Episode 8 The Adventure Show

Hello and a very warm welcome to The Adventure Show.

This month, we're at the Strathpuffer 2014, and with

over 500 competitors, this promises to be the biggest Puffer ever.

And unusually this year conditions are fairly mild,

so no snow and ice for the competitors to deal with.

They'll have to deal with lots and lots of mud.

The Puffer course can get very, very churned up.

It is muddy and it will get really muddy.

This is one of the toughest mountain bike races on the planet.

It's ridden continuously over 24 hours,

17 of which are in the dead of the Scottish winter's night.

There's something about riding mountain bikes in the dark.

It's just like you're on a different planet.

Hopefully I keep going through the dark bit -

the three, four, five o'clock. It's quite special when you're up there

and you see the Highlands in the mist, and the sun coming up.

I promise I'll get back on the bike in just a few moments!

Now, I think of myself as an outdoors kind of person.

And I have tried this event a couple of times in the past.

On you go. Good effort.

Look at that. He's flying! It's nine o'clock in the morning!

We've been going for 22 hours and he's flying!

He hit his head and he's been sick.

I just went off. I don't know...

I've been off the bike more than I've been on the bloody thing.

I just keep falling off it.

I think I've learned my lesson. But that's not the case for everyone.

This year's Strathpuffer is full to capacity.

But what goes on in the mind of the competitors

during their most joyous and perhaps darkest moments?

To find out, we have set up this.

Our confession cam,

where riders can come in and reveal all to the camera.

Hi. I am the Monkey half of Ness and Monkeys.

And the Monkey half has quit.

Try to crack a smile.

-Is this going to be on the telly, then?

-Aye.

Awesome.

And this month's Adventure Show

explores more of the night-time than usual.

Alan Rowan's been nicknamed the Moonwalker

because he thinks the best time to explore our hills is in the dark.

It's so quiet. You're on your own.

And it's a different beauty than going walking during the day.

Cameron McNeish on the other hand will be heading into our

wintry mountains in the daylight and enjoying what they've got to offer.

It's hard work in the snow.

But hard graft in such beautiful surroundings never feels so bad.

And we're off to one of the coldest

and most extreme places in the world.

Where some intrepid Scots are blazing a trail.

And a very bizarre one at that.

It was about minus 30.

And the sun's just popped up over to the side here.

It's risen slightly to minus 25.

But first, to the Strathpuffer 24.

The race starts at 10am on Saturday

and finishes at 10am 24 hours later on the Sunday.

You can compete as a quad, a pair or as a single.

But whichever way you do this, it is a very tough race indeed.

You've got to do it once. It's a rite of passage for a cyclist.

I should know better cos I'm local. I've seen it all before.

I said I'd never do it ever, but I've been sucked into it this year.

I'm feeling my age this morning! Old and stiff.

Maybe that's getting used to what I'm going to experience for the next

30 hours or whatever.

Absolutely torturous.

But what a giggle.

-How are we doing?

-Good? You?

-Terrible.

We'll be keeping tabs on all the riders throughout the event,

but we'll also be keeping a very close eye on some people

who have volunteered to let us share in their struggle,

like these people here, the Deeside Divas, Kirsty and Jayne.

How are you feeling?

Butterflies beginning to creep up in the stomach, but, yeah,

we got some sleep last night I think, so getting ready to go.

You both did the event last year, I understand.

-So why have you come back?

-We're asking ourselves

that question at the moment, actually, to be honest.

I think, we did it as a quad last year and we did quite well

last year, so we thought the next step must be to do it as a pair.

So Kirsty and I both stupidly agreed that we would pair up together.

We might be regretting it at three in the morning,

but we think why not?

There's a large contingent of riders from Aberdeenshire this year,

and another team that's aiming for top spot is the Deeside Puffers.

Ian Wilson was in the winning quad last year,

and with the new line-up, he's back for more.

This is my seventh. There's nothing else to do in January.

I'm a time-trialist, so I've got a season coming up

starting in March, and I just love it.

There are other things to do in January, like, you know,

sit and watch the telly, go to the pub, that kind of thing, you know?

Strange folk do that kind of thing. You want to be out here in the mud.

I'm pretty happy to give the mud, cold and wet a miss this year.

Another cyclist who on her admission is a glutton for punishment

is Morven Mackenzie-Fleming.

It was her first Strathpuffer last year

and she's riding once again as a soloist.

It's amazing how much you need for 24 hours, isn't it?

I've only been biking a couple of years, so I still am a beginner.

But I've been doing more biking this year. Whether I've improved not...

I don't think I've got any faster, but I keep trying!

With just seconds to go to the start of this year's Puffer,

it's the traditional piping in of the competitors

before the Le Mans-style sprint to the bikes.

This is it.

Three... Two... One... Go!

And here they come. The biggest Puffer yet. Over 500 competitors.

Now it's all about picking up your bike and getting going.

And look at that already.

People are cycling into the back of the runners.

It's just carnage at the start of the race! My goodness me!

With such a huge amount of people, this is where people fall over.

The last thing you want to do

when you've been prepping for this race is fall over, break a bone.

People are taking photographs, getting in the way.

Supporters are getting in the way.

Some are walking because it's a big 24-hour race,

plenty of time to get things right.

But you do not want to get things wrong at the start.

So the fastest people all screaming up the hill, running away,

getting their bikes away and getting away early.

But it's a long, long race.

-Have a marvellous time.

-I will!

So, this is the ninth Strathpuffer event. All the quads are out fast.

Obviously they can afford to burn a bit more on the first few rounds.

And the sprint up the first hill is particularly difficult.

So, 24 hours of graft ahead of everybody on the course.

And the strategy is to try and learn as much of the technical part

of the course as possible before it gets too dark.

Hello there!

They've got a few hours to do that, but not many.

Hiya!

As the racers head round the first lap,

Alex Glasgow of Team Nevis Cycles takes an early lead for the quads.

He's an experienced Puffer rider with a determination to win.

But in the past things haven't always gone his way.

Last time we did this, I remember standing here

and I went for a warm-up along there

and seriously got 20 yards along the road and met the ice.

And went, "Oh, it's all going to go wrong." And it did.

So, I'm a little bit more cautious of the whole thing,

and talking to you guys this year.

That's Alex Glasgow, first in.

Absolutely flying on the first lap.

And I make that less than 30 minutes. He is an absolute beast.

He knows this course very, very well indeed.

Almost caught us out there. He is so far ahead of the rest of the pack.

They mean business. Look out for them.

Second over the line for this first lap are the Deeside Puffers.

So, it's a great start for them too.

One down, seven to go!

Nice ride.

Loved the rock of it. Good circuit, actually. Very, very good.

Meanwhile, in the pairs race, Phil Simcock's team came third last year.

Today, he's completed his first lap in just 33 minutes.

He's set the time to beat.

You always come to a race to win it.

But there's bound to be some really fast lads here. There always is.

And fast girls as well.

First couple of laps will be key, get out there fast,

see what other people are doing and get your head down and go for it.

In the female pairs,

fastest round are the Deeside Divas, Kirsty Aitken and Jayne Taylor.

That's Jayne, aiming for about 46, 47 minutes for her first lap.

She'll battle back halfway up the hill and hand over to Kirsty.

Smile!

Really go for it. It's good.

OK.

-Enjoy!

-See you later!

Right, warm clothes, I think. Quick change and go!

I love it at this stage of the Strathpuffer.

Everyone's smiling as they're coming in.

First lap done, thinking, "That wasn't that bad!"

Good, one lap in. 23 to go!

Each lap here is 11km long.

There's a mixture of forest roads,

singletrack through the trees

and those infamous technical sections.

No wonder it's been voted

one of the ten toughest mountain bike races in the world.

It's harder than I thought it might be!

The worst bit's got to be the second section fire road.

You think you've done the boring bit already,

then you go through a little bit of singletrack

and then you've just got this kind of long climb.

Getting there!

Go on!

Go on, woo! Go on!

It's, like, downhill all the way.

Fit as a fiddle, just easy!

Really easy!

Is that convincing?!

Can I die now?

Ah!

I'm definitely concentrating!

Feeling great, actually.

I like it when you have to do a little bit of thinking

cos it takes your mind off sort of the long hours, really.

There's lots of lovely bits.

Ooh!

What's the course? Six miles long and about five miles in,

it's all downhill to the finish.

So that's the best bit. You get to that, you know

you've done the lap. There's nothing between you -

as long as you don't fall off - and the bottom.

Wa-ay!

In many ways, the Strathpuffer is three races in one

with the disciplines, solo, pair and quad

throwing up significantly different challenges,

as Duncan found out yesterday

when he rode the course with race organiser, Steve Macdonald.

So, Steve, a long time ago

I rode this as a sort of unsuccessful quad, and we had real difficulties

with timing and eating and all the rest of it.

Which is the most difficult of the disciplines?

I think the pair is the most difficult

because you never see your partner.

All you're doing is handing over your dibber to him,

and then he's off and then three quarters of an hour later,

he's back again. You don't get time for sleep,

you don't get time to fix your bike

and if you want to let somebody down

there's only one person to let down as well,

so there's a lot of pressure on you in the pairs.

With the quad and the pair, you are batting off someone.

But as a solo, it really is a big psychological battle, isn't it?

Yes, I think the guys that do well in the solos

are from a different planet, really!

The guys that do well stop for no more than five minutes

every few hours. They just keep on rolling.

And that's an extraordinary thing to be able to do anyway -

to think about staying up for 24 hours

but to keep motivating yourself to go and ride is something else.

Yeah, and it must be so easy to stop because, again,

you don't have any other team-mates that you're letting down.

Even though this is the ninth Puffer, the jury is still out

about whether being a soloist or part of a team

is the best way to tackle the race.

For me the quads are really competitive cos I think

some of the good guys come out and try and compete

against other good guys and it's a good opportunity to do that.

It's something we get a chance to do.

Four good guys competing against another four good guys.

I like pairs.

It's... Solo's too hard,

cos you're just going round and round constantly.

Quads, you don't get out enough

and you're freezing cold, waiting for everybody to come back in.

I think pairs is ideal.

As long as you're not in the top three, trying to

really race your way around it, you can use it

as an event and just keep going at your own pace.

Last year, I did pairs, this year I've done pairs.

I did solo for two years before that, so...

I probably won't come back next year!

You have to, it's the tenth! The tenth anniversary.

Is it? Don't say that, don't say that!

We've already said we're going to have a year off!

One competitor who knows this event inside out is Katy Boocock.

She was one of the race founders and the winner

of the first women's solo.

This year, she's back in an all-female quad.

Yay! Come on, Katy!

Well done! OK, woo-hoo!

How's it been going so far? You've done four laps

and it's just over three hours into the race.

And so we're very happy.

And I've just ridden the first complete lap I've ever ridden

without having to put my foot down.

So pleased. That horrible Bridge of Thighs, I got over it!

Conditions are clearly this year very unusual. It's very rideable.

Yes, so it's the wussy Puffer this year, isn't it, really!

You should be riding!

-Yes, cos it's the wussy Puffer,

-I

-should be riding(!)

It's amazing. Times for laps are very, very fast at this stage.

However, you know it's a physical race. It goes on for a long time.

Do you this think early euphoria,

people putting in these fast lap times,

might bite them in the backside later on?

I think it'll bite ME in the backside, yes!

In the middle of the night I'll think, "Why did I go so fast?!" Yes.

First time I've ever done that.

The competitors have been on the go for just over four hours

and the fastest have already completed more than eight laps -

that's 88km of off-road mountain biking.

But this race is only just warming up.

We'll be back with them shortly.

First, though, we're heading out into the hills with Cameron McNeish.

As a young teenager wandering the hills of the Campsies

just north of Glasgow, I quite often

would stand on the highest point there, Earl's Seat,

and gaze north to the outline of Ben Lomond and think to myself,

"One day, I'm going to climb that."

And eventually, I did climb Ben Lomond.

I gazed north again, as you do,

and saw this great jumble of hills

that seemed to choke off the northern end of Loch Lomond.

And it was later I realised those were the Glen Falloch Hills,

containing no less than seven Munros.

I'm going to climb one of them, Cruach Ardrain, today.

A good word of advice for anybody hill-walking in Scotland

is to be very wary of any hill that contains the word "Cruach" in it.

Because, quite literally, it means "a heap", which is not very flattering.

But Cruach Ardrain actually means "the high-stacked heap",

or some people translate it as "the high slopes".

And it's a much better hill than its name suggests.

It was on these Glen Falloch Hills that I first started

to develop some youthful notions about what wilderness was.

It was always exciting,

leaving the head of Loch Lomond and all the trees,

and coming into this bare landscape of upper Glen Falloch,

with pine trees dotting the landscape and these high, gnarly hills behind.

And for the young me, this was the epitome of wilderness.

It's rather dank, misty day.

But the forecast is good.

And already I'm coming into a different landscape

and the ground feels that little bit firmer,

that bit more frozen, so I'm pretty confident that,

by the time we get up onto the ridge,

up on a little top called Grey Heights,

that things will improve underfoot, and I'm hoping that this cloud

will disappear and we'll get some blue skies

and some sunshine. Fingers crossed.

The early pioneers of the Scottish Mountaineering Club

loved Cruach Ardrain, largely on account of its Y-shaped gully

that's on the north side of the mountain.

It seems to me that these early stalwarts weren't content

with taking the easiest route up the hill, as we do today.

They always looked out the most difficult,

the most awkward way to climb a hill.

In May 1892, on this very mountain, William Naismith, himself a member

of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, devised a fairly simple rule of thumb

for working out how long it would take on your mountain walks.

It's become known as Naismith's Rule, or Naismith's Formula.

It's basically three miles an hour,

and half an hour for every thousand feet of ascent.

It works out surprisingly well and surprisingly accurate.

As you become more experienced,

you tend to work out what suits you personally,

and I know now that I take 15 minutes to walk a kilometre,

and I add on a minute for every ten metres of ascent.

It's hard work in the snow,

but hard graft in such beautiful surroundings...

..never feels so bad.

When the snow covers the hills like this, it is remarkably beautiful.

But also, our hilltops are the wildest parts of our wild land areas

and when the snow covers all the human-made tracks,

it's probably the closest we'll get in Scotland

to what you could call pristine wilderness.

Quite often nowadays we'll hear people say,

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

But the truth of the matter is that sometimes, in the Scottish mountains,

the weather is so bad it's just not compatible with human life,

no matter how well you're equipped in the latest hi tech clothing.

It's quite good to remember that in winter we need more layers.

We need extra layers just because the weather is that bit colder.

We need stronger boots and we need to carry an ice axe and crampons

so there are extra things to say but, at the end of the day,

we shouldn't have to rely on equipment.

It's much more important to rely on knowledge

and knowing what the weather's going to do and having the awareness

to get off the hill if the weather begins to look really bad.

Oh, it's quite tough today.

Probably due to the soft snow conditions.

And I've been hoping that I'll be rewarded with a fantastic view

from the summit.

But it's not to be, I'm afraid.

You pays your money, you takes your chance on a day like this

when the cloud is coming and going.

But, anyway, Cruach Ardrain, a great little hill.

I'm kind of tempted to hang about here for a wee while in the hope

that the mist will clear and give me a view but you can never tell.

So, thanks very much for joining me on this hill walk anyway,

and I hope to see you next time.

In a scene slightly more reminiscent of Apocalypse Now than

a mountain bike event, welcome back to the Strathpuffer 24.

The night-riding is fully under way

but the riders still have bags of energy but a long, long way to go.

Sight. Hopefully all the training will pay off.

We saw the course in the daylight once and then you go out at night

and it's like a totally different route.

It's impossible to see what's coming. But it does keep...

It keeps you on your toes.

Night-riding, you've got limited vision,

so you can't really see what obstacles are going to come

your way so I suppose you've got to float a bit more on your bike, be

a bit more loose so any obstacles, you can just get over them, really.

I'm confused. What's happening here?

Just trying to keep plodding away just now. Still a long way to go.

-So we'll see how it goes.

-And the body's feeling fine?

-Ah, brand-new!

LAUGHTER

-Good luck.

-Cheers.

Keith Forsyth is an experienced Strathpuffer rider.

Competing as a soloist this year, he's aiming for the top spot

and started the race at a cracking pace.

Well, the course was running really well.

It was running really fast

and you've got to make hay while the sun shines, haven't you?

So I think we got something like ten in before it got dark.

Keith's got fierce competition, however,

and the battle is now on with last year's winner Jason Miles.

The first four hours, four or five hours,

Keith Forsyth set just a ridiculous pace and we were

kind of tearing chunks out of each other for a couple of hours.

I was looking at the results from last year

and I think Jason had got eight in or something before dark

and I was kind of thinking, "Right, well, the conditions are bit better.

"Maybe we'll get nine." But it was just...

I think we were under 40 minutes.

I just left him to it.

I thought, "I can't carry on at this speed."

And, sort of inevitably, it kind of...

He ended up kind of sat down for a little while.

However, this is not just a two-way battle.

Motorbike racer Guy Martin is no stranger to speed

and he's very much in contention.

Last year was my first ever 24-hour solo. That was tough.

-That was tough because I just was not prepared.

-Yeah.

Well, I'd done as much as I could, training-wise

and preparation-wise,

but nothing prepares you for the Strathpuffer 24-hour. Nothing.

So, finished fourth last year

but I was just a shell of a man at the end of it.

Meanwhile, the fight is on in the quad events, too.

After a great start from Nevis Cycles,

a new team from the Midlands, Flatout Cycles,

has pushed into the lead and they're setting an amazingly fast pace.

A few of the guys showed me their race. It looked really, really cool.

I entered it a while ago and you think, "Oh, yeah, it's

"not going to be that hard." But then when you get here, it's real...

It's real tough.

I think all these mountain bike endurance events are always just

dead friendly and it's not about winning or anything like that.

It's just about coming and enjoying it.

It's about riding your own race.

Yeah, and just pushing yourself as hard as you can go.

There's always going to be a million people better than you somewhere

else. It's not like beating people.

It's about finding that kind of new level of pushing yourself.

I hate this bit.

Night-time riding for a lot of people -

I used to do a lot of it - is very sort of therapeutic and relaxing.

Yeah, it can be really, really cool.

Coming down to this fire road it's kind of...

the descents are quite safe and flowing.

You get a real nice sense of speed. In my head,

I had an image of it being pan-flat kind of thing for some reason.

-It's Scotland, though, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah. It's real cool.

A recent generation of high-powered lights have revolutionised

night-riding, but it's still a full-on experience

and one that requires great skill.

It just changes the complete atmosphere.

You have to focus a lot more on what you're doing.

It really concentrates

and I think it gets you away from everything else.

We've done some night-rides during the week.

You know, get away from work and you just go on a night-ride

and because it is that sort of intense

you have to really switch on, you can't do it half-heartedly.

-How are we doing?

-Good. You?

-Aye, not too bad.

It's brilliant. I love night-riding.

I like it better than riding in the day.

You have to absolutely focus on what you're doing and that's it.

There's nothing else. You can't think of anything else,

especially on those big rocks at the top there.

You live in your own little bubble of lights and,

especially on this course, you're thinking about the next gear change.

Cos you're changing gear frequently, very much so when you get tired.

You learn to ride by feel quite a bit,

when you're riding in the dark so if you practise a lot I think

it improves your balance quite a bit as well.

It's odd cos every now and then

you'll be in a big group of people and then they'll either

drop behind or get in front and you're just out in the middle of

nowhere on your own with this tiny patch of light sat in front,

and then you plod away up the fire road and you turn onto

the single track and it's just like chaos has been unleashed.

There's people everywhere, bikes on the side,

people behind you, people in front

and you're trying to get through the rocks at the same time and it's...

It does keep you going, it really does.

It keeps the adrenaline up and I think that's what gets you through the night.

-Cheers. Hey. Right, have a good one.

-See you later.

-Enjoy.

-Cheers.

-Well done.

-So, how was that?

-That one was pretty tough, yeah.

Still feeling like we can go out for one more

and I think if we just keep on saying, "One more, one more,

"one more," and seeing where we end up at ten o'clock tomorrow.

In the women's pairs race,

the Deeside Divas have led from the start.

Now they're making the most of the night-riding.

They're well ahead of their nearest rivals

and currently in tenth place overall.

I actually like being out there with no other riders about.

You can concentrate on the route.

When you've got people tagging in behind you to try and get past, it's

a bit off-putting but I kind of like just going for it in the peace.

Coming through.

The bridge is coming up.

I bashed my knee. A bit of blood, a bit of bruising,

but apart from that we've been doing OK.

Beginning to... A bit tired now.

The laps are taking a little bit longer now.

Can't see a thing.

You do kind of get into... Get into a bit of a zone

and you begin to know where all the key points are.

You've made it to the skeleton, tick.

You've made it to the bench, tick.

So we've been doing just one lap each and I think we're going

to keep that up probably for the next at least few laps

and then from there we might do a couple of double laps each

so that we can get a bit of a sleep.

-Coming through.

-No bother.

-Well done.

-This is my eighth.

-Eight?

-Yeah. You?

-Seven.

Getting tired.

Having competed last year in the winning female quad, Kirsty Aitken

and Jayne Taylor know exactly what's required in this event.

We met up with them the evening before the race as they made their

final preparations after a day's work and a last training run.

It's taken a lot of juggling between work schedules and stuff like that.

Yeah, it's been a busy week, a busy couple of weeks.

Just looking out kit as well.

Sourcing kit, checking you've got enough lights and things like that.

It's sometimes quite difficult to find like-minded females

but we're quite lucky in the club that we are in.

It was through the Deeside Thistles that we kind of

got to know each other, so we started going out, doing a bit

of mountain biking, evening cycles then thought about the Puffer.

Organisation is really, really important, isn't it?

We put a shopping list together. A massive, big shop done on Sunday.

And just hoping it's done for the right amount of kit.

We've got a big pot of pasta getting cooked tonight.

We have got lots of sugar. Lots and lots of sugar.

Hundreds of Jelly Babies.

Hundreds of Jelly Babies. All sorts. You name it.

It's just all sort of quite carbohydrate-heavy stuff

and stuff that we like.

I think we found out last year it doesn't matter how

much stuff you think is meant to be good for you -

if you don't like it, at three in the morning you won't want to eat

it but you need to find something that you do want to eat.

-And I may find that I don't eat pasta again for a few months.

-Yeah.

I'll eat it throughout the night.

Back at the Strathpuffer, we're now well into the wee, small hours.

It's a time when any problem is magnified

and the lack of sleep is taking its toll.

-You OK?

-Aye. Cheers.

Hello. I'm Alistair. Number 405 in a quad.

I'd just like to say that is the hardest thing I've ever done.

Now I'm going to finish my Mars bar.

My name is Ben.

Three don'ts of the Strathpuffer.

Don't sign up the week before.

Don't do it single speed.

And don't let your mate finish on you.

You know you are, Gibbins.

Hi, my name's Mark Hanlon. I don't know what I'm doing here.

Never done anything like this in my life. Thought it looked great fun.

Conned into it. It's not for rank amateurs like me.

It's for guys who know what they're doing.

-You must be sadists.

-Are you talking about us or you?

-You.

-How are you getting on?

-We're masochists.

No falls until this lap and now it's two.

You're doing good.

-Doesn't feel like it.

-You're doing great.

HE SIGHS

Well, it's just gone three o'clock in the morning

and I came back in and there was nobody there to meet me

so I went back to the camper van and they're all asleep.

So I woke them up and said, "Who's going next?"

And they all told me to go away.

So I've got a cup of tea and a burger.

Hi. I'm Yvonne. 202B.

I got two punctures, two laps in a row

and then my quick release got jammed up with silt.

I couldn't get it back on.

I didn't have any spare tools with me so I had to go beg,

borrow and steal from people in tents.

Thank you, people who gave me them. We were an hour and a half down.

We were a whole lap down. So we're up. We're now two laps up.

And, quite frankly, I'm tired. So I'm going to have an hour's sleep

and then we'll see what happens with our team and then we'll

decide if we're going to do some more or not. Bye.

Every rider who wants to be successful in the Puffer

needs a plan.

It requires the three Ss - skill, strategy and stamina.

Whether you're out there to win or just to complete the course, it's

hard to anticipate an experience like this.

How do you possibly train for a 24-hour race?

There's four of us

so we've done a lap each first to see it in daylight

and then we do two laps each so we can come back here, relax,

get a bite to eat and that sort of thing. Just trying to keep fuelled.

Try and get an hour's sleep if possible,

which hasn't really happened, and keep plodding away like that.

And so far, so good. We're all still going at the moment.

I might just walk this bit.

The guys that do this all the time can possibly prepare for it

but I don't really know

if your average Joe can understand how you prepare for something

like this and, you know, you can ride as much as you want and

probably try and do some training rides.

I've tried to do some training rides late at night to try

and prepare for it but you'll never know

until you get into the situation to see how your body will react.

So much for assistance! Four laps yous've been out here.

Sorry. We're lost.

LAUGHTER

I've got a strategy, got a nutrition strategy involving cheese

scones and croissants and bits of malt loaf and stuff like that.

Hopefully that'll see me through.

Woefully ill-prepared and unfit.

It's that time of night, isn't it?

A team of four so I can't complain too bitterly.

I want to get to the end. That's my first objective.

Second objective's not to sleep and then the third objective is to

complete a set figure of laps in my head,

that I'm not going to disclose at the moment.

How are you doing, all right?

-Yeah. Tired.

-Struggling now. Really struggling.

-You're doing brilliant.

-Thanks, man, cheers.

Sleep pattern - what's that?!

I actually did get about an hour earlier on when Rob was out.

And we all sort of just conked out

and that's the first time I've ever managed to sleep, really.

-How are we doing?

-Good. You?

-Terrible.

Slowing a bit now.

As the riders continue their way round and round the course,

we're taking a short break from the action here

at the 2014 Strathpuffer 24

but we're not leaving the night-time behind.

It's one in the morning -

not the normal time most people take a walk up a Scottish mountain.

Alan Rowan is an exception.

Former journalist, often working well into the night,

he devised a strategy to enable him to get out into the hills.

It started off because there wasn't enough hours in the day.

I had such a busy job, young family,

couldn't find the time to do as many hills as I wanted.

Especially the further away ones.

And I thought, "Well, if you work 9-5, you don't

go home at five o'clock and go to your bed," so I was finishing at

midnight and still sitting up at six in the morning reading or whatever,

not getting to sleep. So I thought I could use that time.

The idea at that point was to drive up maybe two or two

and half hours to somewhere like Fort William or further, have a

sleep in the car and climb a couple of mountains at seven in the morning.

But, of course, once I got there it was just so beautiful

so I just got out and got started and, after you've done it a couple

of times, like every thing else, it becomes almost like an addiction.

It's so quiet, you're on your own,

and it's a different beauty than going walking during the day.

Using long-exposure photography,

it's possible to chart Alan's route up the mountain

he's chosen for tonight's walk - Schiehallion in Perthshire.

Famous hill, of course, which is

where they measured the weight of the Earth.

This was the mountain they used,

apparently because it's a regular mountain shape.

If you look at it from one end, it's a pyramid

and if you look at it from the other end, it's this long, long whale-back.

If you're out during the day, sometimes, if it's a good day,

you've got the view right from the start

and there's no surprises in it.

Whereas if you're coming at night, you're walking into the light.

You're walking into a sunrise and suddenly everything appears.

It's like these days... It's like

days when you go out and it's cloudy and everything blows away.

They're more spectacular days than when you just go out

and it's beautiful all day. It's like getting a present, you know,

and suddenly opening it and it's something fantastic

instead of having it just sitting there when you go in.

Well, the path is getting quite icy now and it's slipping quite

a bit so I think it's time for crampons on for a little bit.

I don't think it's the sort of thing you can suddenly decide to do

one day and just head out if you haven't...

If your navigation isn't good

and you're not confident about where you're going.

It seemed like common sense to me. It probably is...

It probably is a bit strange to a lot of people.

I did this for... Solid for 15, 16 years, big chains of hills as well,

away for eight and nine hours,

and never really had a problem with any of it.

Part of that is probably some good luck but a lot of it is down to

planning and just, you know, doing the right things.

Don't take ridiculous chances.

I mean, if you're going out on your own in the winter, don't go

and do north faces.

Don't do things that involve huge river crossings, that sort of thing.

It's just common sense.

When I used to decide I was going away that night,

everybody else would be going away to get their cars to go home

and I would disappear into one of the offices, change like Superman

and come out with hill-walking gear, head in the car the opposite

direction and they all say, "Oh, you're crazy."

And then you come in the next day and you're so refreshed.

There's almost a smugness.

Despite not having any sleep, you feel fit and healthy.

The other guys are coming in having sat up watching TV till

six in the morning, looking terrible. And you come in with this rosy glow.

Once or twice somebody's even said to me,

"How do you manage to get a suntan

"when it's been raining here all night?" Because I was above the rain.

It's the best feeling in the world. It always is.

You come up and you see this, the light at this time in the morning.

It's amazing. And the snow as well.

It all wind-blasted and the colours it's adding, it's incredible.

You just can't... You couldn't buy that, you know.

Do the hard work in the dark, get the sunrise, sit up here

and have your breakfast for a couple of hours. You can't beat it.

Sometimes it makes you think you're the only person left in the world.

And if you'd like to explore our mountains at night

but are unsure if you have the right skills,

don't forget there are many mountain instructors who can help you.

Just remember - be careful.

The Adventure Show can't afford to lose you.

And if you want to find out more about Alan

and everything else on the programme, follow us on Facebook.

From Highland Perthshire, let's go east.

This is Mongolia,

one of the coldest and most extreme places on the planet.

It's winter and the temperature is minus 40 degrees at night

and only marginally warmer in the day. So why are we here?

It's simple, really.

A group of Scottish adventurers want to do something new.

They're about to play the very first game of what they're

calling the Wild Golf World Series.

Doglegger!

This, rough as it may seem, is a nine-hole course.

It's golf but not as we know it.

There are no fairways, greens, and even teeing off isn't easy.

We had a look over the course yesterday

and it became very apparent that the ground is extremely frozen

and holes aren't readily available so we're using

a mixture of marmot holes, holes in the rock, cracks in the rock.

We have a problem here.

I don't how I'm going to hit it

because I have to putt it like a hammer. I'm going to try.

Oh, no.

Also, of course, you can't get tees in the ground so we've

played around with a variety of improvised tees.

I think the best we've settled on was a sliced onion.

Adventurers from South Africa

and Italy have joined the Scots to explore this harsh but starkly

beautiful country and to make their own little bit of history.

Wild golf is the brainchild of Glasgow-based explorer David Scott,

who is also the honorary consul of Mongolia.

I've been coming out to Mongolia for just over 11 years.

Some of the things I think are apparent to everybody who comes here

are the similarities between Scottish people and Mongolian people.

Both spoilt with beautiful countryside.

The weather can be pretty extreme and I think that draws people in

and gets them together in the gers and the hospitality is superb here.

The Mongolian people have adapted to living here over centuries.

In winter, their yurts are a haven of warmth.

You forget how cold it is outside.

Oh, that looks delicious. Delicious.

It's tournament day

and whilst golf purists may look on with horror, it's time

for these competitors to pit their skills against this environment.

Jurgens Schoemin is a South African who has

travelled around the world but this is his first trip to Mongolia.

We don't have snow in South Africa so to play in these circumstances,

I think one needs to have kind of a...extreme sense of humour just

to enjoy this beautiful environment, playing golf in these circumstances.

Lovely.

John McKnight is a roofer from Glasgow.

He's got two advantages.

He's married into a Mongolian family and he's a keen golfer.

Even so, he's finding this course a challenge.

It's really wild.

It's the most wild golf I've ever played in my life. But really nice.

Really nice.

The other Scot is no stranger to this country either.

Gordon Adam won the 140-mile Gobi Challenge in 2007.

He's an accomplished runner

but he's less sure about his golfing ability. Especially here.

There's cold golf courses around the world but nobody,

I don't think, has taken it out into the middle of nowhere.

So I'm sure we must be the first.

Certainly the first Scot in Mongolia playing golf, wearing a kilt.

-Oh.

-Nice. Nice.

Representing Italy is Robert Atwater.

He's visited this country numerous times including

a number of winter expeditions.

He doesn't underestimate the difficulties of hitting a ball

when it's minus 35.

This is very hard to do here in Mongolia. It's very cold.

Very hard to see the ball. But so far, so good.

Because this is the future of extreme golf.

Bella Italia.

LAUGHTER

Hey!

There's a lot of pressure here because Italy have putted.

They're in the hole already so Scotland has to hold its end up.

So, here we go.

-Yes.

-No.

-No?

The temperature is still way below freezing, yet the competition

is hotting up. And those national characteristics are coming out.

There's growing rivalry between our Gordon Adam

and Italy's Robert Atwater.

-Yeah!

-A bit of catching up. It's all going to go my way now.

I can feel it.

-Better.

-What a shot!

-Italia!

Scotland now has to be very, very careful, eh?

-Because I'm getting very close.

-Oh, look at that.

I think it's the highest score wins. That's the good news.

So I think I'm doing OK.

We are going to make an alliance for victory.

South Africa and Italy.

-Yes! Yes!

-We beat them!

-Yes, yes, yes, yes!

Robert and Gordon are battling it out for third place.

Meanwhile, at the top of the leaderboard, there is

a tussle between Glasgow's John McKnight and Jurgens Schoemin.

The Scots, I think, they try their best but I think we will

show them where we are coming from and that is Africa.

Yes!

-Yes!

-This is it. Final hole. Two shots up. But it's not finished yet.

I have to put this in. Then South Africa will be in the lead.

Oh!

CHEERING

-You are the winner.

-Freedom!

So, after nine holes of what is almost certainly the most

extreme game of golf ever played, we can be proud of the winner.

Experience has paid off for Glaswegian John McKnight.

I'd just like to thank David Scott for inviting me. It was really nice.

But a bit wild!

Welcome back to the Strathpuffer.

The 17 long, lonely, gruelling hours of darkness are almost over.

It's quarter to eight in the morning,

just over two hours left in this year's race.

And already we know that every single record, in terms of laps

completed, in every single category will be broken,

and, in some cases, smashed.

In the men's quad race, last year's winner, the Deeside Puffers,

have currently completed 32 laps and are lying in fourth place.

I think there's a real good quality of teams.

I wonder, last year, if people saw the weather and just thought, "Right,

"we're not going to do it,"

which is why we had a result cos we don't mind riding in it.

But we've done eight laps. We did eight laps by I think half past five.

I've never done more than eight so we have been working hard.

In second, Team Nevis Cycles have completed 36 laps -

the total for last year's winners.

But even with that amazing performance,

they are currently two laps behind the leaders.

We are just doing what we can and we can't go any faster.

We're putting it all out. That's fine. We're just accepting it.

They're so far down the road

so we are just sort of relaxed in our position at the moment.

The current leaders, Flatout Cycles, are living up to their name.

On their first ever Strathpuffer, they've already completed 38 laps.

It's just trying to keep it together on all the kind of technical bits,

all the rocks so you don't slash your tyre.

And as soon as you hit any climb or anything like that,

that's the time to kind of open the taps

and give it everything you've got cos that's where you'll lose

and make up time, really, and don't take any risks trying to make

up time on the rocky bits at the top.

In the men's solos, Keith Forsyth is suffering from his

overenthusiastic start, when he set a great pace straight from the off.

I hit the wall a little bit early on and I think it was the top

section where it's really rough on the rocks and just becomes Purgatory.

Overnight, you're just getting...

Ramming into rocks and you're getting knocked off-line

and it's really, really sapping.

-I could've just lain down on the ground and slept.

-Go on!

This means the battle for the top spot for the solos is now on

between motorbike racer Guy Martin and last year's winner Jason Miles.

Jason knows he's up against the stiffest of competition.

Guy's a phenomenal athlete and he's got quite a lot of mental

fortitude and drive, so he's ideally suited to this kind of thing so...

And he doesn't tend to get grumpy like I do.

I was horrendous.

In the women's pairs, the Deeside Divas have a commanding lead

but they are still finding it tough.

It's just been absolutely brutal.

My upper body's just feeling shocked from just the impact of all

the rocks and I'm making mistakes here, there and everywhere,

so I think now it's just a case of survival rather than even

looking at any lap times.

We're just going for it, just to keep on going round

and round as many times as we can.

The dark is really quite demoralising

and it's been quite a long time going round in the dark so looking

forward, definitely, to seeing the sun come up.

By this stage in the race, both body and mind are suffering.

You talk to the trees or your bike

or anything that will talk back to you.

And when it does start talking back to you,

that's when you start to worry.

You get these horrible lows. I'm focusing on that dawn lap

and hopefully when the sun comes up you get

a sort of feeling of elation, and that'll carry you through.

Just take it one chunk at a time.

Just think that, "Well, I've got this next little bit to do

"and that'll be it ticked off one more time," and then just think

of the next wee bit and just keep ticking off

one little bit at a time.

Don't think, "I've got another six laps to do,"

or another three laps, just think,

"Right, just the next bit, just the next bit," and all the little

bits will just add up, and before you know it you're round that lap.

-How you doing? All right?

-I'm pretty burst.

The uphills, I must admit, I'm having to get out my seat

and really grit my teeth to get up some of these hills.

So, so far, I've not had to get off the bike

and I'm determined not to get off the bike at all.

So, yeah, it's basically just head down.

You've just got to keep your head down. That's all I'm doing.

And, you know, so far,

no-one's overtaking me on the lap, which is good.

Chains stuck. It's knackered now.

As the sun rises and the riders finally leave the darkness behind,

it's easy to see that this event

is about much more than just the racing.

It's the best feeling in the world.

You know, the best lap in the Puffer is when the light comes up.

It's like... You can understand why cavemen dug that kind of thing.

This is excellent. This is great fun. The sun's nearly coming up.

One of the race marshals, Howard Swindell, was inspired to

capture the spirit of the Puffer in song.

# If you like to ride your bike

# If winter cycling's what you like

# If you love to ride through rain and hail

# The freezing wind of a northern gale

# The place for you to go, I guess

# Is heading north from Inverness

# Over the Kessock Bridge you go

# Through drifting deeps of snow

# To ride the Strathpuffer

# Oh, there's no race tougher

# If you pass up the chance to ride it, you're a duffer

# Just ride the Strathpuffer

# It'll make you suffer

# No, the tracks and the roads just won't get any rougher

# So find yourself some buddies who

# Are maybe just as mad as you

# Who don't mind riding through snow and ice

# And think that blizzards are quite nice

# Go and get your entry in

# It's probable that you won't win

# But you'll have a night you won't forget

# You'll get frozen, filthy and wet when you ride the Strathpuffer. #

I've been involved in marshalling the Strathpuffer for the last few years.

I've never actually done it yet. So I'm a bit of a duffer.

I should do it. I'd quite like to.

And I thought it was a good song to try and get some good rhymes into.

-What can rhyme with Strathpuffer? That was...

-Duffer.

-Duffer was definitely one of them, yeah.

-And tougher.

-And suffer.

With ten o'clock fast approaching, the race for this year,

at least, is nearly over.

All around the course, end-of-race fever is catching on.

Last lap! Whoo!

Last lap, hooray!

We're trying to get another one lap in,

-if I can get in before ten.

-You'll be all right.

-Go for it.

-Surviving.

-Last lap. I'll get there.

-Started training on the 6th of January.

-Who said it couldn't be done?

-Almost done.

No-one can be more relieved to see the finish line than Jason Miles.

He's completed more laps than anyone in the history of this race.

What an achievement.

And there he is. Here's Jason coming in.

Quite extraordinary. 31 laps.

Smashing the record set by him last year and, my goodness me,

look at the state of him. He is absolutely burst. Sensational stuff.

I said it was really hard last time

but that was probably one of the hardest things I've done.

But glad I've won. Yeah.

So, last year you did 28. This year you've done 31.

Back next year, get to 35 or something?

65, I think. Yeah. I don't know.

Wrong time to be asking me if I'm coming back next year.

It's the tenth anniversary next year, isn't it? Yeah. Well, maybe. Maybe.

It seems there'll be no stopping Jason Miles.

But, into second place and just one lap behind,

Guy Martin has had an amazing race.

You were pushing Jason all the way at the end there.

-You must have known how tight it was.

-Well, Jason...

Cos he's been helping me with my training, Jason has.

He's been helping me... How long's Jason been helping me with training?

-What, the last year or so?

-Yeah.

-About last year or so. So, yeah.

He'd have been gutted if I beat him. But he was single speed.

-He was single speed.

-But second place is not bad.

-It'll do. It'll do.

And in the quads, another record has fallen.

Flatout Cycles didn't know what to expect at the start

but they've completed 43 laps, two ahead of their nearest rivals.

We knew we had a fairly good team

but you never can underestimate anybody in a race like this.

It's much harder than...

Everyone says it's hard but, like everyone says,

until you've done it, you don't realise how grim it's going to be.

At three in the morning it was... We were all sitting in the van.

In our van was a bit of a state, wasn't it?

-We were all sitting there.

-Hugging an oil radiator.

Shivering, yeah, yeah. It was pretty cold.

Leading the field in the women's pairs, the Deeside Divas have

completed 27 laps to come in first for the women and tenth overall.

Very chuffed. Really pleased with that.

Just got a real buzz just coming down that last descent and thinking,

"Wow, we've done it." I think if anybody had said to us before today

that we would have managed 27 laps I would have probably laughed at them.

We thought we were aiming pretty high for going 22

and then we upped it to 24,

-and then 26, and she went out...

-Knocked a last one in in the end.

So, yeah, really pleased with that. It's been a really good race.

Really good race, yeah. Chuffed with that.

-So, top of the podium and breaking the record as well.

-Really? Oh, wow.

-We didn't know that.

-For girls.

-Yeah, for a female pair, you've broken the record.

-Amazing.

-Yeah, that's... Yeah, just absolutely buzzing.

-Oh, well, we can retire now.

-Well, I can.

-We'll retire on a high.

So, confirmation of all those results.

For the women, Morven Mackenzie-Fleming

was the first soloist, with 15 laps.

The Deeside pair of Kirsty Aitken and Jayne Taylor

achieved a hugely impressive 27 laps.

While Velocity Cafe were the first in the quads with 29.

-It was amazing.

-Brilliant.

Yeah, it was exactly like I'd imagined it to be, actually, yeah.

Really good craic. Much better craic than I'd thought.

I had the least rest I've ever had in a quad team

cos these guys kept going out and coming back very quickly.

The adrenaline's buzzing so much that you don't want...

You can't sleep anyway so you ride, you get in, you eat

and then you put your head down and try and sleep but you don't.

In the men's competition, for the solos, Jason Miles managed

to defend his last year's win to complete a staggering 31 laps.

In the pairs, Phil Simcock and Rich Rothwell

led from start to finish, with a total of 36 laps.

While in the quads, Flatout Cycles completed an epic 43 laps.

But coming first isn't the main reason they're here.

The win is like icing on the cake but if I'd come tenth

and tried as hard as I did,

I'd still be dead pleased that you've given it your best.

Well, that's it for this month's Adventure Show.

Congratulations to all our record-breaking winners.

This is the last event of this series

but we do have one more programme following someone who is

perhaps Scotland's most famous living landscape photographer.

In search of that perfect image, Colin Prior

takes on a project which is perhaps his most ambitious to date.

Please join us for that if you can.

In the meantime, from all of us here at the Strathpuffer,

thank you so much for your company. Bye for now.