What a gas, and what a workout. That’s the best way to describe the first ever Zion Freeride Festival in Virgin, UT. Held on the ridge lines directly behind the former Red Bull Rampage site, the festival was open to all riders with the main focus being fun instead of competition. It was a 2-day festival that gave participants a chance to ride the unique terrain outside of Zion National park with former Rampage participants and other pro riders. Coupled with food available at the venue, a great band and free camping under incredibly starry skies, the festival was well worth attending.

Each day of the festival began at 9am with riders split into 3 different groups loosely based on ability level. Everyone rode out of base camp up a short dirt road before venturing into the mars-like terrain full of cliffs and ridges. Anything within the boundaries of the permit area was open to be ridden. The challenge was getting your bike up wherever you wanted to ride down. There were about 8 women who attended from many states including California, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. One woman, Jaqualine Harmony, who was at the festival but could not afford the entry fee, was granted a scholarship by WomenSpecific.com which allowed her to take part in the festival. The timing of the women riding prevented us from having a women’s only group, but we did congregate later for a women’s group on a shuttle run. The sandy, rocky terrain had plenty of pushing bikes up soft single track trails, shouldering bikes up deep sandy ridges, and handing bikes up cliff bands to reach steep drop-offs. It certainly provided motivation to execute your line perfectly the first time!

The natural terrain lent itself to plenty of options, with drops from 1ft to more than 30ft abounding everywhere. It was a great atmosphere of watching people riding creative lines, some people adding tricks during their airtime, and figuring out how to hit them bigger and better the next time. Just as the heat made pushing your bike unbearable, lunch was served under a tent at base camp giving riders a chance to rest and re-hydrate before heading out again for a later afternoon session.

The festival also provided a shuttle van which would take riders to the top of the Flying Monkey downhill run. Named for the eject seat testing that went on at the military site on top of the adjacent ridge, this downhill run was a very technical rocky descent that traversed across the side of the vast ridge providing about 30-45 min of descending, with an easy 2-3 mile pedal back to base camp. The first shuttle ride was free, with subsequent rides costing only $5. It was a nice break from pushing your bike up, and allowed you to keep riding comfortably during the heat of the day. For those of us who needed to escape the heat further, a river just across the highway provided a refreshing swimming hole and revived us enough for another afternoon session.

Saturday night gave everyone a chance to reconnnect over food and music to recap their adventures. The grill cooked up more food than everyone could eat, with video footage being showed under the tent. A great band complete with disco lights played well into the night. About half of the participants camped right in the lot with the other half opting for accommodations in town. All of the female participants were entered into a raffle for a BMX bike. I donated the bike I won at a raffle at the first ever women’s slopestyle event, Slope Sistair, as a prize to further promote the event, and to help get more women involved in dirt jumping and slopestyle riding. The winner does not currently do much jumping so I hope to see a new face in future jumping events!

Sunday was more of the same with people building off of the experience they gained the day before. Everyone seemed to step it up a level attempting bigger lines and better tricks. The upcoming participant voting for such prestigious awards as Most Aggressive Rider, Best Trick and Best Crash seemed to increase everyone’s courage. The wind picked up a bit making bigger airs a little more risky. By the time the lunch break was over, it was so windy most people opted to hang out and watch more video coverage of the festival. The amount of prizes given out both in the raffle and for the awards ensured almost everyone went home with something. The days biggest winners were the Best Trick winner – a big no footer off a cliff – who received a Mountain Cycle Rumble frame, and the Most Aggressive Rider with the Scariest Bike winner (who had to have had at least 1 Most Aggressive Rider vote to be eligible) who took home a Canfield Brothers Formula 1 full suspension frame.

All in all the festival was a great way to meet people from all over who love to ride big bikes in this unique terrain while pushing each other to go bigger and ride better. If you didn’t make it out this year, I highly recommend putting it on your schedule for next year!