Seymour VS. Fromme

Quick question,

If I am getting down Severed-D, Pangor, and Ned's fairly gracefully these days, how many notches harder will Pipeline, Lower Oil Can, and Expresso be? i.e. am I likely to get through them on first try with only the a few bit of hiking, and without needing PTSD therapy afterwards?

Quick question,

If I am getting down Severed-D, Pangor, and Ned's fairly gracefully these days, how many notches harder will Pipeline, Lower Oil Can, and Expresso be? i.e. am I likely to get through them on first try with only the a few bit of hiking, and without needing PTSD therapy afterwards?

Pipeline Should be no problems. Lower Oil should be pretty good as well, with maybe a little bit of walking for one or two sections. Expresso, in my opinion, would be the hardest out of the three listed. I rode Expresso for the first time late last year before the snow fell and had to walk a bunch of it. I can ride Pipeline and LOC pretty clean, albeit slowly.

I hear the snow is starting to recede and Pipeline is pretty easily accessible now, not sure on LOC or Expresso.

Thanks. Are these triplets among the easiest ones on Fromme (excluding Floppy and Bobsled and other lower ones)?

Or is there another in the same difficulty range as Pipeline and Lower Oil?

Krinkum Krankum to Kirkford is a good lap to start with if you're feeling good on Severed and Pangor. 7th Secret and Executioner are generally in that range too (though not accessible right now). Pipeline has a lot of rock armour with some woodwork. Expresso has a fun new flow section that begins just after the entrance. The entrance is a good indicator of what the lower half of the trail is like. Just go up and explore, and look before you leap.

S-D is harder than lower oil. Same difficultly as Espresso I feel as there are only a number of real steep sections. I personally think pipeline is the harder out of all of them as its basically rocks all the way down. Can be off putting to many,

IIRC Pipeline is rated 'Blue' so people tend to think that it's easy. In the greater scheme of things it's not hard but it's the trail that seems to throw me over the handlebar the most, like the last time I rode it a couple of weeks ago….

None of the obvious trails on Fromme have moves that you just can't get down one way or another, so you are not going to get stuck on the mountain! Being a buck-toothed foreigner, I may be wrong, but in my opinion Ladies Only gives the best 'shore' experience on the mountain so you've got to give that a try. Again you can walk down any of the trickier bits if needed.

IIRC Pipeline is rated 'Blue' so people tend to think that it's easy. In the greater scheme of things it's not hard but it's the trail that seems to throw me over the handlebar the most, like the last time I rode it a couple of weeks ago….

Pipeline has always been blue because it used to be easier before it wore down to the bedrock. A lot of the woodwork is newer too (within last 12 years or so).

SD and Neds aren't any harder than anything on Fromme IMO….

If your cleaning neds, severed, and pangor you will be fine. Of the three trails you listed on fromme, ride oil can first, it has the mellowest overall grade and had some good work done to it over the summer. If that goes well I'd suggest espresso next, other then the steep section at the entrance and one quite steep section lower down, you will have a blast on all the new work. I'd save pipeline for last, while it's by no means a hard trail, it's all chunder, rock work, and wood, and is really greasy in the snow and wet.

I coach for escape over the summer and this is generally the order of progression I use with the campers.

Expresso, Pipeline, Lower Oilcan, Crinkum Crankum/Kirkford are all comparable in difficulty to Pangor and Severed, and how all those trails rank will be somewhat subjective. Ladies has some tougher sections but, as stated, is probably the most interesting trail to ride and will still be fun if you have to walk some sections. If you're doing well on the Seymour trails, it sounds like you have the skills to attempt any of those on Fromme.

I say go ride them all, and ride them again. Familiarity helps a lot, and you will probably ride sections you previously walked the second or third time down.

Also, don't neglect the lower trails like Floppy Bunny, Bobsled, Natural High, Immonator and Griffen Switchbacks. Those are great warmups or runs to tack onto the end of a ride.

Moar armour!

Awesome, got it, thanks! All of that should keep me busy until end of April.

In case this was some sort of orchestrated ploy to get me owned… check back here for the body cast shots :D

Whoa whoa, just saw on YouTube… Ladies Only is double black?

Doesn't that usually mean some nasty mandatory gap drops or jumps?

Ladies is single black. There's no gap or jumps really. Good amount of woodwork. Steeps etc.