While up Slaying mountains on the rigid raider I took some photos of the tracks.
Words and Photos: Ace Woodley
Start with Fort William, due to things at the MacAvalanche not going to plan and fixing my bike in the Nevis range car park I couldn’t get up to the deer fence crossing as I had hoped. I bumped into 3 skiers walking down at the wall-ride. Now knowing i am the last person up here I followed them back down. I asked about the top section of track, only minor changes up top, what and where you will find out at the race.
As the skiers set off I got the camera out.
I don’t know about final course taping, this is the world cup jump on the right and the 3 steps on the left, the top of the woods, not much has changed here.
The wall ride 🙂
The woods below the wall-ride has had a minor face-lift and makeover, still littered with pedal smashing toe breaking rocks, this leads down into the small wall-ride and the top of the motorway. From the new drop line in from last year the track has been patched up and is smooth down to the hip jump, and immense fun on the Karate Monkey, I am used to this part of track being potholed and loose, damn it looks good right now.
The motorway double, this could well be still a work in progress, and may change from now to the race.
The motorway table jump, also maybe still a work in progress and may change by race day.
I believe some call this the Tissot jump ? it’s been rebuilt and leads to the “off beat wall” the finish area is now in sight from here.
To me this is the “off beat wall” the steps have been shored up, as you look at the photo I tend to go left and hit the rocks as the right line is a bit of a wheel rut and not nice on the hard-tail, slams you a bit, from here small jump onto the 4x track then the two finish jumps.
Can’t say what has changed up top didn’t get that far, but the lower is running smooth and fast, the trail pixies have been busy grooming the track ready for season start. If you can’t race but fancy a day out www.nevisrange.co.uk for Gondola uplift prices and opening hours as the track fully opens in the next week or so.
And also Glencoe due soon for the BDS and the Down hill track will also soon be fully open for uplift. The photos are from the chair lift and from practice in the MacAvalanche where we used the top section which was rough loose and fast.
Top section berms and jumps, rocky lairy fun.
That last picture is the final section, it’s been groomed and dosen’t appear overly different to last year, I didn’t pay to much attention to the lower slopes here as I was trying to remember MacAvalanche lines further up.
There you go a quick update on track conditions from the 28/29th April at Glen Coe and Fort William. For more info on chair lift days go to www.glencoemountain.co.uk for race info go to www.halobritishdownhillseries.com
Ace.
