Video: The Hard Way

The Great Glen Way (Slighe a' Ghlinne Mhòir) follows Scotland's Great Glen, running from Fort William to Inverness over 79 miles of big mountain terrain. It's generally walked from west to east to follow the direction of the prevailing wind. We teamed up with Descent World to do it the hard way...

You can read Tommy Wilkinson's account of an epic big mountain trip on two custom built Airdrop Edits in the latest issue of MBUK. But first watch the video:

Photography: Tommy Wilkinson (@descentworld)
Riders: Brett Penfold (@brett_3sixty) and Neil Stewart (@neilst3wart)
Guiding & Support: Mark Clark (@stokedcoach)
Music: Trails and Ways - Mtn Tune. Sjowgren - Seventeen. Both tracks used under license.

If you have the determination to get there, and the skill to make the most of it, the mountains around the Great Glen Way have some incredible riding to offer. This is proper mountain biking. Rocking up at the trail centre and blasting out a couple of laps is great and we love a bit of that, but proper exposure and some epic scenery is also part of the game.

You've gotta earn your turns, as they say. And in these parts, the climbs are every bit as technical as the descents.

Over it's 79 mile range, the Great Glen Way offers up a bit of everything. Neil enjoying a bit of sunshine for a change on some single track lower down.

Brett knows how to ride a bike, and he never misses an opportunity to style it up. Even after some big days in the mountains there's time to play around a bit. OK, so these jumps aren't exactly on the Great Glen Way, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Scotland's unique network of Bothies provide a welcome place to rest up at the end of the day, dry out wet kit, get warm and of course, sample a wee dram.

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The Bikes

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Brett rides a custom built Airdrop Edit v1 in Medium/Orange with black decals. Highlights include a Cane Creek DBcoil IL rear shock, DVO Diamond forks, Chromag BZA bar & stem combo with Shimano Saint cranks & brakes. Neil rides a custom built Airdrop Edit v1 in Medium/Grey with black decals. This is "The Hope Bike" as featured in our popular bike build video. It has a full complement of Hopetech components in orange and black. You can buy an Edit v2 to the same spec here.

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See The Article in MBUK

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Tommy Wilkinson's full written account of this epic big mountain trip features in this month's MBUK Magazine (issue 349) so go grab a copy and give it a read. It's always great to see stuff (especially our own bikes, obviously) in print and when you get the chance, support one of the few titles left that's actually producing a physical mag.