No more Empress Bypass

I've decided to no longer ride Empress Bypass. Empress forever. Anyone with me?

Why, is there a better ride out?

I just mean no more getting lazy and taking the easy way down, I'm going to commit to riding Empress proper every time now.

There's a bypass?

Still haven't cleaned the whole trail. I have learned to take it wide going around the sharp right hand turn, though.

https://www.pinkbike.com/video/472457/

Tried to embed this, no luck

I'd have to step up my armour before trying to clean Empress again. The bottom was always a show stopper for me.

Yeah I cannot sack up to the last move on Empress, even after watching my buddy ride it pretty well. Risk tolerance and all that. Bypass is pretty rough these days.

What's the line everyone is considering at the end? I enter it from the biker's right and ride diagonally down to biker's left. There's a kind of a descending "shelf" you can follow that is surprisingly smooth. If you do any other rock rolls you can likely do this one.

That line in your photo is the bypass line; the direct line to the right is the original line i believe, it is a wheel/derailleur eater though so i usually go the line you are on in the photo.

Yeah I think there was an older thread on here where people discussed that line and how it was the go to in the DH bike days, but hurts the smaller bikes.

Depends w

Posted by: fun-house

What's the line everyone is considering at the end? I enter it from the biker's right and ride diagonally down to biker's left. There's a kind of a descending "shelf" you can follow that is surprisingly smooth. If you do any other rock rolls you can likely do this one.

Depends which bike I'm on.

Hard tail? I take the line you're on in your pic and my video.

Full sus? After the last right hand turn I go straight off the drop down the center, the original exit.

I remember cleaning it on my hardtail around 10 years ago and maybe I'm thinking of the 'shelf', but there was some sort of narrow pinner line that one could roll down at the end. These days I'd clean it with my face.

after riding Empress pretty much every time I rode that part of the mountain it finally got the better of me. Came around the last left turn and hit something, perhaps that root, twisted my bars, and over them I went. Landed with my legs dangling over the last drop. I managed to  sprain my wrist and thumb so I've been out of action for a couple weeks now. 

I'm not sure I'll be rushing back to the Empress in a hurry!