STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Biking Baldy, for many, starts the moment they retrieve their bicycle from the gondola ride up.
They swing their legs over their seat and bounce down the stairs to the Christmas chairlift that will take them to the top.
Others push their bikes down the short hill to the lift, hopping aboard the chair to the top where they begin their gravity-induced ride downward.
Sun Valley Resort may have been founded as America’s first destination ski resort. But, nowadays, its Bald Mountain is getting a lot of traction as a premier mountain bike destination.
Certainly, you can ride uphill here.
You can pedal push your way up the perimeter of the Warm Springs side on a trail that will take you cross country across the backside of Baldy with great views of the rugged mountain ridges that lie beyond.
You can head up the midsection of the mountain on the Bald Mountain Trail.
Or you can even bicycle up the southern perimeter on the Cold Springs Trail, which reopened this past week following a reroute designed to make it more user friendly with more shaded single track and switchbacks.
The 6.7-mile trail, which meets up with the Warm Springs Trail, even features a lookout where you can put up your feet and enjoy the scenery overlooking Greenhorn Gulch
But most bicyclists come here for a lift-accessed experience that opens onto an array of freeride or flow trails with smooth, wide riding surfaces, banked corners and rollers, augmented by more technical downhill trails that are narrower and more rugged with roots and rocks to cross.
“They’re fun, fast and flowing. You don’t have to pedal. You can just ride,” said Emily White, a Wood River Valley cyclist.
Bald Mountain boasts America’s longest purpose-built downhill, with 3,100 feet of thrilling lift-accessed trails.
If you think Sun Valley’s trails are mind bending, you wouldn’t be far off.
That’s the name of one of two new trails the resort opened this summer, along with some remakes of others designed to riders a fun, challenging top-to-bottom experience.
“In building Mindbender and Pale Rider, we wanted to create something that didn’t exist anywhere else in the area, as well as something that would appeal to the broadest range of riders,” said Julian Tyo, who has overseen trail construction on Bald Mountain since it got underway a decade ago.
Connectivity and the ability to make short laps on the lower mountain using the gondola are some of the biggest benefits of the new trails, said Tyo.
Mindbender starts near the Cold Springs chairlift, just a stone’s throw away from the gondola’s exit.
The 3.5-mile flow trail zigzags for several turns before stretching out and offering some of the biggest jumps you’ll find anywhere on the hundreds of miles of bike trails in the Sun Valley area. It connects to the easier River Run Trail to the bottom or the Sun Valley’s first double-black diamond trail--Pale Rider.
“Mindbender has large jump features that engage expert riders but the features can be rolled by intermediate riders, as well,” said Tyo.
“It’s wider, big jumps. It’s like a roller bowl,” said Kjirsten Brevik. “It’s a lot of fun. It flows real well, and I’d say it’s something that even beginners with experience could try.”
The new Pale Rider trail is just 1.2 miles. But, oh, what a mile-long trail!
This “new school” trail is the steepest, fastest trail on the mountain designed for expert riders to push themselves, said Tyo.
Accessible from the Traverse Trail and Mindbender, it makes short turns down skier’s right alongside the Lower River Run ski run.
It incorporates natural rock in a way that’s not featured on Bald Mountain’s other trails, mixing in the natural feel of rock and small boulders with jumps and berms as it descends 530 feet in rapid succession.
“Pale Rider is more technical, steeper, narrower—with bowls,” said White.
“Lots of jumps—fun and fast,” said Rich Bingham, an avid mountain biker from Ketchum.
The trails join an array of other trails, including the Lupine Trail, which opened two years ago. That trail provided a nice cruise traversing the sides of slopes above the Seattle Ridge area, offering lovely views looking to the south of Bald Mountain.
The 2.1 mile flow trail is a fast flowing traverse starts from the Broadway Connector and finishes at the Christmas Lift with a few banked turns at the end and can be used by those wanting to do quick laps utilizing the Christmas chair.
Riders can look forward to more in the future. Sun Valley Resort plans additional trails on Bald Mountain, including two trails approved in its 2012 Master Plan that was approved by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
“Mountain biking has become a major part of summer in Sun Valley—and not just on the mountain,” said Sun Valley’s spokesperson Kelli Lusk. “We have more than 400 miles of single-track trails between Galena Lodge and our lift-served trails. And it’s so easy to connect from one to the other to go to Adam’s Gulch or even get on the paved Wood River bike path. And to have a steady downhill like we do is pretty cool.”
IF YOU GO…
Bald Mountain lift hours run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from June to September.
Mountain bike lift tickets good for unlimited rides during the day are $42 for adults and $30 for youth and seniors 65 and older. They’re available at River Run Lodge at the bottom of the mountain.
The Roundhouse Restaurant, a stone’s throw from the gondola, offers burgers and beverages from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lookout Lodge offers beverages in vending machines. And the River Run Lodge at the base of River Run offers grab-and-go deli, with breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads and other snacks.
Bicycles can be rented or tuned at Pete Lane’s Bike Center, which also offers bike lessons and guided biking tours. Or, in town at outdoor shops like The Elephant's Perch.