British Backcountry Winter Opener

The British Backcountry Winter Opener has quickly established itself as the event to kick off the upcoming season, however with the dreaded C-word putting a slight dampner on plans for the usual film premieres and social events, it was up to the workshops to carry the torch for 2020.

Edinburgh in November is not renowned for snow so Blair and Gavin who run British Backcountry had drafted in mountain biker Naomi Freirich as another fast moving model for the day. Now Naomi is a 3 x UK 24hr and 2018 European 24hr MTB Champ which I took to mean that she’s a badass on a bike… and was not wrong there, she made hills look flat with the speed she powered up them time and time again, just so we could get the shots we wanted!

While a lot of photography can be learned through reading and practice, it’s always good to get some external input and discussion with other photographers to evaluate critical elements. Having missed a few opportunities to attend one of Nadir Khan’s photography workshops in the past, it was good to get booked on and spend a day working on images with no client pressures on style or speed of delivery! Nadir’s delivery was very relaxed and took time to get a handle on our level before diving in to any technical elements. With a range of experience across plenty of sports and client types, Nadir had loads of information to share with the group and looked at the wider environment rather than just focussing on only the sport elements.

We spent the whole day out on the hill working at different areas to get a variety of images from the misty woods, single track and exposed hill tops. It also helped it was dry, not too cold, with an insane cloud inversion hanging over Edinburgh the whole day. The sunset looking southwest over the Pentlands with the clouds rolling in like reverse waterfalls was epic, it was hard to make a bad image.

Thanks again to Blair & Gavin for organising the day, Nadir for delivering an enjoyable & informative workshop, Naomi for her top bike skills and Alan, Chris & Ian for good company in the Pentlands. Roll on winter now and COVID getting smashed out of existence…

More images can be found on Flickr.

Foxtrail Nocturnal Ultra

Running a 5km loop for 6 hours and furthest distance wins is a pretty simple concept. Throw in it being at night and needing head torches is another level. Thankfully it was a still, clear, starry night at Foxlake Adventures in East Lothian in November for the race with Red Bull providing the lights, tunes and refreshments for all the runners.

In the end the top solo female managed 13 laps (65 km), top solo male managed 14 laps (70 km) and the top team managed 18 laps (90 km) which is seriously impressive distances involved. Well done to all who took part in such a mad event!

Shed Seven and The Twang

A sore throat & ringing ears is aways an easy way to mark a good gig and Friday night was no different! Every 2 years Shed Seven have their Shedcember tour of the UK and invariably a bunch of 40+ year olds relive their youth by drinking copiously and singing along to some of the best 90’s music written!

Photos will never do it justice, especially with how mental it was going down the front... good times folks.

The Twang getting the crowd started.

With a good mix of the classic anthems all the Shed Seven fans know and love, it was carnage from the start with pretty much the entire venue singing along to every song. They keep Getting Better every time they play and Rick Witter is the quintessential front man getting down in the crowd to sing along with them. Bloody love them.

As always the night finished with ‘Chasing Rainbows’ and nicely it was dedicated to a fan, Karen, who had been coming to see the band for years but sadly died of a brain tumour. RIP Karen.

Red Bull Project Pro

If you’re going to have a snowboard challenge on a dryslope in the summer then you have to be pretty creative to get some unique content from it. Red Bull were running their #ProjectPro series over the summer and Billy Morgan was one of the athletes who could be challenged by local riders on the obscure task of the longest distance walked on their hands in 30 seconds. Billy set the bar at 15 metres and anyone else could give it a go. A few came close but no-one beat him.

However if Billy is involved then it can sometimes veer off down a slightly different path than to what is expected… even more so when you add Danny McCormick in to the equation too!

After both of them becoming taco’s around the rookie box the session transferred to Bearsden’s now internationally known kicker and quarter pipe set up. Fuelled by cans of Red Bull and in some cases quite a few pints of Tennet’s lager, the tunes were going and the send was launched, with even a few of the old guard and the really OG old guard too. Amazingly no-one broke themselves, prizes were handed out and all managed to make a safe return to the bar for a cold social adult beverage.

Ben A'an

Sometimes you just need to get out and do something… Hiking Ben A’an had been on my radar for a while and as the weather was looking good yesterday then I headed up there for sunset. It’s about 1.5 hours from my house and an easy drive for most of it up to Callander via Stirling, after that the road gets a bit windy but not too bad when there is no-one else there. I had wanted to go up the Duke’s Pass but it was meant to be shut for a bike event.

A short detour to get some shots of Ben Venue with the evening light raking across the valley led to an adventure through rough terrain just to get back on the main path. A bit of brambles ripping at the skin, not too much swearing, but a lot of sweating and sliding around on the side of the hills was involved.

The bottom of the path is an easy walk but quickly turns in to a steep clamber for the second half. It was a bit of a race to get to the top in time for sunset, so the sweating continued.

Finally made it to the top and the views down Loch Katrine certainly didn’t disappoint. Views over to Stirling and Dumgoyne aren’t too bad either but looking west was impressive.

The walk back down with the light fading would have been interesting without a head torch on and no doubt there have been some casualties in the past. Did intend stopping in Callander for a chippy on the way home but resisted temptation for once…

Foo Fighters, Bellahouston Park

Foo Fighters gig 10 minutes drive from my house… I’ll be having some of that! Plenty of social adult beverages on the way to the park and then a little bit of mud to deal with before heading as close to the front as possible!

And of course they blew the bloody doors off… could be heard as far away as Maryhill and Dennistoun!