Any given day, you can see them: Smiling people standing with rental bikes, adorned in tennis shoes and khaki shorts.
During summer, this is a common scene at the bottom of the River Run chairlift, as is the too-common result: the smiles have been replaced by scraped hands and bloody knees.
Without a doubt, the easy access to the top of Bald Mountain is a popular resource as it provides both great downhill mountain biking and fantastic vistas over the Wood River Valley.
However, it's also a lure for less experienced riders, strapped with helmets and the misplaced notion that the descent requires less skill than the climb.
"Coming down Warm Springs, riders are looking at a 10-mile trail with 3,000 feet of vertical," said Sun Valley Trail Supervisor Stu Brown, who is also a supervisor of the Sun Valley Ski Patrol. "Even a good mountain biker will take 45 minutes to get down. It's long and tiring."
Along with Brown, Sun Valley Ski Patrol veterans Mike Davis, Steve Day and Thornton "Whiz" McNeal work on the mountain long after the snow has melted.
Their job, however, differs greatly during the warmer months.
"Just like any other mountain biking or hiking trail in the valley, Baldy is not swept or patrolled," Brown said on Monday. "Sun Valley maintains the trails and lifts, but riders are on their own, just as if they were skiing out of bounds."
To help emphasize this point, mountain bikers have to sign a liability release form before getting on the chair lift, absolving Sun Valley Co. of any responsibility should an injury occur while using the trails.
In addition, no riders are allowed on the lift without a helmet.
Although the ski patrollers/trail crew are not officially charged with the task of helping injured bikers, their expertise and location means that they are often the first on the scene at any mountainside accident.
Brown said that after receiving a call from emergency dispatch, they try to find the person, which can be a difficult process, despite the relatively limited number of trails.
"There are mile markers out there, but people aren't always paying attention," Brown said. "Still, because of where we're working, we can usually have someone there in 10 to 15 minutes, meaning we're likely to be the first ones on the scene."
This summer, only two riders have required an ambulance from the mountain to the hospital, one with a broken leg and the other with a fractured collarbone.
However it's impossible to keep track of those that have trouble on the trail, but are able to make their own way down.
"We get people coming back in here wearing jeans and running shoes all scraped up," said Brian Williams, the rental shop manager at Backwoods Mountain Sports in Ketchum. "They seem to think that because they can take the lift up it will be an easy downhill, but they're often ill-equipped and don't have the necessary skill and injuries precipitate after that."
Williams said that because his shop doesn't rent downhill-specific bikes, or "gravity bikes" as he refers to them, he tries to warn people off should they make it clear their intention to ride down Baldy.
"They don't understand that a cross-country bike isn't for straight downhilling," Williams said. "It also doesn't pencil out for us, as we rent the bike for $35 and then end up having to spend $40 to fix it, not including labor, so where does that get us?"
Just to the south on Main Street, Sturto's bike mechanic Cruger Thomas echoed Williams' concerns, stating that the shop staff try to determine renters' intentions in order to ensure that they are outfitted properly.
Thomas said that while some experienced riders are able to easily navigate the trails on hard-tail bikes, many of those coming into the shop don't have as much time in the saddle on the type of intermediate and expert trails featured on Baldy.
"We will occasionally get someone who hasn't been on a bike in 10 years and try to let them know what they're in for," said Thomas, who once watched as a rider in close proximity crashed and broke his collarbone on Bald Mountain. "As well, they often head out without spare inner tubes, repair kits or pumps."
However, Williams said that even these verbal precautions are often futile.
"People just seem to have their minds made up that they're going to do it no matter what we say," said Williams, who has previously worked at Canada's Whistler resort, which has even more advanced lift-accessed downhill mountain biking trails.
Pete Lane's Mountain Sports, located right at the base of River Run where the lift tickets are sold, takes on the added step of offering only long-travel full suspension bikes for rental, as well as full face helmets and padding for arms and legs.
It's not simply an issue of having the right equipment, though, but also a matter of simple fitness.
"There are great trails up there, but you have to earn them," said ski patrol and trail crew member McNeal. "It's not epidemic or anything, but there are a lot of bumps and scrapes."
Of course, mountain biking on Bald Mountain is not the only venue for cyclist to get injured, as both Brown and Tonya Bruess, a St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center spokesperson, were quick to point out.
According to Bruess, 30 percent of the injuries that are seen in the emergency room in July and August are bike related. This means approximately 300 cycle injuries per month.
With input from Emergency Room Manager Karen Sorraco, Bruess said that the majority of these injuries are lacerations and minor fractures.
Bruess said that although the exact statistics were not readily available, it seemed they were split almost down the middle between tourists and locals.
For Sorraco, whose emergency room saw 10 to 15 bike injuries last Saturday alone, there was an obvious message to relay after such a busy weekend.
"This is a good opportunity to remind people of bike safety—to always wear a helmet and be prepared with the proper equipment."
The River Run lifts offer easy access to mountain bikers looking to ride Bald Mountain’s intermediate to expert downhill trails. However, many of these riders arrive at the top ill-equipped with sneakers, no spare inner tubes, pumps or even gloves. Photo by Willy Cook
