Hardest Trail you have ever ridden

Jackass is flippin brilliant. Some tough switchbacks but the top, from above the treeline where its mad steep down to the irrigation gulley thing and then towards the bottom where it becomes really REALLY fast is just superb. Definitely the best trail Ive ever ridden… And then a 40+mph hammer through the fields back to BV!

some of those less well ridden tracks in wharnecliffe that pitch you straight down the side of the hill.

bits of my knee, jacket, rear mech are still on that hill somewhere

The Fort William World Cup DH track, amazing fun though.

I’d agree with you, but I can’t really say that I’ve ridden it if you know what I mean. It’s certainly the hardest trail I’ve “walked alongside sheepishly while looking for an easy bit to get back on my bike” 🙂

Goat’s Gulley (Whistler) in the wet

I’ll second that. Rode it in the dry great trail but a few days later after it had been peeing it down and it was a totally different ball game.

all depends on your state of mind. after a bad bivvi or 2 days in the hills i have had simple bits of single track almost bring me to tears with the complexity.

or it could be the SDW after weeks of rain – there was so much mud we could barely walk up the hills and i was still finding mud in the car a year later (the bikes were never in there!!)

but without a doubt has to be hertshore – not that i rode the really hard stuff!! 😉

Jackass is indeed magic especially when you ride it from the top of Pierre Avoir. It’s my favourite day off trail and I always make a point of doing it…….however, the short run in with the right hander just gives me the heebie jeebies! 😀

For me, the descent from lochan fada north of kinlochewe when the rivers where in full spate and the trails where drenched, 30m river to cross and a burn in full spate, and the trail was beyond me, the midges where wild, might have been a better trail in the dry, but start stop walk on the way down was general theme… one of the trails in kenny wilsons book, getting up to the lochan was easy, i knew i should have turned back when faced with crossing the river coming out of the loch, but onwards we went, would have been a cracking double track dh straight back to the pub if we turned back!

The views were cracking though!

Nany Gwythern DH track in N wales is uber-tech. Especially when the track turns into a muddy stream.

I’ll second Sex Girl/Sex Boy on Cypress on the North Shore. In fact anything on Cypress. By comparison I found Goats Gully and 19th hole much ‘easier’. I don’t think there are many places in the uk that can compare in terms of sustained steep techiness. I need to go back there.

Xc – some of the stuff in Morocco that I rode with flowmtb. Loose, rocky, off-camber, silly tight switch backs and exposure!

DH – Probably some random cheeky trails in Morzine. Or, Wharncliffe in the wet with Highrollers!

I’ve never managed to get round my local forest without dabbing.

Magic Roundabout in Verbier and also Via Ferrata also in Verbier.

Not ridden it but tresspasser in Whistler looks mental
http://vimeo.com/18662652

Hardest stuff I’ve actually ‘ridden’ (i.e dab free) has got to be some of the black runs at whistler. Hardest stuff I’ve tried to get down in one piece is the downhill course in macclesfield forest in the wet. Tight and twisty with huge drops.

The singletrack on the east of Ullswater is a great technical challenge

and

Hardest stuff?
Ullswater – very demanding, no one section is especially undoable, but the constant short tech up, short tech down is a headf..

I could have done with knowing that before I took my “not particularly keen at the best of times” wife along that last august…
Tears, a lot of walking, etc. She is talking to me again now though!

49 switchbacks in Chamonix

think I actually rode about 3/4 ‘s of them

I thought the full Ciaran Path was pretty brutal – but I’d go back and ride it tomorrow (well, maybe June) !

ParkedTiger amen to your choice!

😀

A walkers track that we rode kinda by accident near Les Lindarets for me – very steep but most importantly not a spec of dirt in sight, just loose rock

In the UK though? Probably Glencoe DH track, cant think of anything harder that I’ve seen

Goat’s Gulley (Whistler) in the wet

I’ll second that. Rode it in the dry great trail but a few days later after it had been peeing it down and it was a totally different ball game.

First time I rode it, it was snowing. (late August!). By some complete fluke, I cleaned it!. Although I only avoided ending up 15′ down in that gully where there’s a right handed over a ladder by the width of 1/2 a Minion knobble.

Next time I rode it (a year later) , it was dry and I completely minced it…

La Varda for sheer concentration.

Yeah docrobster we put a guy off for life doing high ST and returning by Ulswater. Apparently he was just not happy with us at all. Never ridden since. Oh well.

Of the known trails, the original Champery World Cup downhill track was fairly brutal. The penalty for getting it wrong was pretty concerning.

Few of the unknown trails on the Champery hill were pretty daunting too, it’s certainly redefined my opinion of what’s steep & rideable.

Tell me where this Ullswater beast of a trail is!! Grid ref maybe? Must go and ride it soon!!

Jackass wasnt as hard as I’d imagined but Phil didnt tell us which trail we were riding so we didnt get freaked out. I think he told us to push around a narrow ledge at the very start but the rest was OK, but did have to pull over when it levelled out to let my fingers de-claw.

Phil do you take the guests on Magic Roundabout?

Most Lakes stuff we rode over Christmas was frozen with smooth ice & snow on top and scared me more.

The adrenalin line, Lake Garda. Rode it on a hardtail and it was hard enough in the light, but much harder in the dark with no lights!

An old school unmapped falline trail on Mt Fromme BC. The thread title does say ‘ridden’ and I did try and ride some of it (and wrapped myself around a tree…) but I felt a bit of a tit trying to walk a 10 inch travel bike down the trail. I did clean South Of Heaven, which is somewhere within driving distance of Vancouver and pretty gnar for a stunt free trail.
While one of the ‘easier’ Double Black North Shore trails, I cleaned Empress on Seymour on my hardtail which I was pretty amped / stoked and generally feeded off myself on.

nyom nyom walleater.
I remember a trail in Sun Peaks, BC, which was so dusty and steep and littered with roots/ logs that it reminded me of ski slalom. completely had to relearn how to ride/ slide a bike to get down it. walking was not an option. True gnar.

Crack Addict in Whistler,There was another there that was mega steep and had loads of skinnies including drops off skinnies.

The trail is called Deer hunter, but really should be called the demoralizOr. It’s without a doubt the hardest trail i’ve ever ridden. It’s in this vid (starts 1.24) but the camera really doesn’t show how gawd darn steep, narrow and rocky it is. Makes me feel like a wee boy every time I ride it.

Thinking about it, the most psychologically hard trail I’ve ridden was probably Gargamel, because I rode it solo and without much protection. The was a steep dirt chute near the top that nearly claimed me as there was no way of slowing down on it. You just had to give’r as they say. The was also a tech rock roll section that I walked down to figure out the line and walked back up and rode it. Finally that bloody raised wooden berm near the end of the trail. I stood there for an eternity before I hit it.

Shame I nailed myself on a stupid little wooden bridge after the trail had had ended LOL etc…

Nice call Cupid – Verbier’s Magic Roundabout had me doing arial gymnastics. What about the entry to Silly Arrete? Oh, and Dorenaz Downhill near Verbier has its moments. And then there’s top of the Ultimate and Vertigo – tricky to clean without at least resting your arms. F*ck it, Verbier generally. Although there’s plenty of xc and all mountain there too.

Anyone ridden Ride Don’t Slide at Whistler? Supposed to be steeeep.

RDS is OK once you get into the flow of it. I rode it on a rental bike last year, minced about for a bit but once I got a feel for the bike it was fine. Yeah, it’s pretty steep.

Via Ferrata. Where is that Phil? Can we do it in Sept? Pleeeeeeease! I would love to do Magic Roundabout again. I remember it being fun.

Silly arête. Ha! I remember Rob did it then plowed into the dirt. Stopping is definitely the hard part!

Rustler that is actually mental. I wouldn’t even want to walk that close to the edge of something that high/exposed!

I don’t really ride hard trails, the hardest thing I’ve done is probably Wharncliffe downhill which was my first ever proper off-road ride.

walleater, forgot about gargamel – that was tech 😯

seosamh77 – i think that singletrack back down from lochan fada is the trickiest thing i’ve ridden in scotland. it didn’t help my confidence that i was trying it on my own. steep, tight and rocky…

as you say tho, stunning views up there

Eyup. Wallie. What you up to now? Still feeding the shred with max gnar? Still bumming Jeyclaw? (or was it vice-versa?)

Ride Don’t Slide was the first “real” trail I rode in Whistler. Suffice to say the learning curve was kinda steep! Cleared it, but wouldn’t say it was either smooth or flowing.

Euro – where is that? That looks like exactly my cup of tea!

Horsethief Bench, Fruita, CO

Cleaned on 3rd attempt on my old P7