Blog Posts in Category: Mountain Biking

2021 in 100 Photos

Alastair BegleyGeneral, Landscape, Mountain Biking, Mountaineering, Paragliding, Wildlife Short Link

Another year has passed and what a year it was with some outstanding high points due to living so close to the alps, but also with plenty of covid induced low points in the first half of the year. The year started with the first variant and a full on lockdown in the UK, which resulted in Becky being unable to travel backwards and forwards as required for her job and me staying in the UK until mid February. It was my first full year living in Munich and I certainly made the most of living an hour from the alps and regularly had my mind blown about what I could achieve without even taking any annual leave! I am not sure I have ever had a year in which I have spent so much time in the mountains, and I am really looking forward to Becky also discovering this properly this year! Winter After heading back to Germany in mid February winter was looking pretty bleak, with most of the snow in Bavaria having melted and no travel possibilities to the higher mountains in Austria. However, the lack of. Read the full article…

Enningalm MTB

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Mountain Biking Short Link

I finally headed out on my MTB after 14 months of being in Munich, so what better for a first outing than 40km with 1200m of ascent! We headed off from Graswing early in the cold early in the morning, and just about warmed up before the descent down the old road to Oberau. This was pretty enjoyable having not been out on the MTB for so long, but it wasn’t technical. Next we made the mistake of following my quick sketch of the route, which gave us a tough ascent which was unridable, but the descent sort of made up for it. The first section was wonderful single track, although it being entirely covered by leaves did make it a bit more interesting. Unfortunately the single track wasn’t that long and we were soon on fire road again for the final descent to the valley. When we reached the valley the cycling was still beautiful, but we certainly had the wrong bikes! However this gave us the opportunity to chill out and recover some energy prior to the big ascent up to Enningalm. An ascent of 900m on my. Read the full article…

2020 in 100 Photos

Alastair BegleyGeneral, Landscape, Mountain Biking, Mountaineering Short Link

Well I think it is fairly safe to say that this year did not go as planned! We were meant to be getting married in August, however the global pandemic put that on hold until 2021. The year continued to be full of surprises, on my last day in work before I had to isolate due to the COVID rules I had an interview for a secondment to Germany. While clearly the middle of a global pandemic is not the best time to try and move country, we decided to take a risk and I accepted the role in Munich. This means that I now live an hour from the Alps, and hopefully Becky will as well when travel becomes easier again in the near future. Winter / Pre Lockdown The first two months of the year started well with plenty of mountain biking, some landscape photography and an enjoyable Scotland trip, it was just a shame that yet again I managed to injure myself on the Scotland trip so was confined to the hut for half of the week. While this meant I wasn’t able to get out and. Read the full article…

Mendips MTB

Alastair BegleyMountain Biking Short Link

After a long hiatus due to lockdown it was great to be back out on the mountain bike at the weekend. We took it nice and easy and headed for a well known loop from the top of Burrington Combe. As expected after the recent rain the route was fairly muddy, but nothing like the worst that the mendips can throw at you. We enjoyed the initial descent along the top edge of the coombe, before descending to the bottom of Rowberrow Warren and the all too familiar climb back up to the top. Thankfully all my road biking at left me fairly fit so the climb was fairly easy. Taking it easy we headed down the official blue run in the woods, and it has bedded since I last did it and was much more enjoyable. Maybe it was due to it being less wet, although there were some sections which seemed fairly difficult for a “blue”. We took the direct (read steep) ascent back up to the top of Rowberrow Warren, and then headed up to Beacon Batch before the final descent back to the car. It was. Read the full article…