Mountain Biking in Nepal

[ken4ord]

Who wants to mountain biking in Nepal for a few weeks. If you are interested drop me a line at ken4ord at yahoo dot com or PM me. I am planning a intense trip late April/early May.

 

Here is video from this years trip, descending off Throng La:

 

Another farther down the slope on the way to Mukinath:

[sobo]

I'm out, but that second vid was hilarious, the way all those trekkers would jump out of the way as you approached.

FYI, I'd really like to know what happened after 1:03, when the screen dissolved. How did passing that woman go?

And what was the deal with the suspension bridge? Howz come you didn't just ride over that? Musta been a hella climb coming up outta that gorge as a result... Which brings up another kweshchun, how do you get back? You have to reverse that whole ride, only this time it's all uphill?

[ken4ord]

After 1:03 I got off the bike to walk some BIG rock steps, if I went into them straight on I probably would have given it a go. On the bridge I was there for several minutes discussing with a guide, he was saying the bridge was broken. I bounce tested a few times then decided to go the route everyone else was going. At the bottom of the gorge, I just put the bike on the shoulders and huffed it out. Top of Throng La to Mukinath was a 45 min run. Basically I waited for the sun to come up at Throng Phedi 8am while all the Trekkers left at 3am, I still managed to beat most of them down to Mukinath and was well into my 4th or 5th beer by the time some of the later trekker were arriving. It was a great trip. I managed the whole circuit in 10 casual days including going up to Poon Hill and climbing up an extra three passes for some extra descending.

[JasonG]

Interesting....so are you carrying all of your kit on your back when riding? Did you end up pushing your bike a fair bit on the climb to the Thorung La? I seem to remember it as fairly steep, and at a decent altitude.

 

How much of the circuit is now overtaken by road? I have heard that it is pretty much a waste of time anymore on foot....looks like maybe a mountain bike is now the preferred method.

[sobo]

Thanks, ken, appreciate that info and your response. Looks too cool fer skewl!

[ken4ord]

Hey Jason,

 

Yeah I carried everything myself, had enough to do roughy 2-3 day overnights in the open and the weight down to 15-20 lbs. That includes food, water, tools, bag, first aid, emergency beacon (request on my wife's behalf), etc. Realistically you could go a lot lighter, but I had a permit to go up into Naar and Phu Khola, which was going to be 2 nights in the open, but when I got to the canyon the weather was bad, with clouds down to about 3500m and snow to 3000m and that route required a 5500m remote pass, so I opted out on that section to do some other stuff.

 

Throng La was a carry all the way up, except for three tiny bits. Just lift the bike and carry, it's not that hard. Put some padding on the forehead and hook the seat and have the top tube rest across my shoulders. Probably the toughest riding for sure was either Poon Hill, tonnes of root drops and stair cases, I was able to find a rideable route all the way up. Also my first day was one of the toughest, since I carried from 7am until 2:30pm out of Besishar to gain the ridge you are facing as you cross the river. I thought I spied a good trail cutting across the slope , but it turned out to be a cattle track that was hell. That was a 14 hour day.

 

Yeah they almost got a road almost all the way through, but I stayed off it for the most part, as do most of the hikers. It is still tough by bike from what I was told that people normally only cycle about 60-70%, on the normal track. I ended up cycling about 80% even with the extra climbs I did and Poon Hill.

 

The next trip I got horses hired for the whole trip since there will be 4-5000m+ passes and it is camping the whole way, no tea houses.

[kevbone]

Awesome video's.

[Pete_H]

Sick Ken. Badass.

[ken4ord]

Well I am off in a few more days, can't wait, been doing way too much planning for this trip and training for this trip, it is finally coming together. We'll try to make it over 5-5000+m passes in 11 days. No pack carrying this time hopefully, we got some horse that will carrying all of our gear. Should be one crazy adventure.

 

Now it is time to do my 600 rep HIT workout.