Mountain Biking Skills Weekend

Over the weekend Keith and I ran a mountain biking skills weekend at Glentress for a group of 11 kids from the Ratho Scout troop. It was awesome!

All of the kids progressed heaps over the weekend. All 6 in my group are now able to manual, rear wheel lift and get some air on the table tops! 4 of them really stood out as having loads of potential and I'm hoping they will get into mountain biking properly now after me trying to convince their parents! Managing to get 1ft+ in height on the jumps on what was their first weekend biking for some of them is some really impressive stuff!

AIRTIME! Woohoo! He got even higher than this later on in the day!

My group also mastered some cornering techniques, played around on the log skinnies and learnt how to tackle tree roots on their final descent of the weekend, which we had to step up to a red run as they were cruising the blues with ease!

Jack showing us his newly found cornering skills!

Oh and I musn't forget to mention two of them sending the black graded rock chute in the Skills park only a few hours in on day one...AND 4 of them clearing the black graded drop off! They all managed to send the red rock chute, and red drop off in the skills park too.

...and this is how to manual.

Keith's group also had a go on some log skinnies and spent lots of time whizzing down the blue graded trails, with 'Berm Baby Berm' being their favourite!

They all learnt about bike safety checks, the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and general trail ettiquette too, as well as consuming several packets of jelly babies, nom nom!

Amazing weekend with a lovely group of kids!

A Dark Ride in the Forest

On Wednesday, we headed down to the Tweed Valley for a chilled day on the bikes. Our friend Neil had just finished his new trail on Tuesday night so it was great timing to be the second people to ride it. The 'second descent' doesn't really mean anything in the biking world like it does for a 'second ascent' in climbing, which is weird since it's the same concept!

I love new fresh trails. Loads of work has gone into it and its safe to say its pretty awesome. So thank you Mr Carnegie!

Below are some photos of us in action. Sadly the light wasn't great with there being such a low cloud base and no sign of any sun! Its quite a dense forest...we were riding almost blind by the end of the day. Really need to invest in some bike lights!

Keith

Janey

Climbing in the Lake District

After a summer of mostly hill walking it was great to have a day back on the rock!

On Monday 23rd September, Keith, Chris and I headed down to the Lake District for some climbing at Black Crag, followed by pub food.

Chris on Holly Tree Corner, VS 4b

Ben More

On September 4th we headed up the road for a gentle hill day on Ben More with awesome weather!

 

The Fannichs, Wyvis and the Glen Feshie Munros

Haven't had a chance to post about this as we've been so busy over the past month!

Anyway, for the last week in August we spent some time in the Highlands bagging some hills. We went up to the Fannichs, Ben Wyvis, and then spent a few days in the Cairngorms.

Peaks included were: A'Chailleach and Sgurr Breac (Fannichs), Ben Wyvis and Sgor Gaoith, Monadh Mor (Cairngorms). 

Here are some photos...

The Fannichs:

Keith admiring the view of the remote Fisherfields

An Teallach

Loch Fannich

Sgurr Breac from A'Cheallaich

A'Cheallaich summit cairn

Sgurr Breac (right) and A'Cheallaich (left)

Ben Wyvis:

start of the ascent - good path all the way

A sunny Ben Wyvis

National Nature Reserves work to re-establish the summit moss heath

Keith collecting water from a spring

Summit!

Descending, looking over to Little Wyvis

Bathtime!

The Cairngorms:

Our lovely weather for the first two days didn't last. We had two days of hill fog and rain once we reached the Cairngorms! Wild camping wasn't as pleasant as it usually is!

Before the bad weather arrived!

The remainder of our trip

Mountain Bike Leader Training

Over the weekend we were on our mountain bike leader (MBL) training course down in the Tweed Valley. This is the highest level and the most widely recognised qualification for biking. We picked up lots of awesome tips on coaching and leadership styles from Andy  (Ridelines (Mountain Bike Tuition) Ltd) and Al (Wheelie Cool Mountain Biking).

Saturday was mostly classroom based with some skills coaching sessions and Sunday was a full day ride.

I spent most of our ride out day dying to reach the descent and hit the natural techy trails as Keith and I haven't had a chance to ride much recently due to our upcoming ML assessment.

In the process of booking our MBL assessment now so will hopefully be fully qualified in a month or so :)

A Rainy Day in the Ochils and Pentlands Night Nav

We went for a walk in the Ochils on Thursday, up Ben Cleuch etc. Heavy rain from start to finish!

We've also spent a couple of nights in the Pentlands brushing up on our night nav in preparation for our ML assessment.