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Freeride Bottomless Trails In The Heart of the Alps - Singletrack Switzerland Verbier
In the second episode of Singletrack Switzerland, a new Teton Gravity Research mountain bike project produced in partnership with Swiss International Air Lines, Switzerland Tourism, and BMC Switzerland, two American mountain bikers – pro rider Brice Shirbach, and pro skier Carston Oliver – venture to Verbier, Switzerland, where they ride open alpine singletrack, full-blown bike parks, and thousands upon thousands of vertical feet with the help of Epic Europe. Win this same trip at tetongravity.com/switzerland.
Verbier is a typical Swiss resort village halfway up the mountainside at the top of a wild switchbacking mountain road. Its growing bike park is a hell of a time, too. Ryan Dunfee photo.
An assured part of any time riding in the Swiss Alps is passing the ubiquitous mid-mountain chalet. Grant Gunderson photo.
Verbier is infamous as one of the rowdiest ski and snowboard resorts in the Alps, hosting the Verbier Xtreme big-mountain contest on the imposing 50º face of the Bec de Rosses. Verbier's growing bike park is looking to match the winter freeride experience, with flowing jump lines in the open alpine and technical downhill tracks falling through the forest. A little bit of work on the pedals, however, nets you a day-long tour down into the Rhone Valley, or down the puckering, switchbacking trail to La Chaux, which runs through mountainside villages and alongside steep, cliffed faces on its way down, down, down to the bottom of the valley.
Brice and Shirbach rally the fresh Rhôdze flow trail at the top of the Verbier Bike Park.
Carston pops down the Rhôdze flow trail in front of the Mont Blanc Massif, with France in the distance. Ryan Dunfee photo.
Of course, there's endless amounts of singletrack to be found outside the bike park, and more than anywhere else we rode in the Swiss Alps, Verbier brought the gnar: from vertical PNW-style skidding forest faces to deadly tight switchbacks to critical corners sitting on the edges of 1,000-foot cliffs. The entire time we rode in Verbier, we were smacked with a giddy mix of stoke, fear, hand pump, good food, and Narnia views.
Riding through the avalanche barriers above the Verbier ski resort was a total trip, and left us daydreaming about shredding down them with some (white) pow on the ground. Ryan Dunfee photo.
Carston Oliver and Brice Shirbach rally down the ridge separating Verbier from the Rhône Valley to the left. Grant Gunderson photo.
Carston and Brice pedal through the Col des Mines, a saddle in the mountain with trails that drop thousands of vertical feet to the Rhône Valley in the background.
Carston and Brice stop for a break under the shadow of the Bec des Rosses, the steep mountain face that hosts the annual Verbier Xtreme big-mountain ski and snowboard contest. Ryan Dunfee photo.
[PI=13381939 width=window align=c]Carston rips down in front of a cross in Verbier. Grant Gunderson photo.
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Catching air on the top of the Vallée Express ride. Ryan Dunfee photo.
Brice and Carston rally past an old farmhouse. Grant Gunderson photo.
Carston Oliver hangs it out on the edge of a giant cliff in one of the many spicier sections of the Vallée Expres trail. Grant Gunderson photo.
Carston and Brice rally the final wooded straightline section of La Vallée Express with the drone leading the charge filming. Ryan Dunfee photo.
The sight of the BMC van was a welcome sight at the bottom of the incredible monster of a descent, "La Vallée Express" trail from La Chaux to Lourtier. Talk about hand pump! Ryan Dunfee photo.
Carston and Brice shred down the Col de Marlenaz trail, which ran the edge of a 1,000-foot cliff as we caught in in the last of the afternoon light. Grant Gunderson photo.
Carston and Brice rally along a picturesque stretch of trail at the top of Bruson. Ryan Dunfee photo.
Carston and Brice drop from the summit of Mont Brun. The top of Bruson, the smaller ski area across the street from Verbier, puts you smack dab in the middle of the most incredible peaks in the valley. Grant Gunderson photo.
Carston Oliver chases Brice Shirbach down the backside of Mont Brun, across the valley from Verbier itself. Grant Gunderson photo.
Want to win your own Singletrack Switzerland trip? Head to tetongravity.com/switzerland to enter our sweepstakes for a guided mountain bike trip in Switzerland with Swiss International Air Lines, Switzerland Tourism, and Epic Europe, along with a brand-new BMC mountain bike.
#singletrackswitzerland
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