I’m completely enamored with my EMTB. I’ve been riding mountain bikes since bringing mine to Verbier with me in 1983, but these electric bikes have opened up a whole new world. It truly is like skiing off-piste in winter. The ride we do in a few hours now, used to take days. I’m getting a fantastic work out, even more than my non Ebike because I love the speed! I just want to go faster uphill because it’s such a new, and literally uplifting feeling.

Last week, we rode to the head of the Val de Bagnes to the Mauvoisin Dam. That’s usually it for the day’s activity. Ride back down and recover. Instead, we then did a via Ferrata while recharging the batteries, had a nice lunch, then rode to the head of the valley to the Chanrion Hut.

We climbed the lovely Ruinette the next morning. The climb starts with a beautiful, remote hike through fields of edelweiss, to some lovely steep moves on gneiss, up onto a tiny glacier, then 45 minutes of rope work along the ridge. We spent an hour on the summit, enjoying what is perhaps one of the nicest views in the Alps. Especially if you live in this Bagnes valley! The next morning, we rode back down the valley in a surreal ambience of drizzle, fog, and mist over the Lac de Mauvoisin. Being on a bike, rolling along, left me to enjoy the scenery as I’ve never done before. Though I was moving quicker, I was taking in more, somehow quite in the present, being more aware of the fleeting moments I was living. There were waterfalls everywhere, sometimes thundering underfoot, sometimes rolling through. We got back to Verbier and still had time for a tour of the Pierre Avoi on dirt and single tracks.

EMTB at its finest!