A relentless sun is chasing the shadows back into their hiding. On an arid hillside a crew of people make tiny figures against a massive desert backdrop as they ascend towards patches of builds that will eventually be linked up and used to conquer the hill of the earth and the minds of mountain bikers.
Covered by the dust that settles on everything, the team wear the color of the ground making them blend in to the alien landscape. They pass tumbleweeds and sagebrush on their way up, finding inspiration from the tenacious vegetation. When they reach the top they are caught by the wind on the hillside.
The same gust of wind rustles past a pair of feet sending debris flying towards a landing very far away. Hannah Bergemann is eying up a feature she and her build team has worked on for days in the Utah desert. It’s a big drop donning the the impossible looking entrance and exit which is characteristic for this venue. This rock, dirt and dust has had seasoned builders puzzling for years. Layered through the ages the terrain will not give in easily to the ideas of the crews at Red Bull Formation, an event created to push women’s progression in the freeride scene.
It’s been a way to go for Hannah to get her where she is standing now, at the head of one of many big features that make up her line down the hill.
Hannah’s journey on mountain bikes started in Hood River Oregon with her family and their interest in riding bikes. With the arrival of a hand me down full suspension bike, Hannah’s interest in riding bikes quickly intensified. Over the following years mountain biking took on a more central role in her life, which wasn’t slowed down when she moved to Bellingham for studies at university. During this time she participated in some enduro racing but found her passion in the woods building and riding. And progressing, with a pace that eventually landed her a position at Transition bikes as an athlete and employee.
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After years of wielding both shovel and handlebars Hannah is now at the forefront of freeride mountain biking, sharing dirt and dust with her fellow rippers in Utah. For several days they are working on lines that will push herself and her mates above and beyond. There seems to be a connection between building and improving riding skills that mountain bikers across the globe recognise. In the Utah desert this relationship materialises in a way that makes it unique from other places. But how does digging actually improve riding? This duality is something that has always been a natural part of Hannah’s riding.
“Digging trails and building your own features requires you to learn how to visualise riding the trail or feature, put in the work to bring it to life, and then finally ride it to see how your vision works. You learn a ton throughout the process by making lots of mistakes, testing out the builds, adjusting and tweaking them until they work.”
Hannah has honed her craft in the loamy woods of the Pacific Northwest over the years. However, the terrain and conditions are quite different in the Bellingham area when compared to Utah. While the desert provided several new challenges, it opened up even more possibilities.
“Typically I’m building in the trees and moist dirt of the Pacific Northwest. The building techniques in the Utah desert and the Pacific Northwest have some similarities, but they are also super different in a lot of ways. In the desert we don’t have water in the dirt to work with, which means any water we want to use has to be carried in. The desert has a lot more exposure without the trees, but also a lot more space and room to build big features. The same general principles of building apply in both places though. For example it’s important to shape your berms and lips so they set the rider up for success, using good dirt for packing and stacking rocks for support.”
But it’s not only the shovelling and testing of a feature that leads to the progression of a rider. When a build is complete, it is unridden which was the case for many of the features Hannah was a part of in Utah. The first riders taking on a line or a feature still have to make sense of it, as Hannah explains.
“Building and then guinea pigging the features helps me dial in my preparation for riding. When you ride something that has never been ridden before, you really have to be confident and trust your ability to imagine how the feature is going to feel and ride. It’s also super fun and can be a great community building experience when you work with friends to fix up or bring a new feature to life that lots of people can enjoy!“
Riders on any level can relate to the importance of self esteem and trust ones abilities when it comes to pushing boundaries. Standing in front of a 20ft drop trying to figure out the correct approach is no different. Anyone who has seen riding footage from Utah will easily guess that it takes a certain level of confidence to ride the terrain successfully. So how do you find the confidence it takes to hit something like that for the first time? For Hannah and her fellow riders it seems like the time spent pondering and construct the lines is once more key.
“When riding big features in Utah that are meant to push progression, I find it essential to be part of the build, as I want to ensure the features are made in a way that I can picture riding them and that they will work properly.
In general, I think trail building can help develop rider confidence. Being a part of the whole process gives you a new appreciation and understanding for building and riding trails.”
Process is something that Hannah revisits throughout our interview. For Hannah, it consists creativity, planning, building, testing and riding. Perhaps when unified, those experiences are essential when explaining the link between building and developing riding skills. This becomes even more evident as Hannah explains how one prepares for an event of this caliber.
“Having building experience is definitely an advantage, and I find it super helpful for my riding as well! A lot of the “training” and prep work I did leading up to Formation involved building new features and guinea pigging them to practice that process.
Someone who hasn’t been a part of the build might be able to ride the lines, but maybe not as well as someone who was there for the whole journey. Riding those lines takes a lot of visualising and mental prep work which I find is complemented by the actual building. Plus it’s super rewarding to build a new feature from scratch and then finally get to ride it!”
Back on the hill in Utah the wind has died down and Hannah gets on the pedals. Quickly moving towards the run up for the massive drop, the ground moves with a sense of familiarity under her bike. The return for the days of hard work and mental preparation is culminating as she picks up speed and passes the point where braking makes it safer.
Trusting the process that got her there Hannah leaves the lip and sends it.
End note: A very big thanks to Hannah Bergemann for sharing her wisdom on this subject. Katy Lozancich and Leslie Hittmeier generously provided the amazing photography which was used as reference for the art in this article. Anders’ illustrations have been made in pencil, acrylic and oil paint.
