My first and only time in Winterberg was in 2008 year and I remembered this place as fun and pleasure to ride. This year I decided to visit again this small mountain near Dortmund and I wasn’t dissapointed.
Bike Park Winterberg
The location of Winterberg means that we won’t see here alpine views or big mountains. When we arrived, our companion Paweł even said “guys, there are no mountains!”. However, the first profession was quickly replaced by a smile and joy of riding on local trails.
If you are wondering how wisely you can use a hill with less than two hundred meters in height, it means that you have never been to Winterberg. That’s right! The difference between the upper (778 m a.s.l.) and the lower station (599 m a.s.l.) of the chairlift is only 179 meters. The length of the lift is also a small 562 meters, but the number of trails and their length beats all our Polish bike parks. We have here 11 routes with a length of over 12 kilometers.
Trails
In Bike Park Winterberg you have eleven trails with different difficulty degrees. All trails are very well marked and before the entrance we’ll find special boards with all informations about trail. You can find there also some safety & needed skills tips.
Before you enter the trail you’ll see some safety information about trail you want to hit. Trail crossings are well marked and secured. Trail signs are visible and easy to get to routes.
All trails are maintained daily by bike park crew. It means that when we arrived to Winterberg at the very end of summer holidays, we could use almost perfectly prepared trails without many braking bumps or holes.
1. Beginners area
Beginners area is a special place next to bike park office and it’s perfect for warm up or start our journey with mountainbiking. You’ll find here few jump lines in all sizes, some berms, drops or pump track.
View from Continental Track entrance. And direct view from the bottom.
2. Continental Track
When I was here for the first time 11 years ago I remembered this trail as big pump track. However, memory can be unreliable and a lot of details just gone away. It’s a nice and flowy trail with a lot of perfectly shaped berms and small jumps. It’s very short, but it’ll warm you up very quickly!
3. RockShox Slopestyle
Slopestyle area is one of few in whole Europe when you can find big jumps available for everybody. Whole area can be divided into three zones. Zone one on the left it’s a few small tables & dirt jumps. They start with wooden drops, also in few sizes. This is the place when you can feel comfortable before hitting bigger jumps.
Second zone is on the right and it’s a well known trail from Red Bull Bergline contest. Very big jumps, absolutely massive wallride, whale tale or boner log – you’ll find all of them here & that’s all you need for a real slopestyle course.
Our favourite jump – whip off. Bartosz & his trademark tobogan.
Our favourite part was central zone and it was whip off jump. It’s a short line in the middle, but it has small drop, two step downs (one for small & one for big line) and massive jump in the end (also two sizes). This is the jump from whip off contest on iXS Dirt Masters festival.
It is also worth adding that when going down the slopestyle we do not have to go back up, because you can use a special connect line that will take you to the last section of the Pinball trail.
4. Woodpecker
It’s only few hundred meters of trail going beside of Continental Track, but it’s almost only wood obstacles. You’ll find here massive wallride, few drops and wooden bridges.
5. Jump Line
Jump Line is the newest trail in Bike Park Winterberg and it replaced four cross track which was the arena of many races on iXS Dirt Masters festivals. You’ll find here massive jumps, berms & two road gaps.
Start of the Jump Line is on old 4X track. 3rd straight & first massive jumps. Road gap number one.
That’s how jump line in bike park should look like. Obstacles are big and you need to get some skills, but they’re also very safe to hit. I did some too short or too long jumps and it wasn’t bad. When you find the flow it’s absolutely the best trail!
6. Pinball
With iXS Downhill track it’s the oldest one in Bike Park. You won’t find here many jumps, but there’s a lot of berms. It’s not very difficult trail, but due to very fast corners & a lot of flow, it’s very popular mainly among begginers and less advanced riders.
On the last section of Pinball trail you can change your route to big road gap. Unfortunatly, due to tragic incident on this years iXS Dirt Masters festival it was closed. At the end of our trip its reconstruction began, so I think it will be open again soon.
Northshore trail have some wooden obstacles. Left, right, fun for everyone.
7. Northshore
One of our favourite trails! Name says for itself, so you’ll find here a lot of wooden obstacles. For the first time they’re a little bit scary, but when you get used to them, they’re super fun! There’s a few wallrides, jumps, bridges and a lot of flow.
Wooden bridges, turns… …and some jumps.
8. Freeride
We also liked a lot Freeride trail. It’s very fast and flowy. Berm section in the middle section it’s a perfect example for how berms should look like. Eternal glory to those who won’t touch a brake on this corners ;)
9. iXS Downhill
This trail was used on iXS Downhill Cup events. It’s very flowy, wide and quite bumpy. As I don’t like black downhill trails (mainly due to my enduro bike), but this one was super fun.
The only thing missing here is decent steep slopes, but it fully compensates for the large variety and the need to have good skills to pass all obstacles on the route (we used chicken lines haha).
10. Black Line
Second black trail on the hill and it’s definitely not my favourite. But Bartek liked it a lot, but he’s in love with Bielsko’s Dziabar. In short, if you like natural, narrow, bumpy & tech enduro/dh trails, Black Line is for you!
11. SRAM Flow Country
This trail share start area with Continental Track & Woodpecker, but it goes in different direction. It’s a blue flow trail for beginners, it’s fully rideable, flowy & safe. But when you decide to don’t loose your brakes and use your full potential and skills, speeds around 70km/h are possible. First long straight in the woods will blow your mind and will make you go for another lap here.
Useful informations
- Official website bikepark-winterberg.de is available only in German. However you’ll meet on place a lot of people who are happy to help you. We even met our compatriots working for the Bike Park.
- Bike Park cooperates with Erlebnisberg Kappe hostel and they have a special 10% discount for lift passes when you stay at the hostel.
- Winterberg is probably the only Bike Park in Europe when we start riding from the summit. You need to remember that when you go on your last lap.
- Uphill from the bottom station will take you around 30 minutes. It’s useful information when the chairlift is closed due to storm weather. If that happens they’ll arrange you a car for uplift with bike, so you won’t be left alone on the bottom of the hill.
- Chairlift is open daily (15.04-3.11) between 9.30-17.25. Bike washer on the bottom station 9.30-17.25 and shop/office 9.00-18.00.
- You can park your car on the main road in the Bike Park area (cost 5€/day), but if you want a place there, better be earlier than later.
- By the main building and the main road you’ll find few several bars with food and drinks. You need to try fries with mayonnaise and currywurst!
- The price list for chairlift tickets are quite extensive, so I recommend to check it out on the Bike Park website. Full day normal ticket will cost you 33.50€ (reduced 24.50€, children 17.50€). Two day pass – 62€. The Gravity Card is accepted in Bike Park Winterberg.
- Route Warsaw – Winterberg is around 1050km. We did it via Wrocław/Lipsk/Kassel in 11 hours driving by night, but going back on the day was like 13h.
Summary
Builders and managers of Polish Bike Parks: “Go to Winterberg and learn!!”. Yes, I could sum it up like this.
First, because they build a lot of different trails which are safe, flowy and perfectly maintained. You won’t find a single obstacle which doesn’t fit.
Second, big jumps on slopestyle area or jump line are high, long and impressive, but they’re safe as possible. When you make a mistake your next step won’t be a hospital visit. Accidents happen to everyone, but here I think the not neeeded risk is minimized.
Third, everything. When we arrived here we saw a lot of happy people. Whole families have something to do here and they have fun. Also you won’t see a rat race well known from many Polish places. A lot of people have older or cheaper bikes and they’re happy with them, riding, talking, chilling.
Fourth, fun, fun and good humour. You’ll feel all of this when you come to Winterberg. Is it worth it? YES!
About Bike Park Winterberg
Official website: bikepark-winterberg.de
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