After a few days in theFrench Alps and a wet and wild day inSwitzerland, Peak Leaders graduate John Inman packed up and made the 2 hour drive to Livigno in Italy, home toMottolino Bike Park.
The next and final destination of the Post-Whistler Eurotrip was Mottolino Bike Park in the Sondrino province of Italy. Only a couple of hours drive from Lenzerheide, and once again over spectacular mountain passes, it was a pretty easy journey. Since Livigno isn't that close to any airports (Zurich, Innsbruck and Milan are all over 2 hours away by car, it makes a great stop on a road trip!
A very welcoming town, a big plus to visiting here is that the town enjoys tax free status meaning pretty much everything in all of the 250 shops is super cheap! After arriving and getting set up in our flat for the two days, we headed out for a much needed beer and authentic Italian pasta.
With the Suzuki 'Nine Knights' slopestyle contest running, the town was buzzing. Whilst it may be more well known for hosting this event, Mottolino has a good reputation for offering avariety of DH trails for all levels, everything from gentle runs for beginner up to the unforgiving 2005 World Cup track. Heading up the Gondola takes less than 10 minutes, also rewarding you with 600m of descent and 13 trails to play with back down to the town. A week's pass is only 99 Euros, and with well maintained trails thanks to a dedicated trail crew, you really do get great value for money.
Dropping in on our first few runs with a pretty spectacular backdrop, we first got acquainted with the flowy blue beginner trails. Thanks to the elevation, the trails don't normally get too dry meaning we were blessed with some tacky hero dirt.
Once we were warmed up, we headed up to check out some of the harder red's and blacks, featuring bigger jumps, drops and more technical features. Whilst most of these are all pretty flowy down to the road, things get more technical once you get into the woods. Fast berms with small root and rock gardens into more corners keep things fresh and varied. New for this year was the '58Sic DH track' that mixed the big doubles and step downs that you might find further up the mountain, with fresh and rooty off camber technical portions (which quickly became a firm favourite).
There is also plenty of 'North Shore' and freeride style trails in the park as well, if you want to test your confidence on skinnies or large drops! The 2005 World Cup track is also open for everyone to have a crack at the trail where Fabien Barel won 10 years ago. Starting out in the open, with some steep rock gardens (hard to stop on once you get going), you hit a steep and awkward drop before its into the woods with more technical rooty corners. Even more testing in the damp!
With plenty of variety over its 13 trails, it is definitely worth spending at least a few days here. Since it is within only a few hours drive from Austria and Switzerland, it makes it a very convient road trip stop. Having had a ripper 2 days in Italy, we unfortunately reached the end of our week's road trip and also meant we had a 6 hour drive back to Geneva to catch our flight home.
One thing is for sure, even though we only scratched the surface of what bike parks the Alps have to offer, it does has a tremendous variety of riding of the highest quality! Possibly the best way to tackle the post-Whistler andPeak Leaders CoachesCamp blues!
John Inman
Ski, Snowboard & Mountain Bike Instructor Courses & Camps
www.peakleaders.com | Tel: +44 (0) 1337 860 079
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9/20/2015 12:25pm
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