PHYSICAL EXERTION: INTERMEDIATE+ / TECHNICAL ABILITY: ADVANCED

What to Expect From This Trip: BIG rides above treeline.  Epic descents in the Colorado high country that will blow your mind.  Don’t let the “shorter rides” fool you, these will be physically tough with rowdy, long descents that will have you shaking out the arm pump!

As we said above, don’t let the smaller stats on this trip fool you: because of the technical, rowdy descents on our Monarch Crest trip, this one is just as tough as the rest!  The mileage and climbing tend to be a bit easier, but you’ve got to have some solid technical ability to conquer this trip.  The riding off the Monarch Crest proper is true high-alpine tech with loooong descents of 5-7 miles and over 3,000′.  We’ll regularly be riding up above 10,000′ on this trip, so altitude is definitely a factor as well.

Recommended Bike:  Trail or Efficient Enduro

Airport Options: Colorado Springs (2.5 hours) – Denver (3+ hours)

EXAMPLE SCHEDULE FOR PLANNING PURPOSES

Day 1: Plan on arriving a little after lunch (1pm or so) to unpack and assemble your bike, plus we’ll do a brief introduction before heading out for our acclimation ride this afternoon.  Expect ~3 hours covering 10-12 miles and a bit of climbing, so you can dial in your bike, get a feel for the terrain, and loosen the legs.  Once we’re wrapped up, dinner will be in our main lodging HQ as a group so we can break down the first big day and answer any questions.

Days 2-4: It’s on.  Each day we’ll start with breakfast cooked by our awesome in-house chef (my wife Sarah!), followed by a fairly early start.  Most rides are point-to-points and include an initial shuttle drop, but you can expect to be out on the bike for most of the day.  Immediately after the ride we’ll have a pretty substantial snack for you to help start the recovery process, followed by a home-cooked dinner later that evening.

Day 5: Departure day, it’s time to pack up the bikes and begin the journey home.  We’ll have a quick breakfast as a group.  Official check-out time is around 10-11am, but you can take off whenever you need to catch your flight or start the drive home.

RIDE ITINERARY

Each trip is custom designed and every one will be different – you’ll receive the exact routes and trails with your official trip itinerary, which will be emailed to you about a week before the trip.  For our three full-day rides in 2026, you can expect an average of 25 miles and just over 3,000′ of climbing and 5,000’+ of descending.  Here’s an example ride that you might encounter when you sign up for our Monarch Crest trip.