UKC

Midweek - Worth booking in advance, or lots of capacity (last week of May)?

Dreadful the other weekend, when only access was if you paid the £45, because the mountain bikers had hijacked the gondola for the weekend. (MBI event). I walked up the CMD instead but my companion coughed up the full amount to get up Aonach Mor!

Hmm, I doubt there will be any events on, but will check.

Why didn't you just walk up Aonach Mor and meet your companion at the top of the chairlift?

Easier said than done. They literally sealed off the mountain!

What with, gaffer tape?

Surely they can't do that. 

They had barriers everywhere. When I attempted to walk through to just walk up  I was stopped by security. So I just thought, sod it, and walked up from the North Face cp.

FFS Sean - it was the Word Cup DH Series opener that runs every year and bring tons of kudos and income into Fort William and helps keep the Gondola income going. It's been a great success story for Fort William allowing Scotland to compete with Alpine DH venues.

So stop your yapping.

If you went up there not being aware that the event was going on I can see how it would be a bit of a bummer, but yep - Sean's little whinge is irrelevant and inappropriate here.

For context, here's what was going on that weekend:

youtube.com/watch?v=xKWE-6v7KBA&

youtube.com/watch?v=bEHTBiy5__Q&

That's just near the course line, you can go around and up the sides of the course through the forest. They obviously aren't going to let you walk up the track against the flow of bikers. 

We went to it a few years back (2018), just a brilliant day out and a fabulous atmosphere.

Also went to the one in Les Gets in 2022, which was the most crazy bonkers amazing end to an event I've ever been too. Incredible scenes. 

No forewarning of this event in the climbing media, so when you drive all the way up from Devon/Cornwall to tick the Scottish 4s on a holiday weekend it was totally unexpected and inconvenient!

Why should the climbing media mention it?  The gondola wasn't built for climbers, lol.

Its clearly your fault for not checking the gondola website or calling them before you made the trip up from southwest. It could have well been shut for maintenance for all you had known.

And the gondola has been used most years by the WC-DH event dating back to 2002!  So I think the DH-WC top-trumps your demands for unfettered 100% access whenever you turn up once in a blue moon to use it. 

Let's imagine a conversation:

... WC/DH Organisers to Nevis Range: 'We'd like to use your gondola again for a massive event televised all round the world'

... Nevis Range: 'Sorry you can't. Sean might turn up'

And the Gondola was still running ... so you could have used it like your mate did; would have cost you a bit more, but then you had travelled up all the way from the southwest ...

How awful. 

Completely impossible to miss when you actually get to Fort William, but I guess once you've driven over 500 miles to get that far you're fully committed to being on that one specific hill because there's absolutely nowhere else you could possibly have gone and nothing else to do.

Well they should, just stop the event and make everyone wait while he's walking up.  He'd driven all the way from Devon you know!