Mountains are by no means an essential part of mountain biking, because if they were there are whole parts of the globe where mountain biking shouldn’t be as popular as it is. Regardless of that, I have always been drawn to the mountain ranges of the world, specifically to explore them by bike.
Mountain ranges actually have a gravitational pull, and while none of us will notice it, perhaps there is something about it that explains the attraction many of us have to vertiginous places. Over the history of human kind, mountains have acted as natural borders (they still do), a home for sleeping gods, places of sanctuary and even providers. Many parts of Europe still rely on the snow melt from each winter as essential drinking water for huge parts of the population. In many countries including our own, the energy from gravity and water caught by mountains drives hydroelectric schemes for the energy we need every day.
On a personal level, mountains feed my love for life. I never feel more alive and grounded than when in a mountainous environment. This has rung true since my childhood, although until I was in my teens I didn’t tend to spend time in true mountains. Through my teenage years I did end up on countless hiking and mountain biking trips into the Blue Mountains, climbing trips to New Zealand’s Southern Alps, then extended dirtbag mountain bike trips through the Rockies, Appalachia, Tetons, Cascades and even the Lost Sierras in the USA during my twenties. I find it easy to get to get lost staring at a horizon near or far when in the mountains. Not day dreaming, just content.
There is one alpine chain that has drawn me back, sometimes more than once a year, for nearly two decades. The European Alps have a special place in my psyche. The mountains
