Downhill mountain biking season arrives in full force at Angel Fire Resort
Cody Olivas
The Angel Fire Bike Park opened for the season Friday (May 17) with an expanded selection of trails for 2013.
Cody Olivas | Updated
Dirt. In its raw form it’s not the most epic element. Like mountain bikers say, however: No dig, no ride.
The Angel Fire Bike Park, which already has 56 miles of singletrack trails, doesn’t plan to stop digging until its the biggest bike park in America. Bermed turns, jumps, drops, wall rides and man-made features are all part of the experience at Angel Fire. Some of the trails are perfect for never-evers while other trails will challenge even the most seasoned downhill mountain bikers. The huge system of trails is pretty, well, epic.
“We’re one of the most diverse riding destinations in North America,” Bike Park Director Hogan Koesis said. “The gamut of trails we offer lend themselves to a large spectrum of riders.”
Angel Fire opened for the season Friday (May 17). The scene was a mixture of stoked locals and stoked tourists making their annual “pilgrimage” to Angel Fire.
“We were super busy,” Koesis said. “It was good for a non-holiday weekend.”
The bike park was the first to open in the Rockies, and it will also be the last to close. The bike park will be open 108 days this season, until Oct. 27, up from 92 days last year. It will be open five days a week until June 20, then it will be open daily until Aug. 19, and then start scaling back operations in the fall.
It plans on building trails the entire time.
The bike park is hoping to open one of its new trails this weekend: Angel’s Plunge. “It’s a totally different part of the mountain,” Koesis said. “It’s like a flow trail — there’s a whole lot of berms.”
When building new trails, Koesis said they don’t try to force in any features, but rather adjust to the specific terrain they’re building on.
“Each trail has unique attributes,” Koesis said. “We tend to just make it fun.”
By the end of the year the plan is to have 60 miles of trails. By 2020, they’re hoping to have 100 miles of trails. Many of the new trails are expected to be blues.
Gravity Logic (the builders of Whistler’s bike park) will come lay out some of those new trails at Angel Fire this summer. “We’re super excited to bring those guys in,” Koesis said.
Angel Fire also changed its trail rating system this year, separating advanced trails into “more difficult” and “most difficult” categories. The green to double black classification should make it easier for riders to find the terrain that’s right for them.
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