FINDING FLOW IN ST. MORITZ _ Mountain Biking the Engadin in Switzerland

A little more steep, a little faster. I just had a very very comfortable six-hour train trip from Geneva to Pontresina, Switzerland, where I am right now on the old SBB train. And oh it was nice. And I'm staying at this Hotel Palau and it's supposed to be one of the most like forward-thinking mountain bike hotels. So we're gonna check this thing out. I let the guy take my bike down to the bike garage where I need to build it up in a minute. But first I'm just trying to settle in after all this travel. The lady at reception said that you can put your bike clothes in this bag every night before 7 p.m. and they will be washed and ready the next morning. How cool is that? So I grabbed my dirty bike clothes and I'm gonna friggin load them up in here because I haven't had a wash at all. But your regular clothes cost money. So I'll wear my dirty regular clothes for a while here. Alright I'm settled in. I need to go build up my bike in the garage. But first I'm gonna test the internet speed because I have like four videos I need to upload. I've got two extended cuts and two normal videos. And if the upload speed is good, we're gonna have a good time here. And upload speed looks ridiculously fast. 21 megabits per second. We'll see though. You can't be too sure about this stuff. I'm really glad I took the time to get a Swiss SIM card. Being able to use 4G, Google Maps, make telephone calls is really really good. It's something I've kind of avoided in all my travels. I've just used Wi-Fi. But from now on I'm gonna be buying pay-as-you-go SIM cards when I land. Friggin awesome. 27 more minutes to upload this extended cut which means maybe in about an hour and a half on Patreon my people will get to see the first ride from Switzerland. I'm so excited to share with you guys. And obviously by this point you've seen all of them and it was a ton of fun. And if you haven't seen all of them, go back and watch all of them. In search of my bike bag. Found it in a pretty nice bike garage here. And so I'm gonna use this to build her up. The nice thing about this leg of the trip is that I'm in the same hotel for the next few nights. So you can smell I had my dirty laundry in here. Now I just need to get the derailleur hanger on and the wheels and the pedals and you're good to go. Looks good. Alright got the bag squared away. Got the bike squared away. Got this little lock on here to make it one-tenth of one percent harder for someone to walk off with the bike. No idea what's next. Let's find out. Dinner last night was quite fantastic. Finally got my face into a big juicy steak. It's been a while. And I just checked out there and my laundry was done. So we're looking good. Riding clothes nice and clean and let's see what adventures we're gonna get into today. So I know it seems like I've been locked in my hotel room for the past couple days but I have been able to get out today. I went on a ride with my buddy Darko and it was too wet to film but it was quite an adventure. And if you follow me on Instagram stories you saw that we went up to the train station went up near the Bernina Pass and then came back down. Tons of good stuff. The weather is looking up so hopefully at some point this video will have some riding in it. We shall see. Alright I'm suited up and I think I've got everything. It's time to actually leave the hotel room. See how dry my shoes are. Not bad. Take a pair, leave a pair. Nice and clean from the bike wash. I'll show you guys that in a different video. Hotel Paloo. The village of Pontresina. A little brisk out here this morning. Not too bad. No idea where we're gonna ride today. I think we're gonna take a train. I think most of the rides in this area have some kind of shuttle train element which is pretty cool. Should have my gloves on. It's a little nippy. So we still got fünf Minuten until my buddy Darko shows up and we get a show on the road. That clock is really nice. Perfect timing. What's up? How are you? I'm doing good Darko. Wow. Cresta Palace. Morgen. And then this is the lounge. Here you can basically hang out and they project either you can project your video or your map and this is where you change. Oh it's nice and warm in here. Oh wow so this is like the post ride. Every room has a locker. Wow. Put your dirty clothes, put your hydration bag. Especially the wet stuff. Yeah. They're forward thinking. They have the right idea if they want this to be like a mountain bike jewel. Obviously a lot of it's for skiing. Like this is for your skis to kind of prop up right but it's awesome that it can be used for both purposes. Der Waschplatz. There's a magnet that holds them. Yeah. Yeah and then it gets away the cars can park and stuff. That is really cool. Whoa that's sweet. That's always the missing piece is the little air to blow out all the pieces that rust and stuff. Oh that's so cool. So Darko knows about all this stuff because he's the founder of Allegro Turismo and he develops mountain bike destinations all over the world. So this is his thing you know. It's like finding these places. Destinations reach out to him and his company basically figures out trails and bike washes and all the whole customer service. The whole journey of the mountain bike person if they want to come to a destination and it's very cool. He's been talking we've been talking about it for the past day or two and it's just so neat. So he's showing me around his little hometown and how he's been instrumental in getting trails developed and all these little bits and pieces that make us mountain bikers want to go to these destinations. It's so cool. Thanks Darko. Hopefully you're very welcome. Now let's ride. Yeah let's ride. I do too much talking. Yeah let the trails do the talking. So my hotel room came with a little pass but we've got to go in here to get kind of approved for the gondola and get up there. All right. Perfecto. Sweet. It's an adventure. Oh cool they've got the little purpose-built gondola bike thing. Nice. Up above it all. Hey that's a pretty nice view. Very dramatic. Suspension locked up. Just a cool little connector trail. Nice. So now we've connected over to St. Moritz with another bike hangout. This is the best bike hangout. Buenos dias. Oh the Argentine. Yeah you're telling me about. We're gonna have lunch here. Cool. Aha. Oh wow. Even nicer train this time. Oh cool. Like this. Okay. That was a nice ride. Now we're gonna do a little warm-up ride in the snow. It is snowing right now. All four seasons. Yeah. Woo. Little marmot hole. Caution. Marmot crossing. Good warm-up. This is neat. Yeah it is pretty dry for as much rain that we have gotten. Wow that lake is ridiculously blue. Yeah that was cool. Haha. We've dropped enough now that it's rain instead of snow. A little rest area. That was great man. So fun. It just keeps going. I mean the way they manage the water. Yeah. I mean yesterday it was raining full on. Yeah. Yes. It's dry. Yeah that's pretty amazing. Into the rocks. Different style of riding the old flow trail. Trying to be smooth. It's good practice for me because I am not smooth. Definitely beginner friendly but still quite fun. Quite challenging. Oh nice. Back to where we started. That's so convenient. My legs hurt. Me too. My calves are burning. Hello. Hello. Yeah let's check it out. Freshly made. Thank you. Awesome.