Description

According to the map, the top-to-bottom run on Shangri-La is the only beginner trail in the Purgatory Bike Park.

However, Shangri-La consists of two very distinct sections: the upper trail and the lower trail.

The upper trail is a much more natural singletrack experience, while the lower trail is a beautifully-built beginner flow trail.

Consequently, some riders argue that the combination of riding 7th Heaven to Shangri-La is actually the easiest run in the bike park, as it provides a predictable, flowy top-to-bottom run. Despite being rated on the map as an intermediate trail, 7th Heaven is actually a very easy flow trail.

The grades are all quite flat, and with beautiful bermed corners, rolling grade reversals, and small tabletop jumps, it's a very predictable bike park trail experience.

While there are some more advanced options on this trail, beginners are unlikely to even notice the gap options, and they can simply roll through the corners and roll over all of the tabletop jumps.

While this trail has a tendency to get riddled with braking bumps due to its popularity, well...

you'll have that in a bike park. You will need to coast/pedal along a dirt road connector to get from 7th Heaven to the top of the Twilight Chairlift, where you can access Lower Shangri-La.

It's not the best connection, but it's over quickly. If 7th Heaven was easy, Lower Shangri-La is even easier.

The corners are wide and sweeping, the trail is smooth, and there's much less traffic on this trail.

However, it is possible to get some speed going on a few sections of this trail, as the lower slopes of the mountain are a bit steeper.

But with wide-open sight lines, the speed is easy to handle, making Lower Shangri-La perfect for beginner riders. In fact, for a true beginner day out on the mountain, you could choose to ride up the Twilight Chairlift with your bike and simply rip laps on Lower Shangri-La.

While Twilight is much slower than the main high-speed quad (aka Purgatory Village Express), that is an option you can definitely explore.