Big Mountain Week - we have long since given our annual bike week on La Palma a name. After all, where else can you ride endless single trails in such a concentrated way in one week: 4,000 metres of ascent, 17,200 metres of descent and 130 kilometres of trails - that's our weekly workload. You can get tired from time to time. But Francisco is now in the flow. Turn after turn, he swings the taxi further towards the sky. The pretty fincas, palm trees, blossoming almond trees and oleander bushes of the Breña Alta coast quickly melt into a strip of colourful spots. Halfway up, the fog of the laurel forest swallows us up until we suddenly smell the scent of pine trees. Then the fog and trees clear again and the sun comes through. Our taxi cuts one of the last hairpin bends and we see the white observatories shining above the sea of fog for the first time, at the top of the 2426 metre high Roque de los Muchachos. The journey took an hour, but it feels like we've flown through the climate zones in a helicopter.
Trail connoisseurs say that La Palma's enduro tours can compete with the best routes in the Alps. But in my opinion, the trails on La Palma are simply not comparable.
You can find the entire La Palma photo story as a PDF download below - including these mountain bike trails on La Palma:
- Mendo Trail - Ash Trails
- Fuencaliente - Volcanic trails in the south
- Puntallana - jungle trail
- Pico Ovejas - the King's Tour
