OFF THE TOP “Boom! Mountains!” The words explode from the mouth of Big Mountain’s senior guide Joe Schwartz with a toothy grin as we pile out of the van like a bunch of too-eager 5th graders on the first day of school. My entire 360º view is ringed with knife-edged peaks and green alpine meadows as the distant sound of cowbells ring in the distance. Below me, a narrow ribbon of singletrack winds it’s way through a postcard perfect Swiss meadow before disappearing into the tree line. Finally, after 24 hours of travel that utilized every modern conveyance known to man, I’ve arrived at the beginning of my journey. I’m in Switzerland.
Still more than a little jetlagged and as eager for my bed as I am to ride, I deadpan a question to Joe “Only 6,000 feet today, huh?” Just as seriously he smirks “We keep trying to find shorter trails for the first day but we can’t find any!” I stare at him blankly wondering if he’s joking but I would soon learn that Joe may joke about some things but not about vert. Big Mountain Bike Adventures has been operating from the town of Lourtier below us in la Val de Bagnes region for more than 9 years now so it’s appropriate enough that they’ve dubbed these first descents, the Backyard Trails. Their backyard just happens to be the canton of Valais, home to Europe’s highest peaks, and a 3000-foot descent is what they consider a warm up lap. I give my head a shake and start to think that this trip could be truly epic before going to double-check a few bolts.
When Vancouver, BC based owner/guide Chris Winter, first started coming to Switzerland in 2001, he brought with him his big downhill bike, years of guiding experience and a thirst for discovering new trails. With the help of a few like-minded locals he began to put together a network of trails second to none that continues to change and grow to this day. It’s not unusual for both clients and guides to make first descents on the same day’s ride creating an air of adventure for everyone. On this particular day, Joe and Chris are a little apart from the group, still deciding what trails they are going to take us on. It’s not just the limitless variety of trails that are spread out below us that are giving them pause, it’s because they have a plan. They want to break the company record of just over 100,000-feet descended in a week and they think they have just the right mix of riders and weather to make it happen. Gleaming DH sleds lie in the grass along-side light, all-mountain rigs as their owners introduce themselves. As everyone busied themselves taking photographs and tightening bolts, I looked around at the riders in our group thinking that the bikes were as mismatched as their owners. They are from all walks of life, from students on a much-earned break, to the wily-Phoenician contractor, to the easygoing pair of Australians who effortlessly deflect friendly Fosters Lager jokes from the glib North Americans. The 4 remaining riders, myself included, have journeyed from Vancouver BC, all friends and veterans of the Big Mountain Bike Adventure experience in Costa Rica the year before. While carving up Central American loam we had been sold on Switzerland’s limitless singletrack by celebrity guide/jokester Wade “I love Cheese!” Simmons, who would be joining us a few days into our adventure. For over a year, he has been promising us more epic singletrack than we could possibly ride in a lifetime and we aimed to hold the Godfather to his word as we pointed our front wheels towards the distant rooftops in the valley below.
THE HIGH ALPINE Zermatt is pretty much the ideal version of Switzerland that everyone imagines except there are way more tourists. Zermatt lies in the shadow of the famed Matterhorn and has been a destination for adventurers for over a century. Accessible to travelers only by train, I can’t imagine a more ideal place as we ride our bikes from the station and marvel that the town is completely car-less. Everywhere I look there are people on bikes, hikers with fresh dirt on their boots, and fellow tourists filling their face with chocolate on the narrow cobble-stoned streets. As the evening sun reflects off the snow-laden slopes of the Matterhorn, I can’t help but think that no place can be this perfect as this. I take a last pull of good beer and decide to leave it at that as I head off to get a quick bite and eventually find my bed. At the crack of sunrise we were due to climb to 3,100-meter on the ornergratbahn, the highest open air railway in Europe and begin yet another epic decent high in the Swiss alpine.
Too early the next morning, we began the 40 minute cog-railway chug up the side of one of Zermatt’s gigantic peaks. After being deposited at the summit of the Gornergrat at some 10,100 feet we start our descent. Somewhere behind me I hear Simmons bellow “The Horn!” and smile as I look up at the mountain I have always dreamed of visiting. While I’m mentally checking the Matterhorn off my list of must-visit destinations, I hear fellow-Vancouverite, Dirk mutter that he’s “ruined”. I ask him what he means and with a gesture that’s half-awe and half-frustration he’s caught himself wondering how he could possibly top this experience. I have to agree with him. Beyond the physical dangers, the real hazard is to not get blissed-out by the sheer volume of great riding and enjoy the fact that you are riding trails that only a handful of riders have ever heard of let alone ridden. In a moment of pure selfishness I felt that we were a little more privileged than the camera-wielding throng of tourists we had just left behind at the train station. We were enjoying these mountains to the fullest -we were adventurers, our tire treads placed on top of the boot prints left behind by the other adventurers who had made this journey for centuries before us.
The temperamental weather of the high alpine is such that one minute, you can be riding under clear blue skies with the snow covered slopes of the Matterhorn looming behind you and the next, moving through an otherworldly landscape of mist, razor-sharp rock and boot stamped-switchbacks. I can dimly make out Chris’s silhouette in front of me in the dense fog and I’m half-expecting to run into Frodo on his way to Mordor around the very next corner. As if to punctuate that thought, the clatter of hooves reverberates in the mist as a herd of Chamois charge down a nearby slope disturbed from their morning feed by the trail-hungry riders. It’s almost too perfect a moment as my Vancouver riding-buddy Bryan jokes, “Did you have to sell your soul for us to experience that little moment, Chris?” Chris just smiles back at him not answering the question but I can’t help but think he does look a little impish standing there in the morning mist. The sun finally starts to burn off the fog and as we mach down, the rock and cloud slowly give way to the kind of green alpine meadows that fill encyclopedias and the airport postcard racks in Geneva.
VERBIER The first thing that I notice is that there is singletrack everywhere. Gondolas and ski lifts seem to connect the valley-towns to distant peaks like power lines and the possibilities for good riding seem limitless. When I booked my trip 6 months previous, this is what I thought riding Switzerland was going to be like. In the weeks previous, I dreamt of a narrow ribbon of singletrack that wound its way forever through green rolling hills with white snow-capped peaks in the distance – yep, check that wish off the list.
There are so many trails that Chris, Big Mountain’s owner/operator will put rubber to a multitude of trails that he’s never ridden before, all the more impressive considering he has been coming here for over 10 years. Right now he’s along for the ride just like the rest of us, following Joe through little creases in the tall grass riding trails that may have only ever seen a handful of riders in their lifetime. The adventure and the thirst to discover new trails has veteran riders like Wade Simmons returning year after year and as he says “After my first trip to Switzerland, I knew that I needed to come here to ride at least once a year for the rest of my life!”
At one point during the ride, I looked over to see Wade and Chris with their heads together and of course I do the polite thing and eaves drop on their conversation. Always looking for new ways to challenge himself Wade wants to see if he can set a record trying to descend a million vertical feet never repeating the same trail twice. Chris smiles and says that “This is the place to do it” if he wants to try and I can see Wade pouring over maps in his head trying to make it work. “Well a million in 2 weeks would be impossible, but maybe in 3 or 4. What do you think?” Wade’s passion for the sport and his drive to keep exploring never ceases to amaze me. I have honestly never seen someone have so much fun on a bike.
That infectious enthusiasm gives him the uncanny ability to pick up a group of saddle weary riders and energize the lot of them. Moving through the group he offers advice on everything from bike handling to the secrets of “using what the trail gives you” and after 2 weeks of The Godfather’s tutelage I am beginning to see only possibilities and after a few weeks it’s no wonder to me that the man has more riding buddies than anyone else – every rider is his friend and every trail is there to be enjoyed to its fullest.
CRANS-MONTANA It’s an unusual day for the group on the tour. We’re going to turn laps on one of the few man-made networks of mountain bike trails in Switzerland. The hillside town of Crans-Montana boasts one of the few DH specific mountain bike parks in the country. The tram drops riders at the top of the ski area and winds along ridgelines and forested gullies before popping out at the town below. The day the group was there was damp to say the least and most riders got dirty but everyone came back with smiles. The helmet cam footage of the day had everyone in stitches as we laid out on the lounge room floor at or hotel that evening as the riders cut into each other like old friends.
The video would be my only experience of that portion of the trip. I had slashed my knee wide open the day before and spent the better part of the day with my foot up wondering if my trip was over but at least I wasn’t alone. While everyone else was out getting their muddy smile-on, Blake Jorgenson, our Whistler-photog and I spent the day sitting in the sun with our feet up, victims of off bike moments that happened within mere miles of each other that previous day. We thought it was pretty funny that the photographer and the journalist were taken out on the same day but Chris wasn’t laughing. He had that 100,000-meter goal in mind and he wanted it documented so Blake and I wrapped up our respective wounds and from then on limped whenever we didn’t ride. The quality of the riding and the sheer amount of vertical we were riding to be done in a day is probably the best cure for any injury – and we were in Switzerland; we hadn’t come all this way to sit on our duffs.
THE ROLLING ORGY OF MEDIEVAL FLOW The multitude of vertical feet has begun to blend into one long trail and today we will keep racking up the vert on a trail known to the Big Mountain crew as the Rolling Orgy. Not many of the trails we ride have names. Chris’ and Joe’s morning planning sessions usually revolve around riding “that trail where the cows were that time” but on this morning I can see their faces light up at the thought of riding the Rolling Orgy. The Orgy starts in the hills above Martigny and will descend through the vineyard-covered slopes of the Rhone valley. Another few thousand meters clicks off the dial as we turn another lap of high-speed descents and traverse scary ridgelines that redefine exposure with every turn of a switchback.
The trails are steep and covered in 2 inches of sweet Swiss-loam and with dried pine needles roosting off my rear tire, it’s the closest thing to skiing fresh powder that I can imagine.
Medieval Flow takes on a whole new meaning as we navigate ancient Bisse waterways that snake along the ridgelines. These man-made aqueducts are a remnant from the past when Switzerland was hit by drought and are now just another feature that reminds us we are riding someplace completely foreign. We are riding mapped hiking trails but from what I can tell nobody has been on these trails for years. This is true of many of the trails we will ride over the course of the next several days but few can offer the experience of poaching fresh loam between the rows of grape vines that cover the Rhone Valley. Good vibes in the vines as dirt turns to cobblestones and eventually to pavement as we drop into town. As we load the van for another lap, I look up at the valley walls above the vineyards. It’s truly incredible that we had just ridden something that steep, that quickly - I can see how the vertical adds up so fast.
VERBIER BIKE PARK The storybook town of Verbier is a bit like going to well, a storybook. From the red, shuttered windows to the well-manicured lawns the whole town, it wouldn’t surprise me to stumble across a Heidi look-a-like as we line up for our first gondola ride of the day. As my eyes cast around the valley I note that there seem to be lifts going up everywhere. Having ridden Whistler and numerous other parks in North America I was excited to give the park a rip. I was interested to see how the man-made trails stacked up against the gooey singletrack that my tires had been stuck to for the last week. Guided by Swiss DH racer Ludo May we turn a lap on the local DH course, Tires Fire. The course is a good mix of rough toilet-bowl sized burms that flush me into rough off camber stuff that have me grabbing more brakes than I’m used to.
I’ve already had one visit to the clinic to have my knee sewn up and I’m not eager for more Swiss needlework. That thought is clear in my mind as I navigate mix-mash of tight treed corners, gaps and shore-like structures hidden in a cluster of trees above the finish line. While Blake is working the camera hard snapping shots of Ludo, Chris checks his watch and notes that we’re running late. In a very real sense we are racing the clock on this lap since we arrived in the park late in the afternoon. We need to be at the bottom to catch the last tram to the Cabane de Mont Fort high in the alpine above Verbier. Much like my time here in the Valais, the day has slipped away and while I wish we had more time to truly explore the park, we’re on the clock. Although our time here has been short I generally get the sense that the best riding is away from the park and with that in mind we raced to the bottom to meet the rest of our party.
LA CABANE DU MONT FORT “It’s awesome. On sunny days in the winter people head straight for the Mont Fort to sit in the sun and drink their faces off. There’s this narrow little ski run on the way down that has nets so drunken skiers don’t go flying off the edges and die.“ Blake’s words ring in my head as we gun a final shot of apricot liquor before starting our twilight descent from the Mont Fort. La Cabane du Mont Fort is part of the Haute Route or the High Route of mountaineering trails that run between Chamonix, France and Zermatt, Switzerland. The Verbier Free Skiing Championships are held on the steep slopes above la Cabane and looking out from the deck you can’t help but marvel at the view. Here on the rooftop of Verbier, I can see Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak and the toothy ridgeline of Chamonix, clearly visible in the evening light.
We’ve spent the last few hours sitting in the sun drinking good beer and gorging ourselves on thick, rich cheese fondue that is sitting in my belly like a little golden bowling ball of nap inducing sludge when Chris tells us it’s time to mount up or ride the 6000 feet back to Lourtier as nightfall looms. With the sun dipping behind the mountains we start another decent on a trail as gooey as the cheese in my belly and start to make the push for our day’s destination. We race the sun as it dips below the distant peaks, the sky golden in twilight turning to molten silver as we descend through alpine towns as the streetlights of Lourtier blink into wakefulness around us in the mounting darkness.
LA VALLÉE EXPRESS The trail is steep – very steep and it snakes along an exposed ridgeline that drops straight to the valley floor. The Big Mountain crew calls the trail La Vallée Express because the steep, rutty switch-backed track ends at the back door of Hotel la Vallée in our home base of Lourtier. The locals call the trail Vertigo because of the obvious exposure but also because of how fast you can rack up the vertical meters.
I put my tire into the well-worn rut in front of me and tuck in behind Chris and Joe and start my descent. Before long, with the hotel far far below me, I’m soon lost in the rhythm of the trail. Riding along one exposed ridgeline I remember thinking that the hotel looked like it was a straight drop to the valley floor and that I could be at the dinner table pretty quickly if I was to go over the bars; No wonder that crosses dot the landscape over here. Riding is my religion as switchback after tight switchback eventually gives way to a perfect tunnel of alder trees and I see the light at the end of my Big Mountain adventure as the church bells of Lourtier ring us home. It’s our last day here in Switzerland and after a record setting 115,000 feet of vertical riding in the books, I feel that I’ve barely scraped the surface of what’s to be ridden here.
A month back at home, I can still hear the church bells ringing even as my bike, covered in a fresh coat of BC loam sits drying in the corner mingling with traces of Swiss goodness. My memories are still fresh and closing my eyes I can still see myself riding steep, technical commit lines to brakes-wide-open fast singletrack with my fellow riders voices filling the air. When I open my eyes, I want to go back and soon.
When I try to stoke up my friends I tell them to close their eyes and imagine the best trail that they have ever ridden and then imagine it being over 100,000 feet long. Boom!
MORE INFO: Big Mountain is offering two Alpenrock DH trips in 2011, August 12 – 20, August 20 – 28; $2695 USD, including lodging, all transport, guiding, meals and more; ridebig.com.
And you're complaining that the "tourists" are boosting your economy why...? LOL Beer is good anytime, thank you. And I don't mean American piss-water. REAL beer.
Indeed! American Craft-Beer from the Pacific Northwest runs circles around that Mid-evil European beer. Stone Brewing, Sierra Nevada, Russian River, Lagunitas!
For those that don't know, Fondue is traditionally eaten with white wine, and is very much a winter thing! I personally can't stand the stuff, its so thick and sickly and clogs the arteries in minutes... About once a year is all I can take of it, and in summer it must be the most awful meal imagineable!
I go snowboarding in Zermatt every year and find it great there and always thought that it would make a great place for MTB aswell. and by the looks it does ... It's good to see that the Gornergrat Bahn is also working during summer - it's always a sick ride when it clicks into it's nobby railways and climbs up very steep passages - fukcing scary at times but be aware - since it's a high end place like Aspen, don't expect it to be cheap... i suggest staying a bit outside Zermatt in a place called Monte Rosa ... 2 stops by train away from Zermatt, but more than 1/2 price
if anybody wants to go there, pay for my stay and liftpass and I'll be your free guide - i speak perfect German
and you know what: all guys here in switzerland are talking about whistler... I know it's not comparable... but the grass is allways greener on the other side of the fence... sometimes we do not see what is in front of our eyes.. If you kneed some information about a trail or a guide, just ask me ;-)
I've been to both places and they are both amazing, but for different reasons. Whistler has the best bike park in the world with big jumps, berms, and rocky/nasty trails. Zermatt has the most amazing single track and scenery I have ever experienced. Different styles of riding, but both amazing in their own right.
So funny and so interesting to read how foreign tourists feel when riding the trails at your home place. Cause I will move to Colorado in two weeks I spent the last to weekends in the Valais, riding some of these truly amazing trails. Although they are a little bit scary sometimes, I have to admit: http://www.youtube.com/user/tobitobi73?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/OJtbi6kmdJo
I did this very trip with Big Mountain last year, it was in every way EPIC. if you can afford do it, you won't regret a second. Big Mountain leave no detail unchecked and you get to ride with the kind of guides that have featured in NWD DVD's... Big Up to Stephen, Joe and the Big Mountain crew. DP
LOVE THAT!!!! was In and around Bern a couple of years ago, rode mostly Gurten and in Zermatt but WHAT a country...AMAZING terrain, friendly people, good food and BRILLIANT beer. Too bad I can't afford to go back, my only gripe with heaven is it's pretty expensive!!!
The woman sitting on the floor is the absolute spitting image of a girl I went with for 5 years , if its her and she's as good at riding a bike as she was at riding then bloody spiders ......... she must be fantwatintastic !!!!!!
Great piece, pictures are epic! Shame about the vid quality, what helmet cam did you used? I've just got a Drift HD and I'm finding the picture quality to be awesome, and if you use the external mic the sound is great too.
Hi, I'm going to Freibourg for four months to study and I don't know what bike bring with me... should I bring a DH or a trails bike? Thanks! any riders there? downhill races?
For Tracks around Fribourg you better take your trails bike as you can use it also in the real mountains, a DH bike is not pretty useful in Fribourg if you want to do some runs after work. For DH races check http://www.ixsdownhillcup.com/cups-fr/swiss-downhill-cup/chur-SDC-2011 but they are all a litte further away and you should be quick for the insciption as they are normally fully booked.
I give you also the advise to bring your Trail Bike. If you want to go downhill, you could rent a bike. I'm from Chur, where the next DH IXS Cup race is. So we have some shops they rent DH Bikes. No problem.
I would recommend you to bring both if it is possible for you! There are some sweet freeride and DH tracks not really far away from fribourg. check it here:
sorry somehow the links I posted are not working,just go to www.traildevils.ch and look under trails for "chaumont" and "biel" there are pictures from the trails and maps how you can find them, both are accessed by a railroad. If you understand german there are also some descriptions and news regarding the trails, otherwise if you have some questions, feel free to ask! both places are like 1.5h from fribourg with public transport!
Are there any Swiss dudes who could show me some of these tracks? without me having to pay $2695 im planning on coming to Switzerland next month by car.
No Problem! I think you could they also find by yourself searching on the web. There is also a site like pinkbike with some trailmaps. Check out www.traildevils.ch . Otherwise go to the Canton of Wallis, there are a lot of possibilities, such as Crans Montana, Verbier, Bellwald, Zermatt, and many more. Also Portes du soleil isn't far away.
beakin balls if ur 30 thats the sickest thing ever but for how steep those mountain are this vid is a let down. afew more ripin clip a few less shots of food, all though it is cool that u can take a train to the top...
Get a GoPro HD and some better quality footage. The single tracks and scenery look amazing but are ruined by the quality. I have no problem with the song.
This article is very ironic because i am on vacation in switzerland. unforunatly i do not have my bike.. every one here has target specails though. I have not seen a single down hill bike
Lets be clear on what we call American beer... Massive corporations may have been born in America but they are world wide giants. Budweiser was sold last year and is now owned by Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate InBev. To find American beer you must be here on the south side of our city's streets, and the back roads of our hills and lakes. American beer is flowing hard with thousands of craft beer company's. As these companies lead the way in innovation and flavor, the rest of the world is years behind. Im pretty sure a Canadian beer sitting in my fridge is the same beer thats been there since the 80's. Here in Chicago, it is not uncommon for my local bar to have endless amounts of styles and flavors and full body pieces of art. with 6-7 different draft coming and going thought the week. ...I guess the question you have to ask your self is if you can judge how good American beer really is? ....Great great video. id love to go sometime and eat fondue and drink beers and enjoy the ride.
... It's good to see that the Gornergrat Bahn is also working during summer - it's always a sick ride when it clicks into it's nobby railways and climbs up very steep passages - fukcing scary at times 
but be aware - since it's a high end place like Aspen, don't expect it to be cheap... i suggest staying a bit outside Zermatt in a place called Monte Rosa ... 2 stops by train away from Zermatt, but more than 1/2 price 
- i speak perfect German 
every one here has target specails though. I have not seen a single down hill bike
