Backcountry Tour In Lenzerheide

Yesterday, Sunday, three of us took a backcountry tour that started and ended in the resort of Lenzerheide. This was the first real backcountry riding that I've done - it was excellent.

First off, we were real lucky with the weather. It snowed a fair bit on Saturday and then it was a total blue bird on Sunday. Given the poor quality of the season in Europe this year, we picked a beauty of a day for a backcountry tour. Awesome.

We had to drive around 40 minutes from Flims to Lenzerheide, but with the morning traffic it was close to an hour. But that was no problem, all part of the adventure. It was pretty cool travelling to a smaller, less well known resort.

We did the tour with a group of 12 people, which is pretty big. There were two guides as well as Jason from Snowmotions who is well versed in backcountry knowledge/safety. He also has a lot of local knowledge, living very close to Lenzerheide. The average ability of the group was pretty good, nothing to slow us down really - it was only the size of the group that limitted us.

So, starting in Lenzerheide we did a loop that included five good lines, with maybe one of them being close to 40 degrees. Certainly the guides were a little nervous around that area. After the first loop, we were running behind schedule so we headed back up to the top and then rode back down into the town. The last run was great, I put a great line in on a fairly steep section and the feeling was insane. All in all, we covered close to 30 km of terrain.

Snowmotions set everything up for us - including the good timing with the weather, they'd been watching the forecast. I'm so pleased because I've thought about getting a guide a couple of times in the past but never really knew what to expect. Having someone else recommend something and then set it all up for you is great. A big thanks from the three of us who did the tour.

Overall it was an excellent day. I learnt alot, progressed some, we took a little bit of film and most importantly, we had a lot of fun. It was a real adventure. Starting with the drive to Lenzerheide, heading into the backcountry, being close to Arosa, spotting the peaks of Davos, meeting new people, talking with the guides, laying down fresh lines - excellent!

I definitely want to do more backcountry in the future. I'll definitely take another tour with a guide. I think I'd want to pay more to have a smaller group so that we can cover more terrain - but there's no complaints for this introductory tour. If it's something you've been thinking about my advice is to give it a go. It will open your eyes. Amazing.

I'll post the footage when I get a chance...