Behind the Sentiero 601, a seemingly harmless, numbered hiking trail like many others, lies one of the hottest trails on the lake for bikers. This ride shows two faces that could not be more different. After the ascent along the tarmac of the Strada del Monte Baldo, the adventure turns almost seamlessly into a hellish ride. This scree-strewn and rocky trial downhill doesn't leave much time for the magnificent lake views. It's all in quick succession, with one key section immediately followed by the next, and many an average biker arrives back in Torbole after a long walk with eyes widened in horror.
Despite a few steep sections, the start is relatively easy and enjoyable. From the shore, you head towards the Busatte leisure park high above the lake and take the tarmac road leading to Altissimo. In summer, travelling along this panoramic route can be a real pain. The track crosses a Maghreb-hot field of rock debris, in which the remains of a huge earthquake are scattered. After a short flat section at Malga Zures, the 601 branches off and the initially beautiful forest path soon loses its gentle face and reveals an ugly grimace. Steepest slides through rocky gullies demand full concentration - for most of us, this is probably the case even when walking on such passages. It's a trail battle against the consequences of centuries of erosion; normal bikers are fighting windmills here. Because the numerous key sections involve more sliding than riding anyway, you should avoid the tour at the slightest dampness. If you are not sufficiently shaken up at the end and have neither a flat tyre nor a broken bone in your body, you can take another lap on the Busatte before rolling back down to Torbole.
In short: The Sentiero 601 is an absolutely hellish and extreme course, with the steepest scree passages and rocky slides - the hottest ride on northern Lake Garda! Normal bikers should be prepared to do a lot of pushing here. The extreme trial is only worthwhile for specialists! - BIKE -Guide 3 "Lake Garda" by Elmar Moser, 1994
That's what it said in the 1994 BIKE -Guide 3 "Lake Garda" by author Elmar Moser. We had to print the original text because 1. it is superbly written. 2. it attracted crowds of bikers to the slopes of the Altissimo above Torbole on Lake Garda and thus triggered the 601 cult. It is surprising how author Moser even came up with the idea of sending mountain bikers down such a trial (he liked to call trails trials).
We remember: the 1990s! Back then, mountain biking was in its infancy and most bikes were unsprung or at best had suspension forks. Suspension forks that didn't deserve the name in today's terms because they could only be compressed by a few centimetres and usually buckled back without damping. The steering angle was a steep 74 degrees and the handlebars themselves were far too narrow, just like the tyres. The Sentiero 601 was almost impossible to conquer with this technique. Even experienced bikers had to allow for at least two falls per descent. Crashes in bone-crushing terrain. Those who flew over the handlebars rarely remained uninjured. This soon led to rumours in the scene that Moser had not even ridden the trails himself, but had at most hiked down them.
The 601 became an accolade in the eyes of adrenaline bikers: anyone who made it down here with a zero, i.e. without putting their foot down, was one of the best in their guild. Even when the freeride wave swept from overseas to Europe, the Altissimo trails were still among the greatest challenges. The angry 601 shook stars like Simmons, Schley, Tippie, Bearclaw and Hunter to such an extent that the gravity riders could hardly believe the beating this trail gave them. For us Europeans, what happened on the 601 was the epitome of freeriding: a ride on the edge of falling. The term and the experience of "trail flow" were unknown back then; instead, the downhill-loving mountain bikers took on such rodeo rides, stumbling and stamping through the scree and even thought it was funny.
It has often happened that bikers boast that they have conquered Sentiero 601 - but in reality they were on Sentiero 632 (now closed!) or the Sentiero della Pace Wicked. Big faux pas. Although these trails are also hidden in the flanks of the Altissimo and have a lot to offer, they are much easier to ride than their big brother, the 601.
The mountain war from 1914 to 1918 brought us many of the Lago trails. It raged particularly terribly here. Pioneers chiselled paths into the mountain slopes to bring hand grenades, tourniquets and barley soup to the fighting troops, thousands of whom bled to death on both sides - Italian Alpini and Kaiserjäger from Austria slaughtered each other and blew themselves up, as they did not far away on the Pasubio, where the Austrians stuffed a mine charge into the mountain, detonated it and killed 500 Italians in one fell swoop. It was the biggest explosion of the First World War. Trenches also run through the slopes of the Altissimo, and there are loopholes in the cliffs - if you look closely, you will see them everywhere.
"You have to learn to love the rock," says author Elmar Moser, "because the boulders are omnipresent." We feel this as we tackle the old classic after a long 601 abstinence. This time armed with plenty of suspension travel (170 mm) in modern 29-inch enduro bikes. Although the 601 starts very high up on Monte Altissimo, the core route (700 metres in altitude) begins shortly after the access road reaches a plateau at the Malga Zures farmstead. Here the 601 crosses the tarmac road, joins a cart track and extends its claws. Then and now. Important: keep left, otherwise you will end up on Sentiero 632. We tested this 601 Cor e route for BIKE in the 2000s with suspension forks (from 80 mm) and complete bikes, because we found the trail terribly beautiful. Today, we find it rather horrible-horrible.
Elmar Moser says about this passage:
Normal bikers should leave the extreme trial on the lower section of the Sentiero 601 to the real specialists.
We realise that the trail has hardly lost any of its horror, and modern bike technology doesn't change that. The 601 deals out blows like a hooligan after losing an international match. The tricky thing is that if you ride slowly, it only gets worse. Then the bike starts to stumble, gets stuck between rocky gullies and stone slabs, starts to buck, lurch, lurch, wants to break out to the left and then veers to the right the next moment. The eyes don't know where to look, if they can see anything clearly at all, the head shakes up and down so violently. And if the eyes see anything, it's boulders. Rubble. Stone slabs - randomly thrown on top of each other. We are not exaggerating! Our hands clutch the grips and the handlebars twitch in our fists as if they were live. There are sections on the 601 where it's hard to believe that you can roll over these angry rock scales on a mountain bike - and yet you can.
A certain basic speed is necessary to stabilise the ride, but going faster is no less treacherous. You don't want to fall anywhere on the Sentiero 601! Not even think about it. When the 601 throws up at the Busatte leisure park, we feel like we've had a bar fight. We take a short breather, lick our wounds, then continue over a scree gully and terribly steep stone steps down to the promenade. Only now have we made it. We used to take nasty falls on the stone steps because our strength was already gone and the goal (the blue lake) was already within our grasp. Our conclusion? Crazy! Fun on the bike? Zero. Active riding? Hardly possible. Flow? Good joke! Instead, we stubbornly hold on, kill metres in altitude, don't fall off and hope that the bump fire will eventually be over. We can't believe that we used to like the 601, especially not that people rode down here on 26-inch rigid bikes in the 1990s. How are you doing?
Experiences? What did you experience on the Sentiero 601 on Lake Garda?
Write to us at: info@freeride-magazine.com
Voices on the 601 Trail
Hans Rey, the first extreme biker:
The 601 is indeed a classic. I also wonder how we were able to ride it in the late 80s/early 90s with hardtails, narrow tyres and lousy brakes. I think the rocks were softer back then. In any case, it was a popular trail that you could boast about riding. I really want to ride the 601 again. Maybe it'll be uphill with the E-MTB.
René Wildhaber, Mr Megavalanche:
The 601 is a challenge. Even for fit, technically experienced and mentally strong bikers. Gravel and rocks make the steep descent an endurance test for man and material in anti-flow style. So hopefully you'll still have enough strength left in your body at the end to be able to lift a gelato by the lake.
Hans Voglsamer, Lago pioneer:
Pace, Dalco and 601 - the trails were a must on the Lago. Regardless of whether your knees were bloody or your ribs were bruised, anyone who dared to tackle these Lago trails deserved a beer afterwards. Those who didn't were no good as bikers. The 601 separated man from mouse.
Steffi Marth, ex-Worldcupper:
Many Lago trails are bumpy, but the 601 takes the cake. A terrible bump and shake. Only weirdos and masochists do that to themselves. I've ridden it once, and that's enough for ever. Compared to the 601, the Skull Trail is a flow shower.
Brett Tippie, freeride pioneer:
I was shown the 601 in 1998. A relentlessly rocky trail, with lots of solid rock and lots of loose rock. Sharp edges everywhere! If the trail is wet, the 601 turns into a nightmare. Did I enjoy the 601? Yes, once I'd done it, ha ha! Long live the 601!
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
