Red Bull Rampage Diary 2: A Changing Soundtrack

Yesterday’s percussive accompaniment of the slapping of shovels picked up a different rhythm today at Red Bull Rampage, for the second day of practice. As I walked up the lower section of the women’s hill, dig teams were still accompanied by their bluetooth tunes of choice, but as I worked my way up to where the women were continuing to guinea their features, the speakers were quieted. Behind that final showtime run you see on competition day, there’s a lot of waiting around. Not so much an adrenaline rush as a drip drip drip of deliberation.

There was still plenty of digging going on, though in many cases it was the refinement of lines following yesterday’s practice. These two were busy refining this super steep chute. And just to remind of you the scale…

On the lower part of the hill, Casey Brown was starting to link together a couple of features, first rolling through one chute then coming to a halt, before heading back up to carry on through into the next feature.

And then into the next one, and out into the heat of the sun as it worked its way down the hill.

It can’t be understated how difficult it is getting bikes up the hill. It’s epic enough just walking with a camera in your pack – though today even I was starting to acclimatise. If you look at just the ground in front of you, and try and forget what the little trod you’re following is actually attached to, it doesn’t seem so bad. But I’m sticking to the relatively well worn path between the layers of features – the riders are not. Here’s Vaea Verbeeck using her bike as a sort of ice axe.

The judges were also out on the hill, learning the riders’ lines. Here’s Josh Bender passing under one of the jumps at the spaghetti bowl. Notice the two rocks, marking the point the rider wants to hit.

All up the hill are event staff, managing the flow of people on the hill, making sure no one kicks rocks down onto someone’s head, or stands in a riders’ line. They’re out there whenever there is a rider out there, which makes for one heck of a long and hot day. And with consequences high, there’s no time to tune out and switch off. Props to these folks for making it happen.

As someone decides they’re ready to drop in and try a section, shouts go up and down the hill, with crackles on the radio. How far is the rider planning to go? Which features are they waiting to hit? Is it clear of people? Photographers wait for the call to let them know the rider is dropping in. Riders wait to hear back that the landing is clear of any rock fall from other dig crews or people moving around on the hill. Everything on the hillside is loose, gravity taking hold given the slightest chance. But the processes are tight. Everyone is alive to what is going on around them.

The tension turns up a notch as the hillside goes quiet. Digging stops to prevent any loose stones making their way onto the line that’s about to be tested. The rider gets into position, and there’s a round of ‘Go Vaea!’, or ‘You got this!’ before silence falls. Breathe. Hold the camera, steady the drone, watch the windsock. Breathe. And then, with a shift of feet on pedals, the rider rolls in, calling out to let everyone know they’re making the move.

Whoops go up as the rider completes the feature, and instantly phones and cameras are being checked. It’s not all about the ‘gram though – they’re looking at where the rider rode, their body position, did they hit the feature where it was intended? Was the speed right? Did that take off need more pop, or a lip?

You can never be sure what someone is going to do. Here’s Robin Goomes on a jump that I also saw her backflip (but didn’t capture on camera). It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. She just flew in down the steep chute, then appeared to be sending it into nowhere. From where I stood on the ridge, it didn’t seem like there was enough hillside there for there to even be a lander on the other side. If she pulls that move on competition day and fits it into a top to bottom run, it’s surely got to be hard to beat.

As Vaea and Robin moved on to check off other features, Vero Sandler and Georgia Astle were still working on part of their line. The entrance into the steep berm off the Spaghetti Bowl wasn’t working for them yesterday, so they were chipping and scraping away at it, apparently on the edge of the earth, reshaping it to their liking.

There was also work to be done on the berm that links their chutes from the layer above into the Spaghetti Bowl. By this time, it was nearly midday, and the sun was eating up the last of the shadows on the hill, plunging everyone into baking white heat. Everywhere you looked, people were tucking themselves into the tiniest of shadows, trying to get even part of their body out of the heat.

It’s a constant balance of effort against reward, time against energy. You’re up the hill, you want to ride a section, but it’s going to take a bunch of effort to get up there, so you want to make it count. Equally, lunch, shade and hydration are at the bottom. Stay out too long and you’re too cooked to do anything well.

Eventually, Vero and Georgia put the tools down and started pulling on riding gear.

With cliffs to climb, riders wear their helmets so as to have hands free.

There’s a lot of stopping to look and think on the way. You don’t want to blow the attempt and have to do the climb all over again, this time with a bike too. Here’s Georgia staring into a chute through a cloud of dust.

With Vero and Georgia sharing parts of the line, Vero was going first. But finding a point to start from wasn’t easy.

Georgia waited up top, while Sam Hodgson helped Vero figure out how to start. There seemed to be a whole lot of back and forth, with Vero sounding uncharacteristically stressed, perhaps scared even, and Sam talking her down and giving her the confidence to get settled on the pedals while he held her back wheel.

After a false start and slide out, Vero swooped through the berm and into the jump at the Spaghetti Bowl.

A bit more waiting, while Georgia decided she was going to run through all the features to the Spaghetti Bowl, instead of just doing the top, and she was off…

…off the wooden drop of the start ramp…

…into the chute…

… and then not quite into the left turn tight enough for the next piece of the line.

… and then, zap. Camera overheated, battery zapped. Right at the final moment. More digging and waiting, while I cursed. No longer in it for the shot, I was now invested in seeing Georgia complete the run. But FML, what a shot that could have been – here’s the phone version.

And then my phone also shut down, overheated, moments after taking this photo. Georgia looked pretty happy about ticking off that section.

And then, the last riders off the hill, the diggers with work to do recommenced their thwacking of shovels and chink of picks. Bluetooth speakers back on, while the rest of us retreated from the hottest part of the day, seeking out shade and water in the event compound. Unfortunately, there’s another sound that no one wants to hear, that came to accompany our lunch break: air ambulance. With Clemens Kaudela having had a nasty crash in an awkward location, the medivac had to wait while a second helicopter, equipped with a winch, came to hoist him out of a high spot up in a canyon. There’s no official word on his injuries yet, though we did hear he was awake and talking after the crash. Healing vibes to him, and let’s hope that’s the last we hear from the thrum of the medivac.

Enter our competition to win an Abus HiDrop helmet.

2024 Red Bull Rampage Women’s Roster

1. Robin Goomes (NZL) 
2. Casey Brown (CAN) 
3. Vinny Armstrong (NZL)  
4. Georgia Astle (CAN) 
5. Vero Sandler (UK) 
6. Vaea Verbeeck (CAN) 
7. Chelsea Kimball (USA) 
8. Camila Nogueira (ARG) 

2024 Red Bull Rampage Men’s Roster

1. Cam Zink (USA)
2. Tom Van Steenbergen (CAN) 
3. Carson Storch (USA)
4. Brendan Fairclough (GBR)
5. Talus Turk (USA)
6. Kyle Strait (USA)
7. Ethan Nell (USA)
8. Bienvenido Aguado Alba (SPA)
9. Adolf Silva (SPA)
10. Brandon Semenuk (CAN)
11. Clemens Kaudela (AUT)
12. Kurt Sorge (CAN)
13. Luke Whitlock (USA)
14. Reed Boggs (USA)
15. Szymon Godziek (POL)
16. Thomas Genon (BEL)
17. Tom Isted (GBR)
18. Tyler McCaul (USA)

Thanks to ABUS for contributing to Hannah’s travel expenses.