Course Info
£85
Date
Open group dates below. Please get in touch if you want to book this course as a private 1 to 1 or group day.
Location
Hebden Bridge is famous for being the Yorkshire Alps, with it's steep rocky valleys, switchback turns and lots of stone steps. Think black grade trail centre level, but on natural surface. A challenge, but a very fun one!
Pricing Info
Terms and conditions apply. See tab under 'Courses'
Course Description
Steep switchbacks
This is a course for people who want to develop their skills beyond the trail centre. It’s a more advanced level course than ‘Stop Crashing 1 & 2’. Alpine Tech is one of the most popular Great Rock courses. As well as being a skills course it appeals to those who want to experience the famous Hebden Bridge trails in the company of a local. *Recommended by the organisers of the notoriously technical Trans Provence stage race and guided holiday* Click here to read a blog post from someone who came on an Alpine Tech course
We start by riding a local trail to get used to the area and warm up. Then on a steep rocky trail, we look at how to weight and unweight the bike to carry smoother, more controlled speed. This leads perfectly to reading the trail and making good line choices and applying manual and bunny hop technique to real trail situations. There is the chance to see some of the great Hebden trails and depending on where we go there are steps, small drop offs, tight switchbacks and typically awkward Hebden trail sections to progress through. Unlike many other areas of the country the bridleways of Hebden Bridge are technical, with steep rocky sections and different line choices, making them ideal for skills progression.
There is a lot to get through in this course in one day, and we’ll be cracking on, so make sure you are ready to progress with enough basic confidence to ‘commit a bit’. If a basic ‘manual’, ‘rear wheel lift’ and ability to ‘pump the trail’ are new to you, then please do the ‘Stop Crashing level 2’ course first. You will get more out of your day this way.
Fast cornering
This course appeals to riders wanting to venture onto more technical trails than are found at trail centres or in more ‘geographically mellow’ places than Hebden Bridge! It is ideal skills preparation for people going to take part in events like the Passportes de Soleil or the Trans Provence guided holiday, as well as those booking trips to ride in the Alps, Pyrenees or other big mountain areas. As well as being the mountain biker’s ‘Alps of Yorkshire’ Hebden Bridge is also the ‘cappuccino capital’ of the Pennines. The best riding is never far from town and we’ll find time to have a good lunch in one of the many cafes. The traditional de-brief usually ends the day and we’ll go for a pint, or whatever you prefer, in a pub. This course will be great preparation for people wanting to book a place on the Great Rock skills/riding holidays with BasqueMTB. More details on Great Rock holidays under the ‘Trips’ tab above.
Yorkshire Alpinist
Comments (3)
22 Jul 09:31
I did this course in very wet weather. The first ‘try’ out run was more than a challenge, which I failed on and fell on.
Throughout the day Ed pitched each track around Hebden Bridge at a level that enabled me to learn and without knowing it, improve (just a bit).
By the end of the day I had confidence to chuck myself down things that I wouldn’t have considered doing at the start of the day – although I did have to ride up to the start of it a couple of times to convince myself that I should do it!
Last thing was to ride off the top of a drop of a few feet which blew my tyre rim off the wheel – I just about made it though.
All in all, I’d thoroughly recommend it – I came away having shoulder barged some brick walls and fallen off numerous times – I’d been challenged mentally more than physically though. Since then I have been out a lot more on my mountain bike trying to get what Ed had told me into my biking.
21 Sep 19:55
What a difference a day makes! Ed has got me riding lines and features now that I wouldn’t have even looked at before, many thanks! What looked to be the hardest option is not any more.
This Alpine Tech course should be on any mountain bikers list of things to do.
Thanks again Ed !
23 Sep 08:04
Concentrated on
Weighting / un-weighting
Pump / flow
Body position
Switchbacks .
Left us with things to work on but it was remarkable the improvement we all had throughout the day , especially on switchbacks . New and ruder lines were accomplished to maintain speed on the descents.
Great Fun and recommended.