Ever heard of the Innsbruck Nordkette Singletrail?

[Hog_]

I was talking about this trail to someone on Facebook, so posting about it here.

 

Nordkette is about 4km long. The vertical drop is over 1000m. It takes pro riders about 10 minutes to get down - Track record by Sam Hill is 9m21. It's a gruelling trail, filled with pointy rocks, drops, and just general rocky steep madness.

 

We went in 2011. It was my first year doing any kind of downhill riding and I was on a 160mm Morewood Mbuzi, which up till that point was more bike than I ever needed. Going up the hill to the top our little riding group fell very, very quiet. When you read 'Singletrail', you think nice, smooth singletrack. Maybe with a bit of pedalling. What we saw from the lift was nothing anywhere near that.

 

Of course the lift operator saw our panic, and made sure to tell us of all the injuries and helicopter rides he's seen on the trail. As well as pointing out that there are no other riders there, and that's because no one is stupid enough to ride the damn thing. Asshole.

 

The first run down was a blur of crashes, overheating brakes and more crashes. I remember hugging a bush at some stage. It had thorns. My bike joined the hug from behind. I also remember rolling, more than once or even twice, head over feet and vice versa, down next to the trail in the loose rocks, trying not to get hit by my own bike that was doing the same next to me.

 

That first run took us about 90 minutes. Which included a lot of sitting in the grass next to the trail licking our wounds, laughing nervously, and fixing broken bikes.

 

When we reached the bottom, I was ready to pack in and go home, even though the day ticket was pricey at €32 if memory serves. One of our mates convinced us to have a beer. One turned into 2 (maybe 3) which turned into convincing everyone to do another run.

 

The second run was a lot faster. Probably because we stopped less and got up from our crashes faster. After some more beer, a third run was started. I was relieved when half way down the trail I had a crash and realised it happened because my thru-axle bolt had gone missing, which meant no more riding for me.

 

One of the guys has been trying to drag us back there for the last 2 years. I'm running out of excuses not to go. This place genuinely scares me, but at the same time I'm keen to ride it again.

 

Here's a video. NOT ME RIDING. These guys are way faster.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0LLTRsDsb8

[fanievb]

:eek:

[NicoBoshoff]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpeqpRorPz0

[Sidewinder.]

When a trail looks steep on a go-pro...yoh! Hog, is this in Austria?

[nonky]

scary, scary stuff.

[JanJan]

We were there in December. Austria had their warmest winter in 20 years, so there was basically no snow for 3/4 of the trail. Its insane to say the least, I couldn't even walk up most the trail. Their smallest kickers will probably launch your bike 5 to 8 meters.

 

I spoke to a few local students that rode most of the trail and each of them bragged about their crashes and bails in a sort of broken english. There is even an insurance available in the summer months to cover you for injuries treated by the local medical university if it is bike related.

[Hog_]

When a trail looks steep on a go-pro...yoh! Hog, is this in Austria?

 

Yes, Austria has a lot of bike parks. This is probably the toughest one though.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Hog_

[Stryder]

Crazy stuff.

[CubeD]

It looks awesome, in that ass-nipping kind of way. Steep n toight, looked like the guy was going to hang up his bars on some of those rails.

Wow - I can see why you're running t of excuses not to go back!