Altipiano del Salto con 1600 metri di discesa

Beautiful, undemanding tour that can be done in half a day. You take the cable car to Vilpiano and reach Salonetto. From here you climb up to the cairns, the route does not present great difficulty, sometimes there are some somewhat steep ramps to tackle. The steepest part is at the end, just before reaching the cairns. From the cairns we descend for about 100 meters on a very nice and flowing trail, after which we climb for the most challenging part uphill, about 150 meters during which we have to push the bike or carry it on our shoulders.

Once at the top, a stupendous descent of about 1600 meters of elevation gain awaits us, which can be divided into two pieces: the first part to get to Avelengo, the second from Avelengo onward. The first short piece is done on forestry, but after that the fun begins, a wonderful trail with lots of roots and rockgarden and a short piece with rock slab. It reminds me a bit of the Whistler trails. The difficulty is on the S2 difficult, the hardest part is before the arrival in Avelengo (so the final part).

When you arrive in Avelengo you face the second part of the descent which is less technically difficult but much steeper in the first section. As you descend the difficulties decrease, the trail becomes less steep and easier technically as well. When you arrive in Merano you can return to Bolzano by train or by bicycle path doing another 20 km or so.