Video by SR Suntour Inc. via YouTube
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Situated in a gloomy part of Sweden with a ski lift and 150m of vertical you might at first glance wonder about your choice to ride here. But soon after arriving, you quickly find out that with dedication, hard work and intelligent trail creating, this small piece of mountain is one of the unmissable riding spots in all of Scandinavia.
Located 3 hours southwest of Stockholm, Kisa MTB Park is definitely a labor of love. You should listen to the dream of any rider motivated to open their own bike park. And indeed, Oscar Harnstrom, his partner Beatrice Johnson and his brother Hampus bought a piece of mountain that just so happened to have a small, abandoned ski resort.
On this hill, there are a few old ski runs, 3 chair lifts, a shed that they rent to garage owners, a single-story house that serves as a workshop, shop and reception for the park, and an abandoned restaurant that they now occupy as a home. And space, lots of varied space, meadow, forest, moss, dirt and rock slabs. Basically, everything you need to create your ideal bike park, or as they like to call it “Brown Wave Heaven”.
While the park is only a year old, it is impressive to see that many of the trails are already well developed. And with the aforementioned variety of terrain and ground types there’s something for everyone. The lift only takes 4 minutes, barely enough time for a snack or an Instagram story. While those accustomed to big mountain lifts might scoff at such a short ride up, it definitely gives you a lot of bang for the buck and it’s nice to be able to repeat a trail a few times a day to master the features!
At the top, a beautiful granite slab invites you to sit down. From there, take in the beautiful view, surrounded by small hills, lakes and valleys. Then strap in as you have your choice of 7 different runs (currently, more coming soon) for your downhill enjoyment!
Not only are the variety of the runs surprising the quality of each run is amazing especially considering the park is barely a year old. Natural sloped trails are a plenty (DH, Dirty Pamela, French Connection, Ey’ Bro, Squamish) offering quick and challenging lines down the hill with slabs, rocks, features and natural terrain to keep you on top of your game!
Two flow lines complete the park, one blue(Goldmine) and one red (Old Guys Rule). Goldmine is a really playful but accessible trail with some bigger side hits that make it a little more spicy. Old Guys Rule is a bit faster and more direct with some bigger jumps that rides like a downhill pumptrack.
There is no shortage of future projects at Kisa MTB Park. Besides having a great vision for the development of his park (which has already exceeded the team’s expectations), Oscar is an excellent rider. You’ll see different stunts and jumps all along the hill, which are or will be used for Oscar’s video projects. He even plans to build some tracks to film on, and leave them open for the park. To top it all off, the team wants to add a series of events to the park. Last month they hosted their first Autumn Jam, which attracted an impressive amount of riders in. The queue at the ski lift was long but luckily it goes fast! We’re excited to see what’s in store at Kisa MTB Park.
Thanks to Kisa MTB Park for hosting us.
SR Suntour Werx Riders: Oscar Härnström, Olivier Cuvet, Eliott Lapotre
Photos: Hoshi Yoshida
Video: Remy Vroonen
Words:@MarkLarson