Grizzly Munro Diaries

Last weekend I headed North to document Sean Green of Grizzly Munro Diaries on one of his Munro bagging weekends.

He's challenged himself to complete all 282 Munros and if that wasn't hard enough, he's doing it on, or I should say, with a mountain bike.

We arranged to meet at the Grey Mare's Tail car park and with having glorious sunshine in the UK for a good few week now, I was expecting the raging water fall to be a little tamer.

Grey Mare's Tail

As my bike has been nicked, Sean had arranged for me a bike for the weekend with his sponsor, Deviate Cycles. Ben & Chris at Deviate have created the ultimate trail weapon, with a pinion gear box instead of the usual rear derailleur, minimising maintenance and breakages, it seems to be the perfect bike for Sean's challenge.

I picked it up from Comrie Croft, a great bike shop, cafe and trail network just West of Perth and as soon as I got my hands on it, I knew it was something special.

Just from the short ride from the shop back to the van, it felt as rooted as an old oak tree, I knew it would handle any descent my skills could throw at it.

An hour and a half later I was parked up and by the time I'd changed and given the bike a once over, Black Betty came round the corner.

Sean's truck is hard to miss, a bit like the man himself and his bike, the big black beast rolled in to the car park, sporting it's signature smile reminiscent of a P51 Mustang. A quick hand shake, change of clothes and we were mounted and off.

The climb up to Loch Elide Mor starts off steep and gets steeper, soon the bikes were on our backs, a theme that was to become a regular occurrence over the weekend.

Popping out above the treeline, the views opened up over Loch Leven.

We left the Loch behind and carried on carrying in the heat, past the Lochan and on to the shoulder of Binnein Mor, where I left the bike and carried on foot to try and keep up with Sean's pace in the dying light.

Without the bike on my back, it freed me up for some pictures, before I left Sean to summit his 67th Munro and headed back to collect the bike.

Riding was possible for most of the ride back down, with a few rocky sections and one big drop to negotiate on the descent.

The light was fading fast, so once back at Loch Elide Mor, I decided to take the Mamore Lodge service road down, hitting the West Highland Way to Loch Leven,

Sean wasn't far behind making it just in time for last orders at the Bothy Bar in the MacDonald Hotel.

Over a pint, we studied the maps and decided an attack of the Mamores was better from Glen Nevis.

Sean climbed in to his roof tent and I in to the back of my van for the night.

Next morning we headed to Fort William, stocking up on supplies and breakfast pastries, before heading up to the head of Glen Nevis.

The car park for the Steall Falls was pretty full, but we managed to squeeze the two vehicles in, packed up for a long day and headed up the trail.

It wasn't long before we exited the trees and the impressive falls came in to view. Sean spotted a perfect slab for a little photo opportunity.

Once past the falls, the climbing began and sheltered from the breeze, the heat hit us in the corrie.

The bikes never left our backs as we trudged on up, hitting the arête where we had to balance the bikes precariously on our packs, to free up hands for the short scrambles.

Once we hit the first Munro, An Gearanach, the carrying didn't stop, even though we were heading downhill now, it was just too steep and rocky to even attempt to ride.

We got some weird looks carrying up the ridge to the second Munro, with people stopping to ask us, 'How?' 'Are you mad?' and 'What the fuck for?'

I left Sean to answer, after all it's his mad challenge, I'm just the mad photographer that agreed to try and take some pictures.

Dropping down from Stob Coire a'Chairn, we managed to get in bits of riding in the shadows of Ben Nevis.

The climbing up to Sgurr an Iubhair, the highest point on our, errrm ride, was steady compared to the first two. Once on the summit, we whipped out the camera and made the most of the evening light.

Finally we were riding, the trail was rocky, fast and fun and lead us all the way down to the Bealach in between Stob Ban. WIth the fading light, we made the decision to leave that Munro for another day and headed back down to Glen Nevis.

Having previously read about a there and back ride up Stob Ban, I was really excited for the descent. MBR even have it listed in their top Scottish routes and on the map it looks promising. How wrong we were.

The intermittent riding, is few and far between. Knee deep ruts made it impossible to ride for most of the singletrack.

We hit the road around 11pm and made the short pedal back to the Steall car park.

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Affric & Torridon

Glen Affric & Torridon

The autumnal forecast wasn't looking too great as the date approached for our trip north, we decided to ditch the tents and booked in to a bunkhouse for a couple of nights.
Four of us set out from Leeds in two separate vans, meeting up at the Clachaig Inn in Glen Coe for around 6pm.
The winds were howling down the Glen as we stretched our muscles in the pub car park, before being lured inside by the wood burning stove, beer and single malt.

After a couple of beers and a bite to eat, we took to the pool table and realised it had more of a gradient than the hills we were planning on riding over the next few days.
A couple of whiskies later, we bedded down for the night in the back of the vans.

The next morning we made our way further north, stopping off at Fort William for breakfast and supplies for our two nights in the bunkhouse. We didn't hold back, filling the trolly with steaks and beer.
Leaving Fort William behind, we were soon parked up at the small Kintail visitor centre in Morvich, preparing our bikes and packs for the ride in to Camban bothy.
Finally we were on the bikes and riding down Glean Lichd on a good Landrover track. The ridge line of the Five Sisters dominated our view as we climbed higher.

Photo Credit: Aston Reardon

Photo Credit: Aston Reardon

After 6km the track turned to singletrack and started to steepen, making us push and carry our bikes pretty much all the way up.
After gaining around 300 metres the trail was ride-able once again and in no time we found ourselves at the bothy.
Once inside with our water bottles filled, the clouds started to descend and signs of rain were in the air.
We each carried a little bothy treat in our packs to share, but it appeared we all pretty much decided on cheese, spicy sausage and port. With no fire, we lit a couple of candles and passed around our treats.

An early night, saw an early start and no rain banging on the windows. After a quick breakfast we headed out on the small descent down to the hostel at Alltbeithe.
Over night the trail had become a river, so staying dry wasn't much of an option as the spray soaked us through.
The rivers and burns seemed to be carrying a lot of water down from the hills, but luckily there was a bridge to get us across for our climb up Glean Gniomhaidh. We pushed our way up a boggy trail, until we found the proper established track allowing us to ride and gain the height up to Bealach an Sgairne.
After the Loch a Bealach the trail started to steepen and once again the bikes were shouldered. It was only a short climb, but at the top, the wind was so strong it nearly blew us back down.
On the other side the trail was just as steep, with tight switchbacks to negotiate. The switchbacks weren't the only feature slowing us down, the small burn we had to cross had turned in to dangerous torrent.
Trekking up and down, we all tried to find the safest place to cross, each agreeing to brave the so called ford. We took the bikes over in two's, placing the bike in the middle for support against the current. The water came up to our waists and filled my waterproof socks, making it look like my ankles had swollen up, it did manage to get some laughs when I emptied out the contents like a water filled welly.

From here the trail mellowed a touch, and took us down the glen quickly on some nice flowing singletrack. Only the deer and goats slowed us down as they crossed our path.
The refuge of the van came in to view and more importantly, warm dry clothes.

It was only a short drive to our bunkhouse and we were there for 4pm, giving us plenty of time to sort out our gear, lube up the bikes and get the wet clothes in the dry room.
The steaks went down a treat and after a couple of beers, we had another early night.

Next morning we discussed the days plans over breakfast. A loop was planned in to the Torridon hills, starting from Achnashellach so we made the short drive there.
Once parked up it was back down the road towards Coulags where we took the trail north towards Coire Fionnariach bothy. We made good time to the bothy and finding it locked, carried on up towards Bealach Ban.

Photo Credit: Martin Paine

Photo Credit: Martin Paine

After a short push/carry and a few picture stops, we were at the Bealach and greeted with amazing views over to Liathach. The trail contoured round then began to climb again to our high point of the day according to the map, one last push was all that stood in our way to our final descent.
With the prospect of 7km of descending to do, we all seemed to hurry to the top and didn't hang around in the wind once there.
Martin lead us down the first steep rocky chutes, with me following behind. His wheel skipped and danced over the loose rocks as we dropped height fast. The rocks continued till we got to Loch Coire Lair, where the trail subsided for a while, allowing us to get some feeling back in to our arms.
The father and son team of Aston and Stuart caught us up and pressed on, while Martin and I took in the view.
Aston and his dad began to disappear out of view, so we mounted the bikes and pedalled after them.

Once again the track started to steepen and bed rock rose out of the ground like circling shark fins. Grip was in abundance as we used the rock to descend. Martin was in front, whooping and hollowing at every drop and turn all the way in to the woods.
At a small diversion, we met back up with Stu and Aston and were greeted with fist bumps and high fives all round.
Again we changed in to clean clothes for the short drive back to the digs for a good meal and a couple of beers around the log burner.
Rain was banging on the bunkhouse windows when we woke, but we were still slightly disappointed we were heading back to Leeds.

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