66, Bike Verbier, Getting Better All the Time
When I was about 50 years old I had a scary crash on Lookout Mountain in the Ochoco Mountains near where I live in Bend, Or. I sat myself down and had a talking to. I told myself I was getting to an age where being careful and prudent was more important than getting better. It was good advice, and I have followed it, but another couple of things have happened since then. One mountain bike have gotten better. New bikes go down steeper, rockier more difficult terrain, two I have done two vacations with Bike Verbier in Switzerland. I'm now 66, I still tell my self to be cautious but I found myself riding trails I never thought I would do even earlier this summer. In Switzerland there is, to put it mildly, a lot of terrain and a lot of vertical. A day with 10,000 feet of descending is common, 14,000 not unheard of. A 5000 ft descent in one go not unusual. 30 switchbacks in a row not unusual, all of them harder then anything we have around here. Rocks, roots, exposure are par