← All eventsMacAvalanche
Megavalanche-style mass-start off-the-mountain descent race in the Scottish Highlands — snow/scree at the top, technical natural trail to the valley. Result is the race down, not FTP. Elevation and date are approximate estimates.
A Megavalanche in the Scottish Highlands. Hundreds of riders launched together from high on a mountain, often onto real snow, racing down to the valley as one chaotic field.
It's a gravity race, not a climbing one. Around 1,000m of vertical drop off the mountain: snow and scree up top, then wet rock, bog and technical natural trail all the way to the bottom.
The racing lasts minutes, not hours. Your result is one run down, seeded by qualifying, decided by nerve at the start and descending skill on the slickest terrain in the UK. Fitness barely comes into it.
Is MacAvalanche for you?
- Confident gravity and enduro riders. This is decided by how you handle snow, scree and wet rock at speed, not by your engine.
- Riders with nerve for a mass start. Lining up with hundreds of others high on a cold mountain and committing off the line is the whole test.
- Anyone who rides well when it's cold and wet. Highland rock, bog and heather are slick and unforgiving, and cold hands wreck your braking.
- Riders on the right bike. A capable full-suspension gravity machine with strong brakes suits this far better than a light XC hardtail.
Training plan for MacAvalanche
A training plan for MacAvalanche isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- A mass start high on the mountain, often on snow and scree, in genuine Highland cold
- A long, continuous, consequential descent: wet rock, bog, heather and technical natural trail
- Arm-pump and grip fatigue over a descent that punishes tired hands and fading control
- Qualifying runs that set your start group, plus short punchy efforts on the pedally run-out
- Long descent laps: repeated shuttle or push laps of the longest descent you can reach, for durability and arm-pump resistance
- Consequential wet-terrain days on loose, steep, wet-rock and bog, with snow and scree where you can find it
- Punchy repeats, 8 to 10 x 30 to 90 seconds hard with full recovery, for the run-out and qualifying efforts
- Mass-start practice with a committed sprint start into technical terrain, plus off-bike forearm and grip work
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
