Weather today in the Highlands has been generally dry with some short-lived but very heavy rain showers passing through. So hopefully the water level drops as quickly as it rose.

Although the weather in Fisherfield may well be completely different!

Looks like the fisherfield river crossing is causing problems. Becky, Emily and Lindsay had a look along the river and looks like they are waiting it out in the bothy.
Last person to cross was Anne De Smet at 6pm yesterday evening, around 20 hours ago, so a lot could have changed in that time.

boxelder wrote: ↑Wed May 28, 2025 2:31 pm I know hours feel longer on the big climbs and HaBs, but those times look wrong - last year's time was sub 82 hours wasn't it? You finished sub 140 hrs in 2015.

Those are the average times for all riders from the group start who successfully finished.

Records seem moot, considering Bealach Horn was missed? I don't think Alan is planning to put Bealach Horn back in again. The route has changed (slightly) every year. General trend has been for it to get easier. 2024 vs 2015 I reckoned was maybe ~4 hours quicker having taken out northbound devil's ...

That aluminium extrusion is great stuff, like grown ups meccano :D It's generally referred to as "2020" (or 4040, etc depending on what dimension your using) and is popular for all sorts of things. I've used it to make a bed frame in my campervan and also a frame to hold the solar panel on...

Possibly someone has created a folder in the website files called "news-and-reviews"? That can break the WordPress page routing if there's a real folder and a page with the same name.

Caught Marcus, Niall and Max on their way past Achmelvich. https://www.frasermacbeath.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_20240526_212831.jpg https://www.frasermacbeath.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_20240526_213642.jpg https://www.frasermacbeath.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_20240526_...

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2023 6:43 pm

(there's only 1.3m people

No one taller or is it a bit like a scaled up Lilliput?

No one tall in Tallin

A full, firmly packed drybag is fine to strap directly onto aero bars like that. I've had some problems when it's not full things can shift around inside and it comes loose. It can make quite a difference to handling having the weight far out in front. Even compared to a normal transverse mounted ba...

Any route can be a bikepacking route. You don't have to be riding all day to be "bikepacking". IMO the only element required for a good bikepacking route is just a nice spot to stop and camp, distance isn't a big factor in making it a good route or not. Even for the hardcore racer types a ...

Just tried finding what I'd heard. Sounded most like this https://youtube.com/shorts/WDecq2YL1Ms?feature=share Fourth or 5th bird in, called the Northern Flicker. Tried looking her up in my Collins Birds book, but to no avail. Could it be a Common Snipe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImGcEaQ7As4 ...

There's one at the Lecht which has been there a few years. Only open for skiers and snowboarders but is great for the beginner slopes. Working a tow is one of the more difficult parts of learning to snowboard and if you can't do that you don't get much chance to learn anything else so the magic carp...

There's also the option to shortcut the middle loop from Tomich -> Cannich. Cuts out about 8-9 hours riding but doesn't miss any of the good parts.

I would be put off buying them due to all the dubious claims on their website. It seems to be an American thing - presumably due to differences in advertising laws? Despite "decades of research" and an entire page dedicated to "The Science", there isn't actually any evidence of t...

Alan posted on instagram to say the climb out of Tomich towards Fort Augustus is closed because of fires. Not sure what will happen if it's still closed when Kurt gets there if it's still closed? Guess he just has to wait for it to open?

Kurt's tracker is super reliable! I don't think it's missed a single ping so far from about 90 in total*. Other people seem to lose around 1 in 5 of their pings. I wonder if he's using a different device when most people have Spots? Or maybe the volume of updates during the group start causes some l...

I wonder what Tom Hall is doing at poolewe? Just a navigation error? The section where he left the route is really good gravel estate road so I can't imagine he's trying to find an easy escape route. It doesn't look like the way he went is any quicker to get him into Poolewe either. I'm pretty sure ...

Will they be able to see each other for those who have done the route? Yeah, at some points over the devil's staircase there is probably enough visibility to see that far. The west highland way in the middle of a nice day, even a weekday, will be reasonably busy so they'll be able to see other walk...

Oops, Rich Rothwell took a wrong turn! He's the last person I'd expect to do that.


Very minor. He's back on route now and doesn't look to have cost him much time.

I rarely ever carry my bike and prefer to push it. Why bother taking the weight on your shoulders when it'll take it's own weight on the wheels? Shouldering the bike also makes it more difficult for me to balance. It's fine on a decent path like in the photo but across a peat bog I often use the bik...

Verena wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 10:06 pm Nothing , having just spilled my cup of tea whilst making my bed for the night on a BAM that's decidedly not going to plan.... let's just say it involved some cows...

I hate it when I forget to bring milk too but I've not gone to that extreme yet

Was the forecast wrong or something? The wind is pretty easy to forecast for a window as narrow as 26hours, was there not a weather window? I doubt it's that simple. With all the logistics involved of travelling to the start and coordinating all the support team to have the right days off you proba...

I've never managed to keep my feet dry. Tried taking shoes + socks off and paddling through the rivers, which works fine but inevitably step on what I thought was solid dry at the next bog and end up knee deep and soaked. It's not the obvious river crossings which get you wet - it's the hidden bog!

And the council still can't confirm if it is a shared ped/cycle path. Very clear that it isn't. Something dodgy there. What makes it so clear that it's not a shared use path? After passing the shared use sign here: https://goo.gl/maps/iEkdZTdsG9mzHP8SA (about 370 metres before), at what point does ...

Not raining (yet) which as you'll know is something which always adds to my cheery persona. Also, that stupid idea I've mentioned previously is now taking shape and will hopefully be a fully living, breathing reality before very long. Is your front tyre on backwards? I dont know anything about moto...