This will hopefully be my last blog entry so be woeful and savour this masterpiece of literature. Today was the last Saturday on the big continent of Europe. No schoolwork but we had to leave our place in neurstift. Our 50 euros cleaning fee was not worth it! For that I should have left the plates out for them to wash. But I did eventually of the dish washer (which I'm sure glad they had) and is the last washing up I'll do for this year (hopefully). Our leaving deadline was 9:30 leaving us plenty of time for probably my last ride on the mainland. But little did I know my deathbed was turning in its grave. So we made it of to the elfer bahnen. Finally some riding within the barrades of the Alps. That my first ride in the Alps mind. We quickly stopped in a localized nationalised shop called billa, somehow, my dad accidentally slipped three bars of chocolate for the third time in a row. Afterwards we paid up for the gondola which was a slightly pricey 30 quid for 2 runs for both of us. We then loaded the bikes up on the gondola.
Our first gondola ride was not smooth. It kind of rocked when someone at the bottom must've misplaced their bike on the lift and that made it rock more. There was a nice elderly couple from Germany which entertained the duration. At the top they shot us a photo then we went off. We spent around 10 minutes awing at the paragliders bombing down the hills and what I would call proper sending. My dad was confused as which . was harder. There was only two trails anyway so the red led us through. It was so sketchy! Roots misleading us to a somehow sketchier line. For a red I would consider this a black diamond. Further down the entry lines became hard. Foots came loose through open ski slopes and dense woods. It was not very jumpy until you got halfway down the 4km tracks. And then only drops prised your eyes. Near the bottom there was a few drops. The first being a 4x4 ft drop with such a sketchy run out. Then a 6x12ft drop with an even harder run out than before and you'd have to be mad to do it. It only has 20 metres of run out at steepness of around 35% then a berm hopefully would catch you. After that section had a really bad run in that led my dad to his doom when he nearly died. My favourite but soon to be worst line was about a kilometre of berms leading down the mountain. I filmed my dad then and that was the last section. Time for run number 2
This time was for the eins einzer trail. Named a black and I think that rating suits it right. Although it does say “medium” again we were met by some competent people who were going up paragliding with a couple stones worth of gear. One was a teacher who worked for multiple companies and had been traveling for 10 years since she originated in San Francisco. The other kept quiet and was her colleague. Then at the top we headed straight to the steep roll in for the eins trail. I needed a run up for the roll due to its steepness. I would definitely rate the trail to be just a normal black. It felt easier somehow for this one. It was repetitive yet was exciting with many roots to roll about on. More jumps gave it a bit of a kick and then halfway down was a gigantic drop I wanted to try. You could possibly roll it. And if I mistaked it I would die or at least need the air ambulance. I was lucky to survive but I hit it to flat. Again the run out was super dooper rocky plus steep. Not a good combination. This was the first time I've bottomed out my rear sus. Yet surviving only gave me karma in the form of a smaller, gentler crash towards the bottom. So the trail then joined on the red of zwei zweier and let me do the drop I had done before. No crash on that. Then we got to the long berms of the last section and you wouldn't believe how sketchy this small bit was luckily my dad was filming when I decided to go for it. My handlebars bent sideways before I even did it. I fell down about 15ft, (slight viewer descretion advised) scraping my groin, my thighs and deep cuts in both forearms. The damage to my brakes was unfounded and impossible. I'd bent my brake lever and snapped my brake clamp off. It was catastrophic. A few cable ties semi formed it due to riding so I took the next 800 metres nice and as slow as I possible as I could on a DH track. We finally got to the bottom to load our bikes in. I forgot to mention the damage to my shorts so people could see my pants. Then we left
The next part of the day (somehow it was already the afternoon) got spent going up to germany. A nice view meant we could eat lunch in a layby. Not much more to write about now so I'm going to end my hopeful last blog at half two in the afternoon. I may add more though.
Published on Saturday 11 August 2018
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