Harz 2010 - Trip 4 - part 3/3

Braunlage Bikepark. The newest bikepark in Harz - Germany. There is no doubt that this park is trying to establish itself as THE bikepark of the Harz, and goes head-on against such established bikeparks such as Hahnenklee Bikepark, that I visited the day before.
Ok, lets get it on, I bought a all-day ticked, and used my next 7 hours (!) to find out if there is more into this park than hype.This bikepark is HUGE, it has 4 main lines, DH, DH-Race, FR, and an "easy" Singletrack descend. Besides that there was a norhshore section, and a dirtjump section.

Want wall-rides? Go crazy:

(click to enlarge)

This place had loads of rocks and roots, a pleasent variation compared to the all-roots trails I had the day before. Oh, btw, want road-gaps? Go ahead, its even quite "beginner" friendly:

(click to enlarge)

Each of the main trails where divided into 3 (UP, MID, LOW section of the mountain) so that the riders could take a break before tackling the next section, the lines where very long(3000 - 4400m+), and I dont hesitate to say that they where 3 times longer than the ones we saw in Hahnenklee the day before. 

Some of the drops here where BIG:

(click to enlarge)

I wouldn't hesitate to estimate the drop on the far right to be at 4 meters, the transitions where fine, albeit a bit gnarly:

(click to enlarge)

Finally some rockgardens! The locals where battling this section, and for good reason, it was a very difficult section to ride fast:

You could easily interleave the different lines eg.; start with the FR line, ride into the DH, and end it all with the Northshore. I had alot of fun on the northshore section:

Small jumps and tables where present all over:

A small new section of the DH track opened up the very same day I was in the park. It featured 2 long berms (connected switch-back style), and a drop. The quality of this section was higher of what I otherwise saw here, so im confident that this park has a bright future if they keep up the standard. One looong berm:

(click to enlarge)

So was it all good? Nope, as this is a new park, some short commings where present. The upper sections of the mountain where less polished than the lower sections - particularly the FR line needed some more flow in the top, and some better transitions from some of the drops. Some lines still suffered from not being "bedded" in yet. However the lower sections of the mountain where some of the best in terms of speed and flow, some of it was just amazing fun and could be ridden pretty fast. I had a blast here, and its not the last time I visit this place.