Portal Trail photo by dauw.
Last week the Team Fezzari blog posted a list of the 8 most dangerous MTB trails in the world and while they admit it’s not a scientific list, it’s an interesting start. Old favorites like Porcupine Rim in Moab and Yungas Road in Bolivia made the list but so did Bootleg Canyon outside Vegas and Black Mountain in western North Carolina. Then again, most mountain bike trails are only as difficult as you make them anyway…
Here on singletracks we’ve been asking our members to rate trail difficulty on the IMBA scale that closely parallels the standard ski slope rating many of us are familiar with. On that scale, double black diamond is the most difficult rating and so far less than 1% of the 3,100+ trails on singletracks have warranted that mark. Here they are in order of increasing difficulty (only trails with at least 2 reviews are included):
Deer Creek Canyon: Littleton, CO
Tower: San Luis Obispo, CA
Lunatic Fringe: Green River, WY
Ridgeway Loop: Elijay, GA
Moraine State Park: New Castle, PA
Portal Trail: Moab, UT
Dirt Diggler Dh: Fernie, BC, Canada
Wasatch Trail: Telluride, CO
Elizabeth Furnace: Front Royal, VA
5 Miles Of Hell: Green River, UT
Garbanzo At Whistler: Whistler, BC, Canada
Oklahoma “Ankle Express” Hiking Trail: Braggs, OK
Hurricane Creek: Cullman, AL
R.B. Winter State Park: Mifflingburg, PA
Morgan Territory: Livermore, CA
North Star Ski Resort: Truckee, CA
Barr Trail (Pikes Peak): Colorado Springs, CO
Curiously Porcupine Rim is rated just a single black diamond by singletracks members so that tells you something about our list above! What other dangerous MTB trails are we missing?
12 Comments
Mar 15, 2010
Aug 6, 2014
Nov 19, 2011
Mar 16, 2010
Our Facebook fans mentioned one trail where the biggest danger is perhaps mountain lions on the trail. Now that's something the rating doesn't take into account! :)
Mar 15, 2010
Mar 15, 2010
The Yungas Road is a dangerous road, not a dangerous MTB ride (but it is on my to-do list!). The Flume Trail is a great trail with fantastic scenery but its not a great MTB trail like Ive heard it classified, its all relative.
I like our rating system best even though it isnt without its flaws. I have not ridden most of the trails on our list but would go fighting backing up the fact it is fairly accurate. The Porcupine ridge trail probably didn’t make it because of the types of riders who set out on that trail, they have a pretty good idea of what to expect before they do. There are some nasty areas and some serious exposure where a mistake could really cost you. And a lot of these are towards the end when your legs are tired from the previous 15 miles, so yea its dangerous. Seeing Northstar ski resort on there makes me laugh- I know why its there; novice riders come up from the Bay area & Central Valley to ride it and have the adrenaline rushed time of their lives which is great, but they in turn think its dangerous and give it a black diamond rating. While living in Reno I would drive up there and instead of taking the lift would ride up the mountain and then bomb down. Exciting yes, dangerous? No.
How someone rates a trail is all relative to the experiences they have had up to this point in their riding career. By using the standard from IMBA we can at least have a guideline to go by.
Nov 18, 2011
I'd have to add to the list the Rock Creek trail above Arlington Wyoming--super-long, razor sharp (bring some extra tubes!) scree fields above insane exposure where a fall might be your last. A true adventure to be sure!
Aug 6, 2014
Mar 16, 2010
Mar 16, 2010
Exposure is what I think of when I think of really, really dangerous, and it looks like that's what the authors of the original list cited had in mind.
-Greg
http://gregridestrails.com
Sep 16, 2014
Aug 11, 2010