Jaakko has been exploring the slopes of Jebel Yibir for a while now running and mountain biking up there on a regular basis. Despite it being kind of on my doorstep I didn’t realise there was rideable terrain up there until I saw a video (see here) posted on the Hot Cog MTB Facebook group. It looked awesome and straight away I asked Jaakko when he was next planning to ride up there. 1 week later and we were shouldering bikes to carry them up the first 200m of ascent.
Jaakko is putting together a map of his explorations
The route wasn’t long, we only covered just over 10km in total, and it involved lots of pushing and carrying. The riding was tough and technical, the trail was often very rocky and sections were loose headsized rocks. It never ceases to amaze me what modern bikes can cope with though and I love this kind of biking.
Here’s Jaakkos helmet cam footage
There is racks of exploring to do up there. I have a feeling I’m going to be shouldering my bike quite a lot.
Ian Ganderton 
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