Transalp Mountain Bike Epic

Pally’Hi ambassador Philipp Krogoll is a mountain bike fanatic. And mountain biking doesn’t really get any more fanatical than Transalp rides. This September, Philipp and a crew of his best riding buddies set off from their home at the base of Schliersee and cycled trails, pathways and what can only be described as rock faces, across 7 days to Lago di Garda, located at the start of the entry to the Italien Dolomites. The route totalled to just over 500Km, that’s an average of 70km a day with endless gruelling climbs of up to 2000m vertical at a time and thrilling descents. Fuelled by what looks like pizza and Weiss Bier, the boys also had to battle with the elements as they were treated to almost persistent rain and the occasional snow flurry above 2500m. Lucky then that Phil had filled his pack with Pally’Hi merino gear to keep him warm, dry and not smelling too funky throughout the week. The weather wasn’t the worst of it though; Phil managed to break his bike’s headset and remove his derailleur after a slip on a wet wooden bridge on day one… his friends towed him to the nearest town to source a replacement. And to top it off, one of the team ended up in hospital. This was a truly epic adventure!

Below are a handful of shots taken from the ride and a map of the route.

transalp_map

1-1-day

17-3rd-day-schl-sseljoch-down

21-3-3rd-day-flo-pfunderer-joch-2600m

7-2nd-day-towards-geiseljoch

29-4th-day-leaving-rodeneck

22-3rd-day-first-sun-ever

33-4th-day-astjoch-peak-2170m

35-4th-day-searching-for-parts

48-5th-day-viel-dal-pan

54-5th-day-fedaia-mamolada

69-7th-day-pizza-for-2-each

73-7th-day-almost-there

75-7th-day-taking-a-bath-in-freaking-cold-water