red/Black route due to tree felling operations until end of March).

Start of Falla Brae

Buzzards Nest car park

Start of Spookywood Climb

Fingers crossed we'll get a heat wave soon! or atleast some milder weather and rain... can't believe I actually want rain!!

Short notice

Tree harvesting operations are starting again tomorrow (Tues 2nd March) in Glentress.  We just missed the deadline for getting the info onto the main site but it will be there tomorrow - keep an eye on it for any updates.

The details are that the Black Route will be closed and between posts 87 and 52 (Redemption Climb), and the Red Route closed between post 45 and 52 (via the Matrix) until the end of March.  Diversions in place for both, ending at post 52 - start of Magic Mushroom.