A HB.130 in Bike Republic Sölden, Austria
- Trailbuilding. HB130. Adventures. Laps. -
My name's Christian Heitmann, I grew up in North-West Germany, before moving to Austria in October 2019. It's always been a dream of mine to live in the Alps.
I started working the winter season, on the gondolas, and in the Spring of 2020 I joined the Trailbuilder team at Bike Republic Sölden. As well as becoming an Ambassador for Hope at the same time. This year seemed to be one of the best my life. I'm currently planning a campervan build to visit more exciting spots in Europe, so expect more great adventures with the HB.130 coming up.
In June, my HB.130 arrived. After building I dropped directly into the trail behind my apartment to get a feeling for the bike. Next day. The weekend! I used the first day to dial in the bike. Then on Sunday I had one thought: "SHREDDING!“
From there on, I rode the bike the whole summer, pretty much every weekend. I'm still blown away, it's an all around toy, and unbelievable capable in the rough stuff with 130mm of rear travel, I've never felt so fast on a bike!
In April, we begin the rebuild of the trails and lines at Bike Republic Soelden and in June the gondolas open for uplift.
The highest point you can reach by gondola with your bike is 2650m above Sea level. From there, you have about 12km shaped lines and trails and 1300m of decending without pedalling. Then the highest point you can go with your bike is by bus, on the glacier at 2800m above Sea level. From there, there's the Black high alpine trail escorted by a guide. 11km of trail, 1450m of decending and beautiful glacier shaped landscapes lay in wait.
All in all we have 10 shaped lines and 16 singletrack lines, and Bike Republic Sölden is expanding every summer, with a double Black line full of rough stuff, drops, jumps and high speed rollers is on the cards for 2021.
Because of saving money for my upcoming van, plans of summer 2020 were easy: "STAY IN SÖLDEN AND ENJOY THE SICKEST TRAILS IN MY BACKYARD!“
Most weekends we did lap after lap, getting the more and more runs each day. One morning we went to the glacier at 2800m and rode the black high alpine trail, called "Fernar Trail“. This one was just an amazing trail adventure.
Throughout the summer, we had amazing weather pretty much every weekend: It was just unbelievable. We did so many runs, so many trail kms, so many metres of decending.
I needed a quick break to revitalize. So when one of my best friends from Germany visited we went hiking, walking along the ridgeline at about 2900m. Mindblowing views wherever you looked.
A few days later we set off to another summit. The Schwarzkogel (at 3016m) This time we took our bikes, riding the Gondola up to 2650m. From there we hiked to the peak. On the way passing a beautiful lake at 2800m. Then came the wild ride down to the valley, beginning on the ridgeline (no room for error) following with a freeride section down a stone slope to the lakeside, and ending with full throttle parts back into the bikepark area. For rest of the summer, I just enjoyed the bike life. We built trails. We did laps. We filmed. We shot photos, and celebrated good Austrian food: "GOOD VIBES ONLY!“
With the end of season in sight the first snow dropped on 27th September. Too much for serious biking, so I took my bike out to make some funny Instagram clips. It was way better than I thought. I was surfing through the powder. After a few days, the snow melted, so we used our time in the Autumn well. Hiking up the mountain to film some last clips of the year. Beautiful fall days in November keeping me motivated. One morning I started off at 5:30am (in the dark) to catch the sunrise, stopping at 2300m on a nice hill top to have my breakfast whilst the sunrose. Finishing off with a sick technical trail back home.
Now winter's arrived and the valley is full of snow. Of course I'm hoping for snowless winter days to ride my bike, but also for a white Christmas. Stay healthy! Cheers Christian.
Find out more about Christian on his Ambassador Profile or give him a follow on Instagram to see what he's up to.