Sharjah Jonsson climbs the elephant head via farrata for the trail down rewards - Bike and Destroy

Living in the modern day age of bikes with access to trail networks, bike parks, uplifts and pre set routes there’s an instant gratification of trails at our fingertips. Heading out to ride what hasn’t been ridden before and discovering new ways of getting to trails is something that has always been something that gets me a little bit more excited, riding your way down a trail blind with an unknown of what is about to come up in front of you around the next corner is a truly free feeling.

Last summer I spent the season living in Morzine in the French alps riding some of the best bike parks and off piste trails in the world but I needed something more, I needed something new, completely new. Sitting in the carpark one afternoon with friends living in vans for the summer season with us we started speaking about La Tête De l’Éléphant Via Ferrata above Saint Jean d’Aulps that was only a 15 minute drive down the road from us, a 300m via ferrata up a rock face with the promise of a steep loamy trail back down as well as a completely new way of getting to the top of a trail made this a perfect mission for me, pure adventure and unknown experience.

We set out and started a technical uphill climb that got to the point of hiking up with my bike and finally got to the rock face, looking up at 200m of rock cliff above you with a metal wire running up it is a daunting feeling. I strapped my bike into my pack and set off on my first via ferrata climb… After an hour of climbing with sweaty palms and shaky knees I got to the top and the trail that awaited me was something I could have only dreamed of with steep and loamy gulleys, tight technical switch back and raw fast root sections. This was an amazing experience as well as a new way of finding fresh trails and has me already looking at new routes to climb with new possibilities on the horizon.