Seasons of Shred - Out in the Dolomites
After exploring Peru a few months prior, the Seasons of Shred crew now heads to Italy to check out the spectacular views and trails that the Dolomites have to offer. To keep Andrew Taylor's cultural shock to a minimum Niki picked AT up from the airport in Vienna and then decided to spend a couple of easy days at his vacation home in the beautiful Austrian valley of Wachau before heading to their final destination in the Dolomites to meet up with Austrian bike trials World Champion Tom Öhler.
Photos: Stefan Voitl
www.seasonsofshred.com
MENTIONS @ridegravity @vpcomponents @Hitcase @ATSHOWDOWN
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 The journey has begun, Niki and AT find themselves overlooking the Wachau Valley. |
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| The Wachau is an Austrian valley with a picturesque landscape formed by the Danube river. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations of Lower Austria, located midway between the towns of Melk and Krems. |
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| Niki taking advantage of some of the loose turns down the mountain. |
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| From fast single track to big rock slab sections the Wachau had a lot of goods to offer. |
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| As we descended down the valley towards the Danube River we were surrounded by a luscious forrest with nothing but smiles. |
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| From the top of the valley green fields funnelled into dense forrest, passing through castles, before popping out at the river below. |
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| Niki spent a good amount of time last winter exploring the trails throughout the valley so he made for a solid guide along the way. |
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| From the Black Forest in Germany through the Wachau and emptying into the Black Sea, the Danube is the European Union's longest waterway. |
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| As the trails came to an end so did our time in the Wachau. Time to head towards the Dolomites. |
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| Tom Oehler was awaiting our arrival in the Dolomites. |
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| First stop, Steineggerhof hotel for a week full of shenanigans in the Dolomites. |
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| Tom Oehler and Kurt Resch of Steineggerhof Bike Hotel. |
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| After getting settled in Kurt took us out to show us what this place was all about. |
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| With such large mountain ranges we often found ourselves traversing in order to score the next best descent. |
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| Loose and rocky trails made for some solid drifts. |
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| WIthin minutes of reaching the peak, clouds began filling the skies forcing us down to take cover. |
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| The rest of the afternoon was filled with rain, rain and more rain. |
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| With the weather not on our side we made the best of it with a lesson on some authentic Italian cooking from Kurt's mother in law. |
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| As authentic as it gets. |
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| Since the rain cut us short the day before our alarms were set for 2 in the morning for a nice sunrise hike up the mountain. |
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| After a solid two hour hike a bike we reached the peak within minutes of the sunrise. |
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| Time to let the good times roll. |
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| Tom Oehler taking in the epic views the Dolomties had to offer. |
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| On our descent we ran into a mom and baby goat that even led us through a section or two of the trail. |
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| If you're Niki Leitner sometimes you have got to take the time to stop and smell the flowers. |
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| And then keep on shreddin' |
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| This is what it looks like when you start your day at 2 in the morning... |
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| Descending from the peaks of the Dolomites' picturesque mountain ranges into the dense forrest it had to offer made it feel like we truly had checked off another one on our MTB bucket list. |
Photos: Stefan Voitl
www.seasonsofshred.com
MENTIONS @ridegravity @vpcomponents @Hitcase @ATSHOWDOWN
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Riders -- we'll take you to the Dolomites to ride these trails and more on our epic DOLOMIGHTY trip this summer. Get in touch!
www.ridebig.com/trip_italy_dolomighty.php
Then
*Looks outside at the rain pouring down*
Why isn't it summer??????
Then
*Looks at the -20 celsius thermometer*
*becomes hypothermic and dies*
rip
Then
*Looks outside at the sun and, ahem, girls wearing tank tops*
Man, this is nice- summer's gonna be too hot!