By Ambassador Johannes Seehuber

It is mid-January, and most of the trails and bike areas are snow-covered. Everyone is out on the mountain skiing, snowboarding, and, enjoying the winter conditions. The parking lots of the ski resorts are overcrowded, the access roads are full. It’s jam-packed. Since the beginning of the autumn season, I have been working on a small local spot. A tiny slope in the middle of nowhere. Low in altitude, deep in the forest, not even close to any trail or bike spot, or any real mountain I normally ride during the season.

I found this spot last season while strolling around in my local forests. There were some tire tracks and implied shovel marks back then. I returned there until I found the landowner—a mountain biker himself, who left the traces. He kindly gave me permission to extend the spot on his property and to continue digging. Since then, my plan has been to create a *winter riding spot.*

After months of wet and muddy digging sessions, some weeks off and on due to darkness after work, Christmas days and so on it was finally time to bring out the camera for the first real riding session there. The spot is located low enough not to be snow-covered right now. The recent mostly wet and muddy berms were completely frozen. The ground was hard and grippy like asphalt. It rolled faster than ever. I already had to revise some sections immediately because of the speed gain. Every time I rolled through I found a small spot where I could change something, or do some work to make the trail ride and flow better.

The process of building a feature, riding it, improving it and flowing through it again is incredibly satisfying. Every trail builder will know… that’s why I do it and love it and why I’d rather be in the foggy woods than at a crowded snowy ski resort. I can’t wait to return to this spot whenever I have time to during the winter season. And the trail is already is so much fun that even this small slope is worth a visit not only in winter.

Cheers, Johannes

The Process 134 CR is still my favorite bike to play with.