Normally, this time of year I wouldn’t even be on my mountain bike. I’d be up skiing and looking for some fresh powder runs. But this winter was different. We basically had no snow well into January. This ride was done on January 13th, 2012. Although there was snow on the upper sections of the trail, it was firm and the entire trail was either dry or frozen solid.
As you will see from the video, I was cutting this tight as far as daylight goes. But not as tight as the guy I passed on my ride down. This ride did provide some amazing sunlight effects that can be seen on the video.
Here is the GPS data for this ride: (download is free)
This ride is 6 miles of brutal uphill riding, but as you can see, you are rewarded with a fantastic downhill run. You can really cut loose on the downhill in the summer when there isn’t snow, or slick spots. And because of the toughness of this climb, it doesn’t get a ton of traffic. There are lots of big kickers and high speed turns.
For those who haven’t made this ride, you will want to be in shape, or be ready for lots of stops, gasping for breath and screaming quads when you make that first attempt. When I first started riding this I would need at least 3 or 4 major rest stops. Now, 30 lbs lighter and in far better shape, I can make it up without stopping and in 1:10 to 1:30 minutes. I know guys that can do the uphill in just under 1 hour, but they are a lot younger than me and in top shape. I do the downhill in 25-30 minutes, hitting top speeds of just over 30 mph.
I really made this ride to tempt the snow gods and it worked! Within a week, Bogus Basin had opened and it had snowed almost as much in that week as it does in a normal December / January.
Winter Mountain Biking on Hardguy – Boise, Idaho
