“White puffer”, it sounds like some ancient mythical beast? Well, I can assure you it’s not. It is in fact a rather picturesque Strathpuffer track totally covered in snow. However, when you have to cycle a mountain bike around it is absolutely beastly.
Yes, the 10th & 11th of January 2026 (9th too for us and many other gluttons for punishment) were dedicated to lap after lap of struggles and smiles during the unique annual event in Contin forest.
The Weather
As usual the weather leading up to and during the Strathpuffer is always a concern and the recent snow in the North of Scotland and then storm Goretti after that did nothing to ease those concerns but fortunately the heavy snow stopped earlier in the week and the A96 was sufficiently clear meaning we could get there!
During the event there was some light snow just to up what was already there and then light rain that did get heavier towards the end. Just like last year the rain kept going and by Monday all the snow was gone. It’s unbelievable the difference the weather makes to the Strathpuffer.
The Site
After the very busy and organised registration at Brahan Estate we headed to Contin forest and were amazed to see it so busy by 3pm on Friday so presumably lots of people travelled earlier due to the weather. There were still constant arrivals throughout the rest of the day and more in the morning too.
Puffer base camp for 48hrs 
Busiest campsite ever, view from the fire road 
Busiest campsite ever view from beside the track
Team Line-Up & Competitors
The usual team line-up of Michiel, Luca, Alec and Neil (myself). Scott was one again the “backup” rider.
This year despite the weather the whole place was busier than ever with around 160 solo riders, 68 pairs, 61 quads and 5 schools entering. Wow that’s 940 riders in total and potentially 294 riders out on track at any time!
Our Race
Started well as usual but also as usual it petered out/was interrupted in the middle of the night. In our defence conditions were so difficult and constantly changing and in a quad that’s 3 laps since your last one and things really changed by then! There was no time to relax on each lap, you could barely take a hand off the bars for long enough to grab a drink or eat anything as you had to 100% focus on the track immediately in front of you in order to just stay upright.
Normally the fire roads and sweeping paths provide respite in between the climbs and more technical areas of the track but with snow, ice, ruts, the unhelpful frozen rut most of the way round (from whoever was round there a few weeks before), the feature fallen trees and the usual rocks it was relentless.
Track conditions always deteriorate as the hours go by which is to be expected as there were over 3000 laps done over this weekend! However, this year parts that were compacted snow became too soft to cycle and in other places parts that were wet became thick slush and in other areas again the track thawed and turned into mud! So, every track condition and feature you could think off all in one lap! As more time passed everyone’s lap times dropped off significantly with melting snow exposing ice underneath in large areas while deep ruts and rocks appeared in the wetter parts.
Remember last year when I said it was the toughest puffer ever? Well, I’ve changed my mind as this was the toughest puffer ever!
Tyres
Everyone in the team had fitted ice tyres beforehand and at the beginning they worked well but as more and more rocky areas were exposed any benefits of ice tyres soon disappeared. Neil switched to a mud rear and that worked well but for others swapping tyres in 2°C at 1am wasn’t appealing which resulted in that horrible scraping and scratching noise and stud loss/tyre damage for the rest of the race.
We were all using Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro tyres and I have to admit that even after running them in on tarmac for the recommended distance we managed to lose 75+ studs over 8 tyres and 12 laps. My rear tyre (pictured) only did one lap and lost 19 studs! So not impressed at all with them in comparison with my old Kenda ones.
Our Result
12 puffer laps completed, says it all really.
Thanks
To Luca for entering the team again, to Alec, Michiel & Luca for all the shared vehicles, and equipment etc and for toughing it again.
More Information
For more information on the Strathpuffer 2026 see https://strathpuffer.co.uk/ and for their 2026 charities see The Ledge and Kayleigh’s Wee Stars.
Finally for more information on Bloxwich Group, Bloxwich Truck & Container, Bloxwich Stamping and Bloxwich Trading please call us on +44(0) 1543 435 160 or