Pitfichie Snow

I woke up early with the intention of heading over to my favourite local mtb spot to play in the snow, we haven't had any fresh snow since Friday so I didn't think it would be too deep.

I wolfed down breakfast and coffee, packed the bike into the car, sorted out my spares, food, juice and camera and jumped in the car. As I was driving over I actually thought there was less snow lying around, however it was yet to be seen what the conditions on the hill were like.

I put the bike back together and made my way up the first forest road climb, even this proved difficult as the snow had been churned up by horses and walkers, I eventually made it to the turn off for the climb up to Green Hill and soon after I was off! Not because I had fallen but because the snow was beginning to get really deep and with the gradient of the hill it was proving impossible in places. Once out of the forest and climbing up the last part to the top, this bit is usually walked anyway, I had to put the bike on my shoulder and wade through the deep snow, which was easily coming above my knees in places, eventually I made it to the top and was met by a couple of bemused walkers sitting on the cairn, wondering what on earth I was doing with a bike.

The descent off the hill wasn't much better, just a few deep footprints in the snow where the walkers had been, again I had to put the bike on my shoulder and lug that with my heavy rucksack around, at least the conditions were stunning, bright sunshine, no wind and clear skies, even the snow looked stunning, it was almost as if it had snowed shards of glass rather than snow, it made a satisfying crunch underfoot. Soon I found the deepest part, in which I sank up to my waist in snow!

Finally I got to the forest road again and decided to make my way down rather than make the climb up over Cairn William, this is where I decided to test my new little video camera, a Veho Muvi mounted on my helmet which is now uploaded, the descent was hairy, I had to stay in the wheel tracks made by a 4 x 4 which had driven up here, if I strayed off the tracks I was sliding everywhere! Great fun though!

I got back to the car shattered after the mix of cycling and carrying, and met some other cyclist who sensibly had studded tyres which I wished I had, loaded the bike back into the car and drove back home.

As soon as I got in the football started, Bristol City Vs West Brom, I really wanted Bristol to at least draw so my team, Newcastle, have a bigger gap at the head of the table, but they went one better they beat them 2-1! Brilliant!

To round what has been a good day, I may head to the go kart track for a thrash.

Other Blips:

Glass Snow
Hot Air Balloon
Snow Stand