[Jayem]

Anyone catch this? A coworker brought it to me this week. Seems someone was messed up bad on one of the new trails last year, paralyzed, etc. What is interesting is that they claimed you have to do the features/jumps, rather than just roll them or roll around them. As far as I remember, everything was built with ride-arounds and mild enough to roll over if you want to do it like that. Took a couple rides before I was comfortable last year with the necessary speed to clear all the obstacles, but nothing was outrageous, and IMBA evidently rated them as "intermediate". In any case, I didn't know anyone had been hurt, could have happened anywhere unfortunately.

 

[anchskier]

I'm actually surprised you didn't hear about it. It was all over the biking news up here for a good while. Just a case of bad luck really. Sounds like it was just a mistake on a double jump and ended about as badly as possible. A number of events such as the Frosty Bottom have donated proceeds towards his recovery. There were a couple other less serious injuries out there as well, but that was by far the worst.

Like you said, the trails are really only as dangerous as the specific rider makes them. They can be ridden slowly and very safely or at higher speed where more risk is involved and more skill is necessary. It is up to the rider to determine what they are capable of and what risk they are willing to accept. It was interesting to see a quote in this story from a comment I made on an earlier story a number of months ago.

 

[AKPeach]

The article if anyone wants to read it:

Thrilling new bike trails in Kincaid open in July, will host world race | Outdoors | ADN.com

 

[Jayem]

I'm actually surprised you didn't hear about it. It was all over the biking news up here for a good while. Just a case of bad luck really. Sounds like it was just a mistake on a double jump and ended about as badly as possible. A number of events such as the Frosty Bottom have donated proceeds towards his recovery. There were a couple other less serious injuries out there as well, but that was by far the worst.

Like you said, the trails are really only as dangerous as the specific rider makes them. They can be ridden slowly and very safely or at higher speed where more risk is involved and more skill is necessary. It is up to the rider to determine what they are capable of and what risk they are willing to accept. It was interesting to see a quote in this story from a comment I made on an earlier story a number of months ago.

I'm sometimes gone for a few weeks and miss things.