Day 33: Leogang Sets the Standard
2 Aug 2011
Day 33: Living it up in Leogang. So now we know where everyone’s been hanging out all summer. Today we actually encountered some queues for the lifts – not big ones mind you, but also not possible to just waltz up and get straight on each time. Had a quick chat on the lift with German riders Chris and Tino who were visiting for the week. They explained that a combination of the awesome trails and geographical location means that Leogang is busy all summer. But this is really a good thing, as without rider demand there would be no trail development, and no new bike parks popping up in other resorts!
Some scene setting… It’s one gondola that can take 3 people and 3 bikes on each ‘bubble’. It’s quite a neat system with a big helpful sign to explain what to do (not all places do this – you just have to figure it out). 2 bikes go inside the cabin and one goes on a rack outside. And obviously the 3 riders get in too. The rack is pretty high up though so make sure you have been working on those guns if you expect to get your big-ass DH bike up there without looking like a spoon in front of the other riders in the queue! And it’s fast too, so those queues don’t really last that long. There is a gondola mid-station, and riders usually get off here as most of the trails start from this point. You only need to go higher if you are heading over towards Saalbach-Hinterglemm on a tour, or if you want to ride the top half of the Hangman trail. So we started with this. It’s listed as ‘single trail’ which is the truth, but don’t think that makes it easy. It’s not all natural, and there are lots of northshore wooden bits that whilst simple on their own, are thrown in amongst some pretty technical rooty riding. So you need your wits about you. From the mid-station, beginners can continue on the lower half of Hangman (which is considerably easier than the top half), and those looking for tougher stuff can head in the opposite direction to the main ‘gate’ that marks the start for all the other trails. Hangman appears to be used as the teaching course for the mountain bike schools here, so we got a few pics of those guys being put through their paces...
Later on we explored the lower trails. “Flying Gangster” is the busiest trail as it has big jumps and drops for the good riders but all can be by-passed by the less experienced. It’s a really fun flowing freeride trail. At the end of the day I trundled down the UCI World Cup course named the “Speedster”. There are some massive root sections in there, on some pretty steep gradients too – it averages 20.7 percent. Well worth giving it a go at any pace just to see for yourself what constitutes a UCI DH course. And if you feel pleased with yourself for getting down it OK then get on Youtube and check out the pros on the same sections. A different league.
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