Reflections on a week's riding in the Austrian Alps
I'm just back from a week's riding in the Austrian Alps, based in Alpbach and organised by Fast Tracks MTB, (see a previous blog).
I'll post an article about the area shortly; meanwhile here are some thoughts about our particular experience.
No thanks to British Airways for the shambles at Gatwick check-in, following which four people's luggage, including two bikes, failed to arrive with our flight. Two people couldn't ride at all on the first day and two more (including me) had to manage with a variety of borrowed or inappropriate kit. (By contrast, checking in at Innsbruck on the return was exemplary).
After the first two days the weather deteriorated, with much cloud and rain, turning to snow higher up. We still managed to ride every day, thanks to careful planning by Fast Tracks’ Darren and his local compadres, but couldn't manage everything that was originally planned. On the wettest day we were all very glad to finish riding after a couple of hours. But that's mountains for you and if you're heading that way, at any time of year, make sure you have clothing to cope with all conditions.
The riding inevitably entailed some long (up to 1000m ascent) but non-technical climbs. We'd usually take some refreshment at a mountain hut before getting stuck into some fabulous singletrack descents. We'd like to have stayed up at altitude longer and done a bit more traversing but the weather was against it.
It was a great week, but if we’d had a bit more luck with the weather would have been absolutely fabulous. In the same week in 2006 the biggest problem was the heat!
