I can't imagine going skiing without lifts, no thanks not for me.
If I go to the Alps and enjoy a week of amazing lift assisted riding, will I come home and everything here seem tame by comparison and hard work to boot?
Anyone ruined this sport for themselves by having too much fun?! 😆
Yes. Morzine ruined me.
It does for a bit, then you either get used to having to pedal or start utilising more uplifts.
No, not ruined the UK experience for me, although I'd be lying if I said the UK doesn't seem a bit sh*t after a week or two in Verbier. And I consider myself one of the UK's lucky ones, living in Calderdale with the Lake District up the road.
I recently did my first (mostly) van uplift week with Riviera Bike. It does now make the time spent gaining altitude on long steep roads to do a descent somewhat annoying. At least my bike isn't too heavy and pedals efficiently.
Hasn't affected my more XC rides with smaller climbs and descents at all. But what I'm missing is the intensity of the extended descents - blink and it's all over!
Not so much the uplifts since I don't mind a bit of climbing, but the quality of riding abroad has completely spoilt my local riding. Mountain biking in the Peak District doesn't do it much for me since riding in a few cracking places in Europe.
The UK is always fun but for a month after the Alps you can't help but compare and be gutted and I say that as an XC rider, must be worse for the downhillers!.
Naaaa, you just resolve to get fitter so you can ride up more hills to get more downs.
There's something peversely fun about setting off up a climb so big you can't see the the top, riding all the way back down, then repeating it. Contouring trails are all good fun, and small hills have their palce, but hollidays abroad have made definately made me a bit more decadent when it comes to riding down hills, especialy big ones when the garmin's display ticks over 999m decent.
This is what I'm afraid of. I don't have the cash to afford another ridiculously expensive hobby like skiing. I don't want to turn biking, which is cheap by comparison (though not that cheap) into something even more hardship inducing!
Try living on the shore in Vancouver for a year and a free pass to whistler through work, then back to Dorking ... 😯
will I come home and everything here seem tame by comparison and hard work to boot?
Hard work - yes, but you won't have to do it every day for a week or two like on your hols.
Tame - entirely depends where you ride. I don't find the riding in the Lakes tame at all (and the climbs and carrying are part of the experience for me).
But to be fair that didnt last long, and i love living and riding here now and go to the alps riding quite often....
I live in Birmingham so already have to travel quite some distance for really good riding 😕
freeridenick - I've done several ski season in les deux alpes, working on the mountain and skiing for 4-5 hours 7 days a week. One week ski holidays will never be enough again!
swingbin, done that as well
seasons in Morzine and Valdisere etc...
but used that as a stepping stone,now with some proper money and go several times a year with mtn guides and try and get the real big stuff that seasonaires never really get to.
its depressing for a time then you adjust to enjoying what you have on your doorstep..doesn't ruin xc fun though just the dh
The future is unwritten. So if you want to do something and you can do it, just do it. The argument that it will "spoil you" is nonsense; the stuff of regrets.
In defence of big trips, the sheer amount and intensity of descending has raised the bar on my riding. And that is making me try, speed-up, and succeed on stuff back home that used to worry me.
I now have my eye on tackling my backlog of local "problems"* over the winter and spring.
* bit of trails, and otherwise, that scare me off; or where I've crashed off.
^^ I like the sentiment of your post buzz^^
I don't think I'll let my doubts get in the way of my first Alps trips on a bicycle 🙂
It wasn't the lifts that ruined things for me. It was coming back to s..t English weather.
Not at all tbh. But then I have great riding here too, and some of it's uplifted.
Don't get me wrong, I wish every week could be like my last week in the alps but the UK is pretty damn good too. Riding bikes is ace.
Came back from chatel in July absolutely buzzing about biking then it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Have barely been out on the Mtb since. Lost almost all fitness and inspiration to ride.
Not sure if the Alps did it or I was needing a break from biking but only just feeling the urge to get back on it.