Freeriding in Switzerland

After a night of heavy thunder and light rain, the skies cleared, the mountain air was fresh and cool, and the soil surprisingly dry. The conditions were just about perfect as the sun rose to help remove the last of the wetness . After some tasty biker breakfast, we met up with the guys from FrideMTB - Freeride Mountain Biking whom had promised to function as our guides. After setting up our full suspension mountain bikes we headed off towards the gondola station, which was situated almost in the center of this pitoresque swiss mountain village. We loaded our bikes on the gondola and the exitement from the crew was obvious as we started to ascend the 6000ft to the top, underneath us we saw ragged peaks, waterfalls and somewhere in the mix we could also spot some segments of the most flowy trails we had ever laid eyes on. This hidden gem was nothing short of a freeriders dream.

At the top our guides talked us trough the first section of the ride, gave us the safety talk loaded our cell phones with the pnumber to the local rescue service, and handed out some equipment so that in case of injury everybody should know what to do. Mountain biking is not without risks and it felt good to have this exercise before we started our descent. A decent which had it all, steep techical terrain mixed with flowy berms and natural drops and jumps. Halfway down we stopped at a small farm which also functioned as a restaurant for hungry travelers, serving home made swiss food. 1 hour later we were all smiles at the bottom. Three years later and countless runs down the slopes of Whistler, I still count this ride as the most perfect and beautiful downhill/freeride run in the world.

Other great freeride mountain bike guiding resourcses I have used, besides FRideMTB - Freeride Mountain Biking are Ride Big and Freerideguides.

The perfect mountain bike freeride trail

Searching for the perfect freeride trail is probably a neverending quest. But it is nevertheless an endevour worth your time, at least that is the way I feel about It. One key ingredients of the perfect trail is that it must provide the rider with a feeling of adventure and freedom, kind of like the one you get when you are skiing off piste and makes a first run. This requirement on the perfect trail makes it impossible to actually build it. For how can something built by man provide you with the same feeling of adventure as something created by nature.

So, requirement 1: The trail must be natural and if possible no other mountain bikers should be around.

The trail should be fairly long, last for a duration of 25-30 minutes and descent about 1000 meters. There should be all kinds of obstacles, rock beds, logs, boulders, rivers. They should be located together in sections with long fast stretches between them. Should all be rideable/jumpable without loss of velocity, so that that freeride flowy feeling stays. There should be drops and jumps of all sizes. Neither should take you from your "riding rhythm" and shouldn't require you to stop and prepare. Both should have landings with downward slopes, but airtime is unlimited, as long as the landing is smooth and within your bike and body's pounding limits.

Freeriding with a heli

The moss had that deep green color only seen when the sun comes out to play between the trees after a heavy rainfall. We stood looking down at the valley 1100 meters below and we all knew that this descent was going to take some extra effort. The trail is quite steep and technical even under perfect conditions, and as the helicopter disappeared from view so did our possibilities to bail. This is why we wear helmets and protectors, said one of my friends who was clad in dainese body armour and a tld helmet. I nodded my head and hoped that my helmet, knee and elbow pads combined with a packpack would be enough. I had ridden this trail a couple of times before and knew of a couple of sections that would prove really difficult in wet conditions. There was especially one part, a really steep rock garden ending in a sharp right turn, where failure to make the turn would mean a fall to certain death. To be continued ...