people

The Epic Epicness of Ireland’s Most Epically Scary Trail

Next time you think the drops on Poison Spider or the end of Porcupine Rim are something to watch out for, consider the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland, where Hans Rey put in yet another epic riding session. Almost 700 feet and dead sheer, they’re the kind of mountain biking hazards that’ll make you back off your cleat tension—or just plain back off.

“Locals warned us of the upward drafts, which blow people off the cliffs – and sure enough the wind was picking up,” writes Rey on his website. “Even though the conditions and weather were less than good, this was our one and only chance to ride the cliffs, so we did. It was a rad feeling to ride along the exposed edges and jump over some of the gaps.”

The last time I saw Hans he was still banged up from a broken left foot after he dumped it riding Telonix trail in Laguna Beach, but he was fired up about a new project called Wheels 4 Life. Like many, he’d fallen in love with Africa and had launched a program to get inexpensive bikes to the villagers he’d met in Tanzania. As of February, W4L had delivered 135 bikes to Tanzania–and lots more in other places.

As for Ireland, the singletrack to the top of the cliffs “was one of the more spectacular trails I have ridden”, Hans wrote, and that’s saying something—this guy has ridden in Cuba, Egypt, Brazil, and Borneo, among an atlas’s worth of other epic spots. To see more photos and read about the whole adventure, check out his trip report here.

All photos by Victor Lucas.

---

---

© 2009 the adventure life.