Swiss Alpine Adventure came about almost as an accident. After attending a bike event in 2007 a friend suggested that it might be a good idea to organise some group rides for newcomers to the Zurich area to show them some of the local trails and to provide a way for people with similar interests to meet up. In the last 4 years we’ve seen an increase in the number of events and the number of people attending our events.
Without a doubt 2011 has been the best year yet. In spring 2011 I went to Sud Tirol and completed my Mountain Bike Guide training with Bike-Pro. We continued to organise our usual rides around Zurich during the week and once a month we organised trips to other areas of Switzerland. In July we organised our first weekend away to Engadin which got great feedback and we also two Mountain Bike Skills Courses which were both sold out and had a number of people on waiting lists! In 2011 we also consulted on a series of articles for PinkBike magazine and for the Mountain Bike movie “Pretty Sweet 2” which won fifth prize in the viewers choice awards at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival.
In November 2011 We took over the Zurich Cycling Club Meetup group which was about to close down and in a little more than a month we almost tripled the membership and organised a number of meet-ups for the new group. We currently have a following of about 500 people between our various social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Meetup) and a level of enthusiasm that I could never have imagined over four years ago when this project accidentally started.
For 2012 we’ve already got a fairly packed calendar planned. Our usual after-work rides will start in May, From March on We’ve got a monthly ride happening somewhere in Switzerland, We’ve got three weekends away planned and six courses ranging from complete beginner to advanced levels. There should be something to suit everyone on our calendar in 2012. A provisional calendar of events can be found here and dates for our 2012 courses can be found here. Sign up for all our 2012 events will be through our Meetup Group and information, updates and some extra events not already on our calendar will regularly get posted on our Facebook page.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made the Swiss Alpine Adventure community such a great thing to be a part of. I wish everyone a very happy and fun filled 2012.
Below are a selection of some photographs taken from our 2011 events. Looking forward to seeing many more smiling faces in 2012.
