August 17th Sol Vista

We had planned on riding Saturday and Sunday at Sol Vista but we had some crazy weather come through and everything was unrideable on Saturday. The mountains actually got quite a bit of snow and Sol Vista closed their trails on Saturday.

I decided before the weekend that I would demo a new Intense M6 so I was looking forward to being able to ride on Sunday.

Wow! conditions at Sol Vista for Sunday were, quite simply, perfect! the dirt was tachy and the trails amazing. There were also two new trails Tron and Ashy Larry that were new sections that you reached by going down Cheeze-It. The new trails were rated as Blue trails but both had all sorts of optional black and double black features and trying to ride them at race speeds is just crazy good fun.

It also turned out to be a very poor financial decision on my part to demo the M6 as the difference in how it rides to my current frame is similar to the difference in a $30K sports car and a $150K sports car. Both are fun and decent at what they do, but the high end version just leaves the low end version for dead in terms of fun to use and performance! Between how the M6 rode, the perfect condition of the trails and the new fun trails that were added it was one of those dream days of riding. Amber and I pretty much did non-stop runs all day with just a break for a beer and lunch. We did a few runs with a great guy by the name of Santiago who I chatted to a little at Snomass. Riding behind someone who is better than you is great fun and really helps you push yourself in skills and effort.

All in all an awesome day of riding and the race at the end of the month promises to be even more fun than what Snomass was. The trail builders at Sol Vista really have it going on up there. If you are in the area during the summer find a way to make some time to do some DH riding there.