2. Maxi Avalanche Trail, Ainsa
Length: 18.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,654 feet
Elevation Loss: 4,902 feet
This combination of trails gets its name from a mass-start enduro race that begins above treeline, quickly funneling into super-exposed, highly-technical, and very narrow singletrack. I had a hard enough time staying on my bike without mashing at race pace or worrying about a pack of riders coming up behind me—I can’t imagine actually racing the Maxi Avalanche!
The first section of true trail (after some pedally double/singletrack to access the route from the shuttle drop) is extremely narrow, with loose rolling stones on top offering up a hard landing on sharp scree boulders if you go flying off the edge of the trail. You’ll have to ask my G-Form pads for the full story on that one. Also, be sure to watch the narrow trees so as not to clip a handlebar—again, I’ve got a scab that can fill you in on that one.
I quickly learned that what I at first thought qualified as exposed singletrack was not nearly exposed, thanks to cliffside riding and jaw-dropping views of the rocky mountainside behind us. We spent significant time traversing the mountainside before eventually turning downhill through a war zone of rock gardens, before entering a small village.
As we passed from that ancient village toward the next one, we funneled between two rock walls, riding a singletrack trail separating two farmers’ fields. While it looked unsuspecting from above, this section turned out to be one of the most technical rock gardens of the entire trip, with an endless array of sharp-edged rocks, massive boulders, and consistent 2+ foot drops into even more chunder.
To access the final segment of trail, we had to grind uphill on a paved road for a mile or so, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been for the 104-degree heat. Pro tip: don’t visit the Ainsa region during July-September.
After being brutalized up on the mountainside, our final stretch of singletrack provided a sweet reward: a natural flow trail with unplanned berms, rollers, kickers, and a few built-up gap jumps and true booters. This sweet section of trail was home to one of the Enduro World Series stages when the race series visited Ainsa in 2015.
At 18.7 miles, with 1,654 feet of climbing and 4,902 feet of descending, the Maxi Avalanche was one of the longest single routes of our trip, but it was well-worth it!
