Description

The Arzler Trail is a famous route which is popular, well maintained and great fun.

It's ridden by hundreds of riders per day and is particularly busy in the evening when the locals pedal up for an after-work ride.

The terrain is generally pretty mellow but the middle section is fairly technical and involves some steep, rocky steps.

If you skip this part out, the grade of the trail drops to "Moderate". The trip starts out at the Hungerburg station which can be reached via the Hungerburgbahn train, the "J" bus, or - if you're really keen - pedal power! Cross the Hungerburg carpark to reach Rosnerweg road.

Turn right on this and follow it as it climbs into a forest and becomes a jeep track.

The track traverses for a kilometre or so and then turns left and climbs up towards the Arzler Alm mountain hut (which is well signposted).

At the same moment that you first glimpse the Arzler Alm you arrive at the start of the Arzler trail.

It's a very short detour to the hut itself if you want to go and grab a drink but most riders just drop straight in for their well-earned thrills! The first section of the trail is flowy and goes over some gap jumps which are easy to roll over if you don't want to take any air.

There are a couple of tight-ish bends but otherwise nothing too technical.

The second section of the trail, reached after you cross a jeep track, is pretty similar and leads you back onto the Rosnerweg track which you rode up. The section below the Rosnerweg is the toughest on the whole trail and features some tight, rocky turns and some steep drops too.

You can circumnavigate this section by riding back to Hungerburg on the Rosnerweg and then following another jeep track down to join up with the next section of the trail. The next section, which begins just above the Innsbruck suburb of Mühlau, is much like the first 2 parts of the ride but goes through much tighter trees and is not as well lit - if you're racing to get down before darkness this bit feels pretty tricky! Luckily the riding is pretty steady.

The trail briefly crosses a jeep track close to the Alpenzoo and then a final whip around some fun bends (including a couple of tight ones right at the end) leads to Richardsweg road.

Rip down this back to Innsbruck.