The Skull - Freeride Trail at Lake Garda

Monte Baldo is considered a hiking and biking mecca at Lake Garda. But until 2007, there wasn’t a single route reserved just for mountain bikers or free-riders. As part of a bike festival, however, a trail was finally granted. The name speaks for itself: The Skull.

This is a pure freeride track built on old, abandoned paths on Monte Baldo. The trails have been cleaned, banked turns and drops have been constructed, difficult technical passages have been defused and smoothed. Someone found an animal skull during the cleanup and so the trail was called Skull.

The starting point of the track is best reached by renting a bike shuttle. This saves you the long climb and you don't have to compromise on the weight and geometry of your bike. The shuttle takes free-riders from Nago towards the Altissimo.

There's a right turn three hundred metres after a sign to the "Sorgente D'oro", and on the left, a forest road begins. Go downhill for four-hundred metres until "The Skull Trail" starts on the left. The difficult freeride trail goes down over a total of 2,000 meters in altitude. The drops and steep curves, etc. are challenging but are at moderate speed and even for beginners it's possible. Advanced bikers can definitely let off some steam on The Skull.

The path is not maintained, which means that sections that have been filled with soil and some drops will not be of the highest quality. So pay attention to suddenly prominent stones and washed out passages!

• Monte Baldo