Fort William Thursday morning

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Fort William Thursday morning
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flag noel-hines
Posted: May 1, 2018 at 14:01 Quote
Looking for some local knowledge. I’m up near Loch Ness for a few days work and have Thursday morning free. I was thinking about heading to Fort Bill. Are the lifts running? I could be there ready for when it opens, whenever that is. Is it feasible to hire a decent DH bike, get a couple of runs in, return the bike back and leave before safely before 12pm. Or am I nuts? Never been before and it seems like an opportunity not to waste.

Cheers!
flag DrOzone
Posted: May 1, 2018 at 15:16 Quote
noel-hines wrote:
Looking for some local knowledge. I’m up near Loch Ness for a few days work and have Thursday morning free. I was thinking about heading to Fort Bill. Are the lifts running? I could be there ready for when it opens, whenever that is. Is it feasible to hire a decent DH bike, get a couple of runs in, return the bike back and leave before safely before 12pm. Or am I nuts? Never been before and it seems like an opportunity not to waste.

Cheers!

Gondola times are really *ucking annoying- they don't let bikes on until 10:15 and stop at 15:45- despite it being available from around 08:00 until 16:30 or so if you don't have a bike...

Lift is running at the mo; starts around April until around October for bikes depending on how bad a winter etc- high winds are what affects the running on a daily basis.

DH bike is around £90/100 I think to hire and lift pass is around £35 these days- they don't do a half day but single ticket is nearly £20...

Gondola takes around 18mins I would say in the real world and DH track I would say 6mins or under is a good factor plus around 1min to get back to the uplift point. You will have the DH track- (not quite the WC course as the forest and drop are sectioned off and often the hoofer dam also out) as well as the Red Giant course which is more pedally but it's not like you are in first gear or anything- never taken a DH bike down it but i can't see why it wouldn't be possible.

We race Enduro there too but this requires more time and some intimate knowledge. If you are on limited time I think you would have a blast with the DH albeit expensive in a time: £ ratio if you couldn't do a full day.

If you have the time and budget then I'd do it- great experience and you get to ride a large part of the WC course as well as seeing the stuff that they have to do- the big drop out of the forest isn't even in the BDS.

There is nothing that hard there if you were just getting down- the issues are when trying to race. That's not to say the course can't chew you up and spit you out- it just needs some respect.
flag noel-hines
Posted: May 1, 2018 at 23:07 Quote
Thank you so much, that’s really helped. Annoying about the lifts, but sounds like I could just about squeeze it all in. Even if it’s just for one run, maybe two.

If anyone out there wants to meet me on the first lift and give me a line to follow that’d be rad!
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