At some point during the 2 months of lockdown that we had in Spain, I received a call from Ramonudo: “I’ve planned a weekend in the Pyrenees near Bielsa with plenty of shuttles, a campsite at the top of the mountain and a helidrop to top it off.” I had to say “I’m in” right away. It sounded like the perfect way to celebrate the lockdown being over. It didn’t take much to convince Nacho, Kike and Sergio either, so the 3rd episode of Not Far From Home was ready!
The plan was simple, enjoy all the vertical the Pyrenees has to offer with the help of Altitude Rides and head back on Tuesday to film the next episode of our video series.
We spent a couple of epic days riding all around Bielsa. The guys from Altitude rides had been all year working on some new trails and we were the first ones to ride them. You can imagine–fresh loam and not a single braking bump. To top it all off they had arranged a mountain top campsite for us with the help of Trekking Mule, a company based in the Pyrenees that uses rescued mules from the south of Spain to make epic campsites at the top of any mountain in the Pyrenees.
Saturday night we arrived at the Ibón (mountain lake) de Plan, just on time for a swim in the breathtaking lake. The Trekking Mule guys prepared one of the best meals of the trip for us and provided some great red wine from the area. The following morning we had another epic descent for breakfast. Does it get any better than that?
It does, at the bottom of the trail we had the helicopter waiting for us to take us all the way up to Punta Suelza (2972m) where Pablo, Jorge and Chun had spent months fixing an old hiking trail to get it ready for mountain biking. At the top some pretty epic views where you could see both France and Spain were accompanied by a very interesting talk from Chun, one of our guides, about the geological origins of the Pyrenees mountain range.
For anyone that has been in the Alpine, usually you know what to expect, switchbacks and not a lot of flow, but that wasn’t the case here. These guys had spent months hiking up the trail with the weed eater and shovels to make the most fun alpine trail I have ever ridden with 2000 meters of vertical drop and not a single climb.
To add to our excitement Jorge “Jorgito” Garcia was our main guide, an ex-pro DH racer, he made for a perfect wheel to follow down this high speed trail!
We had an awesome time the whole weekend and want to thank the guys from Altitude Rides, Trekking Mule and Ramonudo for putting it all together!
Stay tuned for the next episode of Not Far From Home and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos.
Powered by Smith Optics, DYEDbro, Santa Cruz Bicyles.
Words by: Iago Garay
Film and edit: Nacho Trueba @nacho_trueba
Photography: Kike Abelleira @kikeabelleira
Riders: Iago Garay, Sergio Layos, Jorge Garcia
Production: iago Garay @iagogaray
Location: Spanish Pyrenees
Logo Design: Victor Brousseaud
Previous Episodes: Basque Country and Malaga.
This article originally appeared on Bikemag.com and was republished with permission.
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