LIGHTING UP IGNITION 2019
After a few attempts we finally made it up to Falls Creek for the opening of the mountain bike season.
For the last few years we’ve been meaning to venture up to Falls Creek for Ignition – a celebration of the opening weekend of the mountain biking season. Every year for the last few years we’ve been double booked. Normally for Giro della Donna with the CyclingTips crew, more recently general life events. With the calendar clear and skies clearer, we were able to make our way up the hill to shred this special alpine village for the first time.
Most of the stars aligned for this weekend in late November. The weather was looking primo, we had not been double booked, Kip had secured a lender bike. The only star that didn’t align was Adrian’s search for a new mountain bike coming up short. BMC were no longer sending their big wheel bikes into the country, and his fresh Plan B: Rocky Mountain? Well they wouldn’t have stock of the 2020 models until the new year.
Fortunately Aaron from BlueDirt (the event organisers) was able to tee up a demo Stumpjumper 29er for Adrian to jump aboard for the weekend, locking one down before rentals for that weekend were opened to the general public.
Grazie mille, now let’s get to the shred.
I: BUSHFIRE SZN
So we wouldn’t be setting up camp in pitch black conditions, we opted to stay a night at Adrian’s family farm down the road. The late afternoon sun leaving the surrounding fruit trees and bushes absolutely glowing. That’s the nice part.
The bad part was the bushfire down the road. A few nights before this pocket of Victoria’s High Country was littered with dry lightning strikes, creating a number of small spot fires in the Mitta Valley, Kiewa Valley, and over near Stanley.
Under the watchful eyes of forestry management, the CFA and the starry sky, smoke and the ominous red glow sent us to sleep, and would burn for another few weeks before being extinguished.
II: GREEN
GREEN TRAILS:
Induction
Short Circuit
Greenline
Back Country Huts Ride
The next day we were up at mid morning, the festivities up at Falls Creek weren’t kicking off until 10am, so it meant we could take our time getting up the mountain. A regulation stop off at Mount Beauty Foodworks we in order to get some last minute supplies and snacks.
Half an hour of snaking our way uphill later and we had arrived at Falls Creek, itching to get out of the car and onto the bikes. The sun was out, the wind was light, and just as we pulled into the Ignition event village, we ran into our first friend of the weekend – none other than Riley from Essendon Cyclery, our local shoppe.
A quick catch up over lunch and we thought it was best we get to testing ourselves against the trails. As it was Kip’s first time on a mountain bike, we started off on some Green Lines to warm up before heading to more technical pastures.
Our longest Green ride was the Backcountry Huts ride hosted by some of the BlueDirt crew. We got a shuttle out to the Langford West Campground before jumping back on the bikes to ride back into the village along the aqueduct trail. It ended up being the perfect introduction to Backcountry Mountain Biking, with the views off towards the eastern slopes of the Bogong High Plains and the blossoming wildflowers giving you picture perfect conditions.
Admittedly the riding wasn’t all that difficult, but then again this was a green rated ride. Where the interest came was from the guides taking us through a few notable alpine huts along the way including the Cope Hut, Bogong Rover Chalet and the Wallace Hut to name a few.
We were spat out of the Bogong Backcountry at the Bogong High Plains Road just a few kilometres from the village. All that was left for us to do was cruise back down to the village and hit something a little more challenging.
As it was a few months since the end of the cyclocross season, we needed to tune our skills up a little bit, so we spent a bit of time on the green trails between the Falls Creek Village and the Rocky Valley Dam. Soon we were feeling pretty confident to head off onto more technical territory, so we linked up with Riley, Stace and some friends for lunch before it was time to hit the blues.
III: BLUE
BLUE TRAILS:
Packhorse
Flowtown
Vortex
The Ignition event village had plenty going on, with music, a couple of food options and plenty of chairs paired with umbrellas for post trail chilling. We grabbed some of those life-changing pastries Harry sampled last summer, plus a few sweet pastries to bring the sugar levels up to something suitable for the trails that lie ahead.
First up was a special edition of Packhorse. Normally a XC climbing trail, it had been switched up to a descent just for Ignition – a privilege normally only reserved for those racing McKayos. Dropping down particular sections made it hard to believe it was a pure climbing trail, but we’ll leave that to be debunked by the XC purists. What we do know is that it’s a pretty one, with a couple of water falls, and some super nice rocky sections to navigate and take in on your way towards the ticket box and shuttle stop at Howman’s Gap.
As we waited for our shuttle back up to the village we came face to face with mortality at its most brutal. For summers upon summers we had leant upon the cold glory of the Howman’s Gap vending machine.
First it was outside the Howman’s Gap YMCA bus shelter. Then it moved a little further up the road to the ticket box itself. Stocking $2 cans of coke and sponsor correct cans of Solo: The Thirst Crusher, we owed so much to this vending machine we event put it on a collaborative t-shirt with Ride High Country.
Empty, unplugged and shifted away from the wall we weren’t sure if this was the end, but nonetheless we paid our respects in the t-shirt that bears its likeness no less. We hope to see you again soon old friend.
A short bus ride back up to the village and we were already amping to drop down another blue line, this time it would be the rather famous Flowtown. We spent the first half of the trail stopping and regrouping over and over, but it wasn’t until we took on the whole second half uninterrupted that we discovered why it got it’s name – a series of beautifully sculpted lines, jumps and berms. But more on those later.
IV: BLACK
BLACK TRAIL:
Big Fella
With the additional completion of Vortex, 3 blue lines ticked off were deemed enough banked experienced for both Kip and Adrian to take on their first ever black line. A TroopCarrier took us to the summit trailhead up above the village, where we had a few options to choose from. We would choose the aptly named Big Fella.
Big Fella starts off Green, cruising along the crest of the mountain alongside the main access road to the summit trailhead. We would all get sent the wrong way by another rider, thus fully completing the green section, and completely avoiding the black section. A short ride back to the fork in the road rectified this as we dropped down into a series of rocky drops and slight kinks before things flattened out again. Anyway, watch the video to show you how extreme things get.
V: THE PRETTY VALLEY
Wanting to make the absolute most of the pristine conditions up on the Bogong High Plains, we’d crash there for Saturday night – the Pretty Valley Camping Ground, right by the lake of the same name our chosen campsite.
We followed the same road up towards the summit trailhead, waving goodbye to the Rocky Valley Dam before turning left and heading over the mountain and into the Bogong High Plains proper, gradually descending towards the Pretty Valley Dam, surrounding camping grounds and adjacent cattle yards.
The dam would be where we washed off the day’s dust, and clean out any small scratches and grazes from passing trees and branches. The temperatures weren’t all that high, but the harshness of the sun at the higher altitude left us baking. Instant relief came as we waded into the dam, watching competitors of the weekends Alpine Ultramarathon coming through their final feed station en route to the finish inside the Falls Creek Village.
It was hard to believe that nobody in the rather busy camping ground had taken the camping site we picked out. Nestled in a small clearing and surrounded by snow gums, rocks and wildflowers we were well sheltered from the wind, and protected from the morning sun, allowing for a decent enough sleep in. Throughout the night we would hear runners treading past our tent along the main road through the camping ground, their rhythmic footsteps sending us to sleep.
Sunday morning greeted us with clear skies, albeit with smoke from the nearby bushfires down the valley slowly creeping their way across the plains. Our camping set up packed itself into the car rather quickly, before we played a game of scissors, paper, rock to see who would have to ride back into Falls Creek, and who would drive.
All you need to know is the car would only fit one mountain bike, and Kip doesn’t have his license. That spec on the horizon where the road meets the hillside – that’s him, about to bomb down into the village.
V: ALBURY BASE
It was about 3pm on the Sunday afternoon. Shuttles were finishing at 4pm. About two thirds of the way down a much more comfortable run at Flowtown we passed some paramedics out on the trail putting someones shoulder back in place. We rolled very slowly past, and continued onto the last kilometre of Flowtown, the section that really gives it its name.
We ran it once all together, pausing before the last berm of a handful before pausing and doubling back. Some of our group chose to spectate and photograph, some were on bikes. As the only person with a GoPro, Kip followed those on bikes, taking the B Lines while they took the A’s. So far so good.
That was until the last jump of the section. Maybe it was a moment of bravado, a moment of divine intervention from the gods of Red Bull Rampage. Maybe there was a millisecond where Kip felt his inner Brandon Semenuk come to the fore as he rounded the preceding berm. Whatever it was, he opted to take the A Line, almost landing it, but absolutely not.
He was up and standing almost as quickly as he hit the deck, stumbling off the course as friends picked up his bike and brought it down onto the grass. As he rubbed his back and stretched out on the ground, the paramedics we had seen just minutes before happened on the scene by sheer good fortune.
As he was tended to by the trail medics, and then ambulance paramedics, we watched handful of other riders almost come to grief on the same jump – either the same way Kip did, or by overestimating their air-levels, miraculously pulling off some stupendous flat landings.
Aided by painkillers and shaded by a Giant: Bleed Blue snapback, it was time to get Kip moving, only that his back wasn’t quite in agreement. Nothing seemed broken, but we’d definitely need to stretcher him down the last 300m of the trail and down into the ambulance.
He’d earned himself a joyride back up the Kiewa Valley and into Albury Base Hospital. Adrian would pick him up later that night after a 10.30pm discharge. Just around the corner we’d stop off at McDonalds, the ice cream machine was broken so Kip’s cravings for a Sundae couldn’t be absolved. He described the heartbreak being more painful than the crash.
Safe to say we’ll be back again next year.