Bikeparks in Austria?

[HollyBoni]

Hi!

I'm from Hungary and I would like to ride in Austria in the summer. I'm looking for bikepark recommendations.

My favourite type of trails are technical, rocky, rooty, natural-ish trails. I like these much more than "overbuilt" trails with just a bunch of jumps and berms. I'm not a big jump guy in general.
Wexl is very close, but it's not exactly what i'm looking for, although "The Wu" looks very nice.
I was looking at Sölden, it looks awesome on videos, but some people say it's a bit too "easy". Any comments on that?
The Fernar trail looks absolutely amazing, but it's a bit of a bummer that you can't just ride it all the time and i'm not a fan of that €30 fee.

Any recommendations? The closer to Hungary, the better. If you guys know good parks in Slovenia too, i'm open to suggestions Thanks!

 

[Stevie8]

Hi!

I'm from Hungary and I would like to ride in Austria in the summer. I'm looking for bikepark recommendations.

My favourite type of trails are technical, rocky, rooty, natural-ish trails. I like these much more than "overbuilt" trails with just a bunch of jumps and berms. I'm not a big jump guy in general.
Wexl is very close, but it's not exactly what i'm looking for, although "The Wu" looks very nice.
I was looking at Sölden, it looks awesome on videos, but some people say it's a bit too "easy". Any comments on that?
The Fernar trail looks absolutely amazing, but it's a bit of a bummer that you can't just ride it all the time and i'm not a fan of that €30 fee.

Any recommendations? The closer to Hungary, the better. If you guys know good parks in Slovenia too, i'm open to suggestions Thanks!

I'd recommend the Schoeckl. This is a good trail and an old-school downhill, which is really spicy. It has gondola access. Or you can try Aflenz, which is a good singletrail.
Both are natural not overbuilt and quite near to Hungary. Cheers!

 

[HollyBoni]

I'd recommend the Schoeckl. This is a good trail and an old-school downhill, which is really spicy. It has gondola access. Or you can try Aflenz, which is a good singletrail.
Both are natural not overbuilt and quite near to Hungary. Cheers!

Schöckl looks awesome, so much jank! Looks like I can take a train from Hungary straight to Graz which is perfect.
Thank you!

 

[grey]

Schöckl, Petzen (only thriller and EWS trail, but they are likely the best offical trails in. at) + jamnica (nice trails but you have to pedal up), kitzsteinhorn has a neat trail too, Saalbach bergstadltrail, trailwerk wachau (Pedal up, trails are plan-b and schikhnway), Schladming dh, wagrain (Hardrock), semmering dh, 3 ländereck (nauders...).

Some areas only have really one useful trail which fit that request unfortunately, some w/o lift.

Sölden fernar trail is great too, very alpine and technical. I did not pay anything to ride it, keep an eye on opening hrs and be careful.
Sölden closed a few "natural" trails in the past, i think 3 with lift access. Many flowlines instead.

 

[HollyBoni]

Thank you for the info!

Bummer about Sölden.

Checked out Kitzsteinhorn, wow, what a beautiful place! I'll have to ride that as well with pedalling to the top. Salbaach is close too, awesome!

 

[grey]

sölden has still more natural trails than saalbach, even if they got rid of a few.. leiteralmtrail is still enjoyable overall and there are 2 on the other side of the valley w/o lift.

saalbach did essentially nothing in the last 10 years regading new natural trails, leogang nearby added some though.

the issue with natural trails is, you rarely find them in regular bikeparks, and the few good official ones are split up across the country quite badly.



kitzsteinhorn trail is partially really beautiful indeed, expensive lift ticket and a bit sad that there is in reality only one trail which you ride once or twice and thats it.

if schöckl is close, have fun, it is also open during winter btw.

 

[HollyBoni]

I think i'm gonna visit Schöckl at least once for sure, and also do a longer "tour" and go to Leogang, Salbaach, and do a big pedal day and go up to Kitzsteinhorn. We'll see if I can also make it to Sölden.

I might also do a tour around Kanin mountain on the Italian Slovenian border, but that's gonna be a massive suffer fest with what looks like properly rocky alpine hiking trails. But I want to do something like that at least once.

 

[Simon Katsch]

I will like to recommend sölden.
Some trails are easy yes,but you have some hard(er) trails.
But what you have to go to is Nauders,3 Länder enduro trail at the reschensee.they are amazing and very natural, techi steep or flowy.
You can combine sölden,serfaus and Nauders. Of course this areas are more in the west like schöckl

 

[HollyBoni]

Damn, too many good options! We'll see how much I can squeeze in this summer.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Simon Katsch]

I prefer more options then less,than you can watch some videos and make a good choice

 

[HollyBoni]

I prefer more options then less,than you can watch some videos and make a good choice

I'm sure i'm gonna have tons of fun no matter where I go.

BTW, something is not clear. If I don't use the cable car and I pedal all the way up to Kitzsteinhorn, do I still have to pay something?

 

[grey]

Doubt it, you pay for the lift not for the trail.

Not sure if they restricted it in a legal sense to lift consumers, but it is not like you have some Kind of Checkpoint on the trail.
I guess the few people per year which Pedal up don't really make a difference to them. You barely see mtbikers there anyways.

 

[HollyBoni]

Doubt it, you pay for the lift not for the trail.

Not sure if they restricted it in a legal sense to lift consumers, but it is not like you have some Kind of Checkpoint on the trail.
I guess the few people per year which Pedal up don't really make a difference to them. You barely see mtbikers there anyways.

Thanks!

What about Leogang, I see that a 1 day ticket is €46 for example, do you happen to know if that includes the lift, and does it get you an unlimited amount of lift rides for that day?
Not sure how all of this bike park stuff works...

 

[Simon Katsch]

Thanks!

What about Leogang, I see that a 1 day ticket is €46 for example, do you happen to know if that includes the lift, and does it get you an unlimited amount of lift rides for that day?
Not sure how all of this bike park stuff works...

Yes sure,you buy one ticket for the cable car and you can ride trails the whole day without limits. When you are in Leogang you can also go to saalbach for two days or something.this two places are nearby to each other and Saalbach is good as well,but both are more built bikepark less naturerally

 

[cbtp]

I'm sure i'm gonna have tons of fun no matter where I go.

BTW, something is not clear. If I don't use the cable car and I pedal all the way up to Kitzsteinhorn, do I still have to pay something?

There is a legal/official mtb-access via fire-road and you do not have to pay anything if you use the trail for dh (anyway those trails are shared trails, so take care of (very less) hikers). But the uphill is quite hard and long – and after 800 uphill-metres you have to go down again 200-250 metres on a fire-road until there the fire-road goes up for the next 1.000 altidude-metres of uphill ...

 

[ratz90]

If you are looking for rocky and technical, I would recommend Krvavec in Slovenia.

 

[grey]

sounds interesting, somewhat close to petzen/jamnica too.

 

[HollyBoni]

If you are looking for rocky and technical, I would recommend Krvavec in Slovenia.

Thanks! I'll check it out! For Slovenia I was thinking about going to Kanin and riding some hiking trails there, they look pretty darn amazing and according to Trailforks plenty of people ride there.
Also I might have to skip Austria if they come up with even more strict travel restrictions in the summer.

 

[ratz90]

Thanks! I'll check it out! For Slovenia I was thinking about going to Kanin and riding some hiking trails there, they look pretty darn amazing and according to Trailforks plenty of people ride there.
Also I might have to skip Austria if they come up with even more strict travel restrictions in the summer.

Then you can also check the Bike Park and Trails in Kranjska Gora on the way to Kanin. Don't know how it's from the Slovenian side (Bovec) in summer, but from sella nevea you can take the cable car to the top.
Also lots of nice trails just across the border in Italy.

 

[HollyBoni]

Then you can also check the Bike Park and Trails in Kranjska Gora on the way to Kanin. Don't know how it's from the Slovenian side (Bovec) in summer, but from sella nevea you can take the cable car to the top.
Also lots of nice trails just across the border in Italy.

Cool, thanks!
At Kanin i'll definitely hop over to the Italian side as well. You can take a cable car from Bovec to Kanin as well, although the price is pretty steep at €22.
This summer the plan is to ride a bit of park and work on my trail riding and jumping skills, but I also really want to try to push my limits and tackle some tougher Alpine trails and climbs. Kanin sounds great for that.

 

[BenMT]

Where in hungary do you live? If you live in north you can try Kalnica. Have you tried Semmering before?

 

[HollyBoni]

Where in hungary do you live? If you live in north you can try Kalnica. Have you tried Semmering before?

North, almost at the border. Might visit Slovakia but i'm drawn to the Alps.
Nope, I haven't been to Semmering yet.

 

[Stevie8]

From Hungary first place to start is semmering. Then schoeckl. Both are like one hour from the Hungarian border.

 

[BenMT]

If you are a beginner: Don‘t try Schöckl

 

[HollyBoni]

If you are a beginner: Don‘t try Schöckl

Not really a beginner, i've ridden for a few years, stopped, bought a new bike and started again in August. Jumps are my weak point, I want to improve on that, even though i'm not that interested in jumps.
Steep and rough terrain doesn't scare me that much, and of course I can always just go slow. (Okay that won't help on steep stuff)
However the terrain is not that crazy here in Hungary, I have zero experience with properly long trails and high elevation. But that's what interests me most for sure.