Bascht Hasenauer is not a man of big words. The vocabulary of the godfather of Saalbach comprises around 100 words. At least 50 per cent of them are bike jargon. And yet Bascht has coined terms such as "World Games of Mountainbiking" and "Adidas Slopestyle". The hotelier from Hinterglemm was one of the first in Europe to open up a ski area for mountain bikers that lies fallow in summer. For years, he persistently lobbied the locals, but also mountain railway officials and potential sponsors from the bike industry.
Today, the international freeride scene is sitting at Bascht's breakfast table - or at least those who can ride their bikes uphill without a shuttle. They even have clipless pedals within easy reach and, as today is the day to really get up the mountain, they naturally peel off their jeans and shirts to put on functional clothing: Freeride legend Richie Schley from Canada, Trond Hansen from Norway and the Germans Holger Meyer, Rob J and Tibor Simai. The plan is to tackle the "Big 5" five-gondola tour together - the tour of force that has made Saalbach famous beyond Austria's borders. 55 kilometres and 4924 metres in altitude - despite the gondola support, it's a tough day's work. However, this tour includes all the bike park highlights and the most beautiful panoramic trails in the region.
The complete area guide (with corrected map) is available as a PDF download.
The following enduro and freeride highlights and top tours are described:
1. the Big 5 - Grande X-Trema (56 km, 4900 vertical metres with gondola)
2nd Adidas freeride on the Reiterkogel (2 km, 500 metres downhill only)
3rd X-Line on the Schattberg (6 km, 1025 m downhill only)
4th Bärenbach tour (21.6 km, 880 m elevation gain)
5th Screaming Fountain Tour (30 km, 1029 metres altitude)
6th Tyrolean Tour (26 km, 1048 m elevation gain)
7th Zwölferkogel Ellmaualm (19.6 km, 1194 metres altitude)
8th Schattberg East/West loop (31 km, 1310 m elevation gain)
Correction of the map (page 191):
The top area in the Pinzgau in a panoramic overview Okay, since this is the April issue, we could now claim that the map printed in the Saalbach-Hinterglemm area guide is an April joke. But to be honest: We were shocked when we opened the freshly printed magazine for the first time and discovered the completely illegible first version. Of course, we had planned a much prettier set of maps, which unfortunately must have got lost somewhere on the way to the printers. We apologise for any inconvenience and will provide the panoramic map later. The extra PDF download (corrected map only) can be found below.
