Right now it is a bit wet and wild up here in the western Highlands so it seems a good time to remind ourselves how great it can be when it's good weather. We have an exciting mountain bike project underway up at Nevis Range where they are building a red grade downhill mountain bike track. This new trail will be do-able by most competant cross-country mounain bikers unlike the existing downhill competition track which really is for experts only. Due to open in May 2009 work has been underway on the new track for a couple of months. Bob MacFarlane is the expert track builder based at Nevis Range and responsible for the Mountain Bike World Cup route and he is supervising the work. Below is an extract from his 'New track diary' .....

NEW BIKE TRACK DIARY

Friday 26 September 2008

The next step will be to transport the dumper and the small digger to end of the boardwalk, to start working way down the ridge.

Going according to plan, reasonably on schedule!

Monday 22 September 2008

An autumn blue skies day seemed like a great excuse (as if we needed one) to get out on the bikes and test the track so far … obviously an extremely important part of the construction process!

End August 2008

Old important task is to reinstate the old start of the black downhill track to natural hillside. The large machine has been sent off to do this.

August 2008

The next section under construction is the start section. Those of you that ski and board at Nevis Range (and if you don’t … why not???) will know the start of the new track well, it’s at the quad chair, a short walk from the gondola top station, towards Meall Beg.

This area of track is across open grass land hillside. This is a fairly flat (ish) section and the large machine has been doing the main shaping and the smaller machine, has been tidying up the ditches. Under the approximately 2ft layer of peat, is a thick band of glacial moraine (gravel like stones). This is excavated from the hillside and used to surface the trail!


Mon 30 June 2008

Its not easy constructing half way up a mountain …

First task was to get the machinery up the hill. Those of you familiar with Nevi Range will know that the easily accessible car park is at 100m, but that the top gondola station is at 650m, some 2.4km away! Its was really important to get the machinery up the hill, in one piece, whilst causing minimal damage as possible to the mountain environment.

The first part of the track to be constructed was the boardwalk section, which is approximately in the middle of the track.

The planks are treated pine, and pained with grey non slip paint; grey, rather than green, as this blends into the mountain terrain.

The boardwalk is used to cover the particularly boggy terrain. The posts are constructed from larch, which ages well, doesn’t rot, and will last as long as possible in the acidy peaty ground.

The planks needed to be treated indoors, so each day the guys took over the gondola hall after the gondolas were loaded onto the line.

The next task was to get the wood up hill. Nevis Range regularly uses a helicopter to transport supplies and materials between from the car park to the existing balack downhill track, the summit of Aonach Mor, as well as ‘over the back, into the back corrie. The helicopter has already been at Nevis Range about 4 days this summer, so it greatly helped transport the supplies for the new track.

The boardwalk sections are looking good, and there are some amazing views across to the black downhill track and the Snowgoose restaurant & bar at the gondola top station, as well as back across Loch Linnhe towards the town of Fort William. The track is about 1 metre wide. Sections of the boardwalk are broken up using natural boulders.

Boardwalk section – looking good, amazing views. Towards end, a great flat area, for stopping off and taking a break!


Background

The main contractor is Mark Hedderwick, along with Chris and Hans.

He’s using 3 machines, a 14 ton machine, a 5 ton machine, and a standard digger and a 3 ton track dumper. The 14 ton has a special attachment that lets the bucket to be tilted and rotated through 360 degrees, to allow easier shaping of the terrain without having to continually reposition the machine in order to get the correct angles. The 3 ton truck dumper can transport 2-3 tons of material at a time, dropping it where you want!

This weekend gone was mainly dry - I took a spin on my road bike from Kinlochleven up to Kentallen. This route takes in mainly B roads and then joins a new off roadbike track at Gleann a'Chaolais. This new track is part of a route that Sustrans (the charity responsible for the National Cycle Network) is building from Oban to Ballachulish. This cycle track will eventually go through to Fort William. The new track is great - off road, tarmac surface and suitable for kids, beginners and the more experienced. So far it only goes to Kentallen but that suited me as it meant I could stop off at the Holly Tree Hotel for tea and a scone. I then returned to Kinlochleven via the other side of Loch Leven. A really nice round trip that took about 3 hours at a moderate pace.

Other cyclists in the Outdoor Capital were up to far more hardcore things - this weekend was the No Fuss 24 hour race 'Relentless' - well done to all those who took part and to the winners.