Andorra Enduro Trails

Snowline II

Descent 20km / 1150m
Uplift: 750m Climb: 450m

This trail originated back in May 2013 when unexpected heavy June snow forced us into new territory, but we have reworked it as a regular fixture in 2015 when we found the amazing new “Helter Skelter” descent, which fits into the old route beautifully!

A van uplift drops us high above the valley at Canillo, from where we make our way gradually north along the valley wall, sometimes descending – including “The Slab” which takes some commitment to ride –  sometimes climbing, before reaching the “21 Questions” descent (21 switchbacks of varying intensity!) to the valley floor.

After lunch we jump onto the gondola and head back up to the top of the treeline and head for the entrance to the insane “Helter Skelter” – a furious descent on the finest loam you have ever seen, all of it super-narrow singletrack. It’s almost lacking technical features, but it does have a few corners – SEVENTY TWO of them!! There’s barely a switchback in sight, but lots of steering – almost everyone simply adores this trail, which drops us onto the “The Basement”. This technical, contouring singletrack gradually loses height all the way back to the bar where we meet the van…

Sky fall

Descent 1700m / 18km
Uplift: 1300m Climb: 400m

Skyfall is an absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful route, and many of the pictures we upload are taken here! We start the day by uplifting to the top of the same road we use for “Ridgeliner”, starting the ride at 2408m. We follow the same outward section for the first few km too..but rather than taking the “Lawnmower” descent to Soldeu we stay high and head across to the top of the infamous Skyfall descent.

We are at very, very high altitude here, and the technicality of the singletrack reflects this too – but it gets less demanding as you come back towards the valley floor. The first section is steep and switchbacking on loose stony scree, dropping you to a beautiful mountain lake where we often have lunch and sometimes a swim!

We continue downwards into a huge bowl, still above 2100m – this second section is studded with big, grippy, round rocks – it’s all about momentum maintenance if you want to clear it. It can be done! Don’t worry; from here it gets a lot easier – there’s a short push to get over the corner of the mountain, and then the second half of the descent begins.

From here it is far less steep, and becomes more and more flowing the further you go. Entering the treeline the rocks give way to pine-needles and loam – and it is endless… it just goes on and on all the way to the valley floor! Every so often there’s a technical section to deal with, but the contrast to the earlier sections is amazing. Once we reach Soldeu we hit a trail we mentioned earlier – “The Basement” – but from this point it is twice as long. This trail undulates its’ way down the valley for several kilometres, losing roughly another 400m along the way. There’s some large descents, some short ups and some crazy features: at one point you have to cross a wildly swinging suspension bridge over a river…and later you’ll find yourself clambering through a ravine holding onto guide chains! The final descent starts with a switchback that has only ever been ridden twice by guests before plunging back into Canillo for an end-of-ride “hops based recovery beverage” whilst we wait for the van to collect us!

Enduro Uplift Day

Descent 3350m / 47km
Uplift: 2750m Climb: 600m

Our original hits now in one amazing compilation album!

Locals Only is an all-time, nailed on classic – it has absolutely everything you could wish for. It’s a super-fast and flowing 10km descent on amazing singletrack down a wooded ridge, punctuated by little technical features: all very rideable, but somehow tricky looking! There’s lots of loamy flow, a gorge with natural jumps and a beautiful meadow section overlooking La Massana. It’s  one of the best trails we have ever seen, anywhere – very fast and furious in places and we’d challenge anyone of any level to not absolutely love it!

Big Cat is more chilled out ,with long non-technical sections punctuated by some bits that will test even the most hardened riders! From the top it’s 20km of gradual descent back to town. MBR loved this route, particularly the infamous “Rocky Horror” – if you clear this you are doing a damn good job: it’s not steep or scary…just really tough! It featured on the cover of the magazine in fact…  Further down there’s the magical “Endor” section, where you speed through the trees on perfect, loamy singletrack full of turns & switchbacks…

OCD  (Off Col D’Ordino) plunges 600m down to Ordino: en route you’ll find one of the fastest bits of singletrack we ride anywhere, gnarly rock & root staircases, switchbacks and even a gulley of slickrock which winds its way through stream crossings and over wooden bridges. We call this section “Soggy Bottom” because almost every week someone misses a bridge and ends up sliding into the stream…  There’s also the option to do a short-but-tough climb/push to “TechNeep”; a phenomenal descent that gives you another 400m of perfect flowing woodland singletrack with huge views, culminating in 15 fantastic switchbacks which bring us out handily close to a sunny village square full of bars!

Finally we can even throw in the option of another trail, “Rochefort” (named by former French-born guide Keev; you can literally translate it as hardrock) which adds in a further 600 vertical metres of descending! This one is intense; steep, highly technical and not for the faint hearted – you need very good skills to tackle this trail well – we have had very experienced riders tell us that it is the most challenging trail they have ever ridden. Unrelenting, unforgiving and unmissable if you want to be challenged!

We normally choose a couple of these as a day out, or start early and run them all together as part of a huge uplift day (15E supplement) . In low season we can make a day’s riding out of any one of them if you fancy a gentle pedal up to look at the views.