AusLeisure

Australian Ski Resorts - Falls Creek in Victoria and Thredbo in NSW – have officially opened their 2023/24 Mountain Bike seasons.

The much-anticipated opening of Falls Creek Mountain Bike Park took centre stage over the weekend as the highly anticipated Ignition MTB Festival made a triumphant return to Falls Creek Resort.

The Mountain Bike Park is a mecca of adventure, now boasting over 50km of epic and unique alpine terrain, with breathtaking backdrops at every turn. Designed and built by global leaders in trail design World Trail, the park’s features include a mix of technical, gravity flow and cross-country trails, challenging both the biggest thrill seekers and the leisurely beginners. 

A tradition dating back to 2017, Ignition has always marked the beginning of Falls Creek's Mountain Biking Season. This year's festivities held extra significance, with attendees redeeming tickets after a year-long wait following the heartbreaking cancellation of last year's event due to the Bogong High Plains Rd Landslip. The landslip blocked access from Mt Beauty to Falls Creek for over six months. Finally, this weekend, over 1000 mountain bikers were able to experience the mountain bike park's three new gravity flow trails Skyline, Downtown and Heavy Metal (built summer 2021/22)—adding an impressive 11km of epic trail to the already stellar world-class network.

The 11km of new gravity flow trails are a part of the resort’s multi-stage development plan to grow the mountain bike park. This plan will also see the construction of a world-class, UCI specific downhill trail from the top of the Summit to the bottom of the Gully this summer.

Falls Creek COO Stuart Smythe shared “we’ve been building trails with a very defined plan to create the best mountain bike park in Australia, working with World Trail and with the assistance and funding support of the Victorian Government, I'm confident we are there, but there’s still more to come. The plans to diversify our offering in all seasons, cementing Falls Creek as Australia’s premier all-season mountain destination is evident in the number of riders here to help kick-start our season this weekend.”

Blue Dirt Mountain Biking has now kicked off its summer shuttle operations at Falls Creek with services running every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until Christmas and then every day over the January School Holidays. 

Thredbo MTB
Thredbo MTB Park also celebrated a successful opening to the 2023/24 season on Saturday 18^th November with a massive number of guests turning out to ride over 40 kilometres of lift-accessed gravity terrain.

It's the first time in history that Thredbo MTB Park has been able to open nearly every trail on an opening day. With such a wide variety of terrain on offer, all four MTB lifts spinning and incredible weather, opening day vibes were at an all-time high!

Guests enjoyed everything the bike park had to offer with impressive riding conditions, live music, a free premiere MTB movie screening and the chance to win a stack of prizes.

Thredbo's massive team of MTB ambassadors ripped the trails all weekend including Jack Moir, Sian A'Hern, Kye A'Hern, Tim Eaton, Jackson Frew, Jackson Connelly, Tom Crimmins, Tegan Molloy and Maddy Lloyd. The ambassador crew tested out the trails before they were opened to the public and then could be seen enjoying the first laps of the season with guests.

To celebrate opening day, the ambassadors hosted a massive giveaway on the mountain, hiding a huge stack of prizes around the trails for guests to find. The hero prize was a limited edition gold can of Monster Energy, with the lucky recipient winning a ride session with Jack Moir, one of the biggest names in mountain biking worldwide.

Images from top: Thredbo MTB Park Opening Weekend; Falls Creek Ignition Festival MTB; Falls Creek Ignition MTB; Thredbo MTB lifts; Thredbo MTB Park Opening Weekend Tegan Molloy And Maddy Lloyd 

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