Alpine riding report... ooh that's a lot of switchbacks
big_scot_nanny
Posts: 99
Hi folks, just thought I'd share some thoughts on my first big alpine riding outing this weekend.
I live in the north of Switzerland (but I'm from Scotland), Basel, with wife and 2 kids and most of the riding around here is a bit like much of the UK. Rolling hills, forests, rooty, loamy riding on the singletrack
. It's good fun, really close to the house and a blast on my Stumpy FSR ( 08 ). Have a couple of friends that I get out with as often as we can, but kids and loving (we hope) wifes limit that a little. :roll:
Anyhoo, good fun round here and perfect for the FSR. We have been wanting to organise a decent trip into the closet alps (Engelberg is the nearest biggy - 3200M) for 'proper' alpine riding.
Finally, for the first time in 2 years (skiing days tend to take priority for days away), we managed to get 3 of us together on Sunday. We headed to Engleberg for serious mountain fun on a glorious day.
The ride up to the Jochpass chair was long, steep, hard and fairly boring (except for the electric fences) on fireroad that got increasingly rocky. at 1700m I really felt the difference in air thiness and lung malfunction. :oops:
We took the chair up to Jochpass at 2200, and took the medium downhill trail off to the right to get us warmed up. Who the hell decided that narrow, steep switchabck singletrack was best surfaced with loose small gravel chips? It was lethal at any speed, and not too enjoyable (in fact, it was better if you just went 'off piste'). :evil:
Chairlift back up to 2200 and we decided to give the new (?) Trudy Trail downhill course a crack.
Now, I am a bat fastard, and my mates were on hardtails, but we had seen a couple of guys head down on normal bikes so thought it would be OK. We should prob have taken note of the rest of crew who were all in full downhill gear with proper bikes. Bugger.
It was a very long and slow downhill. For us, my christ it was steep. Each switchback turn seemed to be beyond vertical and there must have been like 2000 turns, with increasing sketchiness and rockiness. :shock:
Basically, it was the scariest, most difficult thing I have done for years. I want to go back tomorrow!
It took us so long to get down that we didn't have time to do it again, as it was only near the bottom that we started getting the hang of the berms to help with the turns, but a couple more inches of bounce and slacker angles would really have helped to stop the bucking and crashing over every ditch, hump and rock, and the feeling of pitching over the bars even with my bum rubbing off the rear tyre!
Would an enduro/160mm lapiere make a big difference? I hope so, would love another bike!
So, that's my report from Engelberg. It was waaaaaay harder than any other riding I have done, maybe that makes me a big jessie but it has given me a taste for more. Not highly recommended as a destination, as there is a total lack of nice flowing singletrack which is a great shame, but for striaght up puffing and striaght down whooping, it is a bit fo a laugh.
Photos to follow!
Kev
I live in the north of Switzerland (but I'm from Scotland), Basel, with wife and 2 kids and most of the riding around here is a bit like much of the UK. Rolling hills, forests, rooty, loamy riding on the singletrack
. It's good fun, really close to the house and a blast on my Stumpy FSR ( 08 ). Have a couple of friends that I get out with as often as we can, but kids and loving (we hope) wifes limit that a little. :roll:Anyhoo, good fun round here and perfect for the FSR. We have been wanting to organise a decent trip into the closet alps (Engelberg is the nearest biggy - 3200M) for 'proper' alpine riding.
Finally, for the first time in 2 years (skiing days tend to take priority for days away), we managed to get 3 of us together on Sunday. We headed to Engleberg for serious mountain fun on a glorious day.
The ride up to the Jochpass chair was long, steep, hard and fairly boring (except for the electric fences) on fireroad that got increasingly rocky. at 1700m I really felt the difference in air thiness and lung malfunction. :oops:
We took the chair up to Jochpass at 2200, and took the medium downhill trail off to the right to get us warmed up. Who the hell decided that narrow, steep switchabck singletrack was best surfaced with loose small gravel chips? It was lethal at any speed, and not too enjoyable (in fact, it was better if you just went 'off piste'). :evil:
Chairlift back up to 2200 and we decided to give the new (?) Trudy Trail downhill course a crack.
Now, I am a bat fastard, and my mates were on hardtails, but we had seen a couple of guys head down on normal bikes so thought it would be OK. We should prob have taken note of the rest of crew who were all in full downhill gear with proper bikes. Bugger.
It was a very long and slow downhill. For us, my christ it was steep. Each switchback turn seemed to be beyond vertical and there must have been like 2000 turns, with increasing sketchiness and rockiness. :shock:
Basically, it was the scariest, most difficult thing I have done for years. I want to go back tomorrow!
It took us so long to get down that we didn't have time to do it again, as it was only near the bottom that we started getting the hang of the berms to help with the turns, but a couple more inches of bounce and slacker angles would really have helped to stop the bucking and crashing over every ditch, hump and rock, and the feeling of pitching over the bars even with my bum rubbing off the rear tyre!
Would an enduro/160mm lapiere make a big difference? I hope so, would love another bike!
So, that's my report from Engelberg. It was waaaaaay harder than any other riding I have done, maybe that makes me a big jessie but it has given me a taste for more. Not highly recommended as a destination, as there is a total lack of nice flowing singletrack which is a great shame, but for striaght up puffing and striaght down whooping, it is a bit fo a laugh.
Photos to follow!
Kev
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Comments
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I know a scot called Kevin who lives in Switzerland but you can't be him as he doesn't ride a Spesh. Who'd a thunk there'd be two o' you?
anyhoo. Glad you enjoyed it and jealous as hell that you have that on your doorstep.
Try renting (or borrowing) a more DH-y bike next time, you will see a big diff from the stumpy. not only the travel but the angles won't be throwing you over the h-bars, just watch out for diving forks under breaking on bigger bikes, a sore lesson learned by many a bloke forst time out on a bigger bike!Everything in moderation ... except beer
Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer
If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
... or being punched by it, depending on the day0 -
bomberesque wrote:I know a scot called Kevin who lives in Switzerland but you can't be him as he doesn't ride a Spesh. Who'd a thunk there'd be two o' you?
I was wracking my brain thinking of all the (2) people I know in Belgium when assuming that I did actually know you. So, unless you are a 50 year old man bordering on alcoholism, or a high powered blonde bombshell burd frae brussels, I definitely don't know you either.
I thought biking trails would be more ubiquitous here, but like all things swiss they don't like to make it too obvious to stupid auslanders. Getting there though, there is a lot of potential, and now I understand why I see so many people riding Enduros and Cube Fritz's. 0
