Alaska has a storied history as one of the world’s most revered destinations for backcountry skiers and snowboarders. The expanses of ridable terrain during the long Alaskan winters are seemingly endless. It has long been a rite of passage for winter athletes who seek to push the boundaries of what’s possible on snow.
It’s rare for big, backcountry snow lines to translate into ridable mountain biking, though. Slopes with the right mix of slope, elevation, terrain, and accessibility are more of a fantasy than a reality, and there aren’t many places in the world that have the right recipe.
Perhaps that’s why big-mountain freeride is such a niche part of mountain biking. Finding terrain to not only ride, but also push the boundaries of what’s possible, is an endless search. Alaska though, seemed to have this magical combination in abundance.
We had spent the past week exploring a stretch of the Talkeetna Mountains, about 150km east of Anchorage. Our crew of riders—Kurt Sorge, Alex Volokhov, Nico Vink, Jaxson Riddle and Remy Morton—surveyed the mountainside in search of lines. The vast expanses of potentially rideable terrain here felt endless. And therein lay the challenge: where to start?
Scale and humility
That seemed like an easy enough question to answer as we set out on day one. An ochre and russet swathe of seemingly perfectly
