The Yearning for Flow - Video
It’s about this time of year when the focus shifts from winter to spring and the longing for early sunrises, warm rays of sunshine and the pleasure of that flowy feeling on two wheels just gets a grip of us. Mountain bikers still have to wait until June 2, when Bikepark Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis kicks off the new biking season and the Waldbahn starts to take visitors and their bikes from all over the world up the mountain. But, why not start daydreaming about the sound of rubber on dirt and that unique feeling of flow! Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis conjures those vivid pictures of the perfect trail experience with a new clip introducing the Frommestrail, which will be accessible from June 15.
Does anything beat getting up early to take that lift up the mountain and being the first rider to hit the trail on two wheels accompanied by the warm sunrise? Mountain biking will be on top of everyone’s bucket list when travelling to Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis from June 2. No matter whether you are with or without family, in the bike park or riding in the area surrounding it, the family friendly holiday resort in Tyrol, Austria, is looking forward to welcoming gravity lovers and adventurous guests, who feel the urge for flow.
The legendary Frommestrail is the poster child for singletrail riding in Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis and offers over 9 kilometers / 5.6miles of trail enjoyment while descending over 1,000 meters / 3,280ft. in altitude. The Schönjochbahn in Fiss will be transporting mountain bikers up to an altitude of 2,440 meters / 8,005ft. from June 15. Then only a short incline of about 60 meters / 196ft. stands in the way of an alluring descent leading from the Schönjochkreuz. From here the mountains flanking the Italian border can be marveled at and the local alpine elevation experienced.
The Frommestrail is a flowy, natural trail and takes riders through alpine terrain and spruce-fir forests paved with roots in certain sections. Because of the high altitude to begin with and the long way down, it is important to have the right equipment such as an additional tube, pump and multi-tool on board so that nothing gets in the way of the delightful descent. Protective gear is also a must have and a long sleeve jacket may help to fend off any chill during the lengthy, exciting decline.
Parts of the descent such as from the Schönjochkreuz to the first reservoir lake are labeled as a shared trail thanks to yellow signposts. So, just keep an eye out for others using the trail, when shredding the dirt and taking in the unbelievable scenery. This part of the Frommestrail is for everyone to enjoy, so respectfully looking ahead and using the brakes in tight corners is appreciated.
The Frommestrail is a challenging singletrail rated at S1 to S3 on the Singletrail-Scale (STS) set in a striking mountain backdrop. After passing the first shared trail section, there are different trails for MTB riders and hikers, which are marked visibly. Blue posts lead the way to the bottom for everyone on a bike, whereas hikers stick to red and white striped posts. Nothing will be standing in the way of a perfect singletrail experience down to the bottom of the mountain. Bikers should be aware of the odd crossing, though and take care before cranking the pedals to increase speed again afterward.
The most challenging section starts at the Frommeshütte and is rated S3 on the Singletrail-Scale. If this part of the trail seems too daunting, there is a possibility to bypass it. After tackling the technical part of the Frommestrail, the Almweg leads riders gently back to the starting point in Fiss, where they can make the way back up to the Schönjochkreuz for a second helping of flow. Guests wanting to head up to the start of the Frommestrail only need a ticket for the bike park and a transport ticket for their bike. This additional ticket costs 10 Euros for adults (8 Euros for youths) and is available at all ticket offices in Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis.
So if you are looking for a good fix of flow this summer, then make your way to Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis from June 2. There are plenty of other trails in the bike park waiting to be shredded as well. These can be checked out virtually thanks to the virtual trail map.
For more information about Bikepark Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis visit our website or Facebook
Find more information on the region Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis visit the website.at/en or Facebook
MENTIONS: @Bikepark-Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis
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I was thinking about going there again this summer, but after seeing the video and the prices on their homepage, I'd rather go to South Tyrol or any other place. They even killed a part of the Frommes trail by shaping it into a boring flow trail (from 1:17-1:29) . But I guess they make enough money with their bike park, so they don't give a damn about people who just enjoy Alpine trails outside of bike parks.
Oh, and one more thing: why did they separate the hikers from the mountain bikers? The trail was steep and technical, so you were never going too fast. And I never had any trouble with hikers on the trails, usually we would even chat for a bit.
talking about killing a part of Frommes trail is easy when you probably don't know exactly the circumstances. So you have to know there is a spring right under the old part of that section (from 1:17-1:29). An old water source that leads into an old tank. (The last part until 1:41 was a skislope before... ). So the water authority of Tyrol came along for a probe when we were maintaining the trail and told us to stop acting. 2 options: shut down the trail for mountain bikers and hikers or find a way around for both. We work by hand when ever possible believe me but in this case... and if you know the soil and conditions on site it was impossible to do. So we had to bring a machine in... Until now everybody is stoked to ride it and be able to enjoy the more of variety on such a long trail. Even for a strong rider it feels so good because you don't have to slow down into a tight turn ever and ever again. What else... we made a few switchbacks a little bit rounder by hand so you can experience more flow. And there are situations where you have to do something because a trail has to be sustainable... otherwise the trail dies. Why separate hikers from mountain bikers? When you are reaching a critical mass either MTB or hiker there is a point where you have to make some decisions. We tried to "share the trail" with signs and tried a lot more. In the end there was no other possibility again. We were lucky there is a 10 year old trail down and a way older trail you can hardly see because nature took it back. So in the end you are going still 90% the trail you always rode and liked. The trail we activated again is now for the hikers because it is pretty much straight line down the mountain... We are studying and looking for every possibility witch can take a lot of time and we listen to as much people as possible before we take action, but in the end there will always be somebody who thinks it would have been better the other way. And yeah you have to pay 10.- for this ride when you have the bikepark ticket or if you are in a hotel in S-F-L... and it is totally worth it for such a long ride. But this is not my competence-area. There are different views when you are on the trail and behind a screen... please ride it again before or after a bikepark day and invest 10.- and make your opinion. When you are involved in big projects like this there is a lot you have to deal with. Land owners, rangers, managers, locals, official authorities and different user groups... to name just a few. But we only make some changes when we really have to, and we do our best along the way to save trail characteristics and interests of different people. Cheers stefan
Fair enough, I get your point about the water authority. I wasn't bashing you. However, why must the new section be so smooth and undemanding? Why not implement a few obstacles and make it more fun? Just leave in a couple of rocks and make the switchbacks a bit tighter. I hate this trend of dumbing down sections of trails or even whole trails to get more "flow". This whole "flow" thing is totally stupid. This is happening in a lot of places nowadays. And I don't hate slowing down, my friends and I love those technical sections. Riding switchbacks isn't so hard, and people could actually improve their skills.
And I know that your work is difficult, I know the whole situation in Tyrol and how many people have something to say when it comes to trails and trail access who haven't even ridden a bike in the last twenty years.
I still think that the Frommes trail is great overall. But the pricing is crap. One ride is not worth 10 euro. In Nauders, only a couple of kilometres away from Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, I can ride all their trails for three whole days - for 62 euro! And that even includes free public transport from and to Nauders on all three sides of the border.
I totally get your point of view. When working with machines, and you have to build new sections it has to be sustainable for the future. The thing with the spring had a good side as well. At that point up there we had huge problems because it is steep on loose soil before you reach the little meadow. The trail gets deeper and deeper cause 90% of the riders is holding their rear brakes way to tight. Water is doing the rest of the work.... Building obstacles with machines is more or less bikepark... driving a machine in steep terrain brings up the rest you can't avoid. Up there, there are no roots and bigger stones around you can use and so on.... Slowing down in tight corners means breaking. Breaking is resulting in bumps. More people, more break bumps more maintenance, more costs is bringing up the question of rentability etc. It is just a fairytale when people are saying they are making a lot of money with the bikepark or/and the trails... fist you have to know what it costs. We could go on for ever like this. Your point of view including your peer group VS our point of view. I was the same opinion you are when I was a bike guide. But now we spent so much time up there and when you are on site 9h a day you realize what is really going on on the trails and where the problems really are and not what you thought it is. Beside the issues on the trail you speak a lot to bikers and hikers, locals etc. ... you get involved deeper and deeper and you understand better and better. People like you never have been a problem cause you stop if necessary and you are even having a friendly conversation with a hiker.
I am really not into the ticket things but there are packages for more rides as well as far as I know. I like south tirol as well but I had to pay for shuttle and gondola witch is running just a couple of ours for bikers... you brought up before... So every resort has to deal with different kind of things. This is resulting in different kind of things on the other hand. Your opinion is important to us as well and it is going directly into our pool of opinions of consideration. I wish you a lot of fun and enjoyment on the trails this summer! Hope we can have a ride some day together to talk about the whole thing.
You gave some answers to your reply to @sik853. It seems that there are decisions to keep the traffic low and you have maintenance costs and you can not push the trail usage to much. Ok, ok, ok, i´m not totally ignorant and understand most points. But i´m still missing the answer why we gravity card users (439 €) have to pay more ! To take from us more than those 10€ for that "one and only morning ride" still sucks ! Please take into consideration that we are working saturdays and mondays, so we mostly arrive early in the morning because the hotel is too expensive for only one bike day. The car-driving for that day is 2 x 2:15 hours. Using the Tunnel and the AU-Maut are extra costs.Yes, there are some lucky ones who can arrive on Saturday morning to ride for two days. We don´t have that option.