How not to plan the first MTB excursion with your better half, who is new to the sport.

Words and photos: Jaakko Järvensivu

As we approached the top of mount Kreuzkogel at 2000 meters grey clouds blended seamlessly into misty fog around us, limiting the visibility to around 100 meters. The postcard-like sunny Alpine landscapes of the morning seemed but a distant memory now.

We were pushing our rental bikes up one meter at a time in soaking-wet clothes, with sore muscles from all the biking we had already done during the day. With not a soul in sight it seemed like the other hikers and mountain bikers had planned their day trips better than us and had already returned to the Gastein Valley in the nick of time, before the storm arrived.

I could see from the expression on my girlfriend Laura´s face, that she was not exactly happy that my travel itinerary had not worked out the way I planned it. And she also let me hear about it – loud and clear. According to her, this would be the last of “these sort of trips” with me – it was finished. This was not a holiday, but survival.

I did my best trying to convince her that this would make a great experience that we could afterwards fondly remember as having doe together, but at the same time, I was worried, whether we would make it in time to return our rental bikes before the bike shop´s closing time. I knew we still had another 1000 meters vertical to descend, before we would be back in the Dorfgastein village.

THE SET UP

We had arrived to Badgastein, the most well-known ski town in the Gastein valley by train from Salzburg a couple of days earlier. Up to this point, we had had a relaxing hiking holiday, exploring the local trail network and enjoying après hike spas the area was famous for.

Then, as I was innocently eyeing a local newspaper at a café terrace, while enjoying my plate full of Kaiserschmarnn, I noticed an article about a new flow trail being opened in the nearby Grossarl village. A relaxing hiking holiday was fine, but as a mountain biker, I was immediately intrigued at the possibility of scoring some lift-accessed downhill biking.

There was only one downside: the flow trail was in the neighboring valley and there was no public transport between the valleys. As I was studying a map of the area, I became convinced that we could make the trip using rental bikes and the Fulseck gondola.

The plan was to rent a couple of hardtail bikes at Dorfgastein, ride the gondola up the Mount Kreuzkogel, descend 1000 vertical meters to Grossarl, rent a full suspension bike and do laps on the flow trail, return the full suspension, take up the hardtail and climb up 700 vertical meters from the flow trail top station to the top of Mount Kreuzkogel, finally descending another 1000 vertical meters to return the hardtails at Dorfgastein. I mean, hey, what could go wrong?

I admit now that it was a pretty sketchy plan to begin with, but it also seemed like a real adventure, a possibility to experience something, which could be etched in our memories long after the lactic acid had disappeared from our quad muscles.

GONDOLAS

Early next morning, the village of Dorfgastein looked like an empty set waiting to be used as a scene in the Sound of Music remake. The nearby gondola station was about to open though, and we grabbed our rental bikes from the bike shop right next to it, before entering one of the pods that was being hoisted up the mountain on a steel cable.

The sunny panorama on the rocky top of mount Kreuzkogel was nothing short of spectacular, which lifted our spirits, as we prepared for our first leg of riding. I quickly checked our route from the map, and we began our descend towards Grossarl.

It was as nice as descending a mountain on a bike in the Alps under blue skies gets. Along the way we stopped at a quaint Hütte, called Gehwolfalm and had hot chocolates with tasty Topfenstrudels. Had we stopped here and turned back, we´d probably had a perfect day out on the hill, but I had made other plans. So, we continued our descend and soon witnessed the landscape change from treeless alpine trekking paths to fire roads winding their way through towering spruce forests.

Green pastures, gracing cows and easy trails - what could go wrong?

If my girlfriend Laura had been a more experienced rider, we would have covered the distance much sooner. Instead, as she was afraid of having too much speed, she kept clenching the brake levers, which pushed us back on our schedule.

When you have been mountain biking for 30 years, it can be difficult to put yourself in the position of a beginner. For me, a chance of a 1000 vertical meter downhill read fun all over it, for Laura, it was slightly frightening – a possible disaster was waiting around each corner.

BIKES

Finally, we arrived at Grossarl, where we agreed that Laura would spend some time getting to know the village, while I would do some laps on the flow trail. After renting a full suspension bike and a full-face helmet, I headed to the gondola and was soon on the top of the new flow trail.

The trail got steep fast, and the first corners were surprisingly tight, but the trail soon entered a forest and mellowed out, which put the flow in the flow trail. When I finally entered the alpine meadow part, the trail flattened and turned into a pump track with nice berms for putting the bike sideways.

The downhill part is just around the corner.

It was a lot of fun, but I was on a schedule, so after a couple of more runs, I had to head back to Grossarl to return the full suspension bike, meet up with Laura and start our ascend back towards the Gastein Valley.

SHANKS´S PONY

We had already covered around 700 grueling vertical meters uphill on our hard tails and were now pushing our bikes up. I was doing my best to convince Laura that the top of Mount Kreuzkogel would open any minute in front of us.

Truth told; I was already pretty knackered myself from all the biking I had done. To get some extra energy, I popped some chocolate and nuts, and as final resort, tossed a spoonful of dry matcha powder in my mouth – it couldn´t hurt.

After what seemed like forever, we arrived on the desolate rocky top of the mountain, which was covered in clouds and fog. The rain had soaked all our clothes, and we were both feeling tired and miserable. Still, I knew that we had no time to waste and that the safest thing to do was to descend the mountain as fast as possible.

Besides being knackered, we were starting to feel cold in our soaked gear and I began to think that we were facing a descend that was mentally going to be longer than the 1000 vertical meters on the map.

FINAL DESCEND

The scenery on our way down was eerie, as everything was covered in fog and there was not a soul in sight, if you did not count the occasional grazing cow or horse as such. We were tired and descended in poor visibility on a trail we had never ridden before, so we ended up taking a wrong turn at a couple of crossroads and had to refocus to find our way on the map.

After navigating our way through what felt like endless turns and switchbacks the surface of the trail changed from gravel into asphalt and drove through a village filled with real life gingerbread houses.

Must...stay...focus...hey, that's one big cow!

Finally, we parked the rental bikes in front of the bike shop. It was already past the closing time, so we were happy to say the least to see the door open. The owner of the store seemed to share this feeling upon seeing us, as he told us that he had already thought about calling in the rescue service for us.

We thanked him for his patience and headed for the bus station. As we were waiting for the bus in a local restaurant, we ordered hot chocolates with rum to warm ourselves. In our wet bike gear, we stuck out like a sore thumb from the nicely dressed families who were there for dinner.

As I finished the hot rum drink, I could feel a tingling effect, as my body temperature was slowly returning to normal. Despite having been genuinely pissed off at me a while ago on the mountain, Laura seemed, if not happy, at least reconciled. I promised her we would take it easy for the rest of our holiday and that our next bike ride would be far less demanding.

Our endeavor together had tested our stamina and our relationship, but it also gave us moments of fun and beauty, and a sense of adventure, which transcended the mundane. In my opinion, those are the very reasons why we pick up and keep doing outdoor sports like mountain biking in the first place.

GONDOLAS, BIKES AND SHANKS´S PONY

Girls just wanna ski pow at the Mimmi Freek´End ski camp