Saturday I did 3 loops of Tiger mountain with Frase - 2000 ft of climbing, ~11 miles, and about 1hr 25 minutes per loop. Our loop starts out with a 30 minute climb (if you climb up the road) up a 'fire road'. It varies from 8% to 22% the entire way up. Once you get to the single-track at the top you are rewarded with a very fast, flowy section to warm up your 'single track' legs and mind. This leads into a very technical (think cross between Klakes and Camp Fortune) descent that is fast and furious. I am learning to let the bike 'dance' under me and am getting faster and faster on the descent! For instance my climbing was 4- 6 min slower this weekend (still recovering I guess) but due to my faster descending my lap times were still 2-4 minutes faster than normal!
This technical descent drops you back onto a fire road; where you hammer a few miles of 2-15% rolling hills into another set of single-track. The final set of single-track is a twisty but relatively smooth gradual climb and some flat sections. There are some good up-and-overs in this section along with a crazy root drop off combo section that I always opt to walk. Maybe when it is bone dry ...
This section is pretty long and spits us back out on the fire road that we climbed up, where it is about 1/4 of a mile back to the car/pit.
It is a great loop to train on and we like to mix it up by changing the direction of the climb (of course, when we go to all the work of climbing up the single-track we just go right back down the single-track - not letting that hard work go to waste!!). I think it is great training for Canmore and love riding at Tiger!
To the right is one of the views from Tiger!
