The original plan for this Trail E-Xplorer Episode was to ride up to 1500m. With the recent snow fall, however, Holger and Nino have to stay at low altitude. The first tour follows the Rheine Gorge - the “Swiss Grand Canyon”.

GPX for trails around Chur: here

“The nice thing about Graubünden is that all trails are legal to ride. Please stay polite and respectful with the hikers.

The trail is constantly going up and down along the river. Sun is out, but its freezing cold. We ride our E-MTBs on a hill below the Calanda. The Calanda is a 2804 m high mountain massif in the northwest of Chur, which forms the transition to the Glarnerland. With Nino in the front, you better hold on to the handlebar and focus on the trail. The terrain drops steeply into the canyon. There are lots of options with some playful technical climbs. We follow the trails and cross the river on the Isla Bella Bridge. Large parts of the deep gorge do not see a ray of sun in the winter months. That means caution on the trail! We have to climb up on the other side to get to Versam, a little village with a Restaurant and a small grocery shop. From there, we go down the road, cross the bridge and take a trail called 901er on Trailforks. It’s an exposed trail, so be careful. Sun is down, it’s time to go back to Chur. We will find some charging stations in the nature if you are out of battery. Trains are as also really convenient.”
- Holger M.

With the trails finishing right in the city, the Alpen Bike Park is Nino’s backyard. Following the season, it’s possible to take a gondola or, like Nino and Holger, ride up.

There are many options for every level of riding and every type of riders, with some single tracks and some more man shaped tracks. In the bikepark, you can find black DH Runs, over to red lines and to blue fast flow lines. The Terrain is pretty steep though, that means: black is black.

For more info and GPX tracks.

“We choose the blue one. From the top you can see all the way to Lenzerheide. This panoramic view confirms our decision to ride at lower altitude. There is lots of snow up there.

The speed is high, and the fun is great, this is Nino’s playground. Here, there are a lot of jumps and banked turns that you can only find in bigger bike parks. Quite cool to have something like this as your home track on the doorstep. Nino says there are more lines to discover. I say I had not expected such a variety! This place is cool, I need to come back.

The last part we rock´n roll down the black downhill track which spits us out directly into the old town of Chur. Its Lunchtime!”
- Holger M.