Riding down the world’s steepest alpine ski course
Max Stöckl is used to breaking speed records on a mountain bike. In December 2016, he hit a top speed of 104mph in Chile’s Atacama Desert to break the speed record for a standard mountain bike. But the daredevil from Oberndorf, Austria, had never encountered anything like the legendary Hahnenkamm downhill ski course. The 3312-meter piste has a spine-chilling 27% average gradient — and it was covered in ice and snow.
The 43-year-old Stöckl was undeterred, though. Using a regular mountain bike that you could buy from a bike shop, and incorporating 15mm metal spikes on the tires for added grip, he sped his way down the famed track that’s universally regarded as the most difficult alpine ski slope in the world, hitting a top speed of 66mph.
“Racing down a straight icy hill is a totally different thing to anything else I have done,” said Stöckl. “It definitely reached and exceeded my expectations. It was more fun than I thought it would be. Coming down the final shoot and jump was a great rush.” Press play to see what he’s talking about.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecnfLfDLzyg
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