There are people who push the sport of mountain biking, and then there is Gee Atherton. The man seems to be on some sort of terrible mission, riding the most insane lines with very, very little room for error.
And, he has suffered the consequences when that room for error runs out.
Despite some of the most terrifying crashes we’ve seen and some of the worst injuries, Atherton keeps coming back. In Rita Mae Brown’s 1983 novel, Sudden Death, she defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. In this case, some may say Atherton must be insane.
Yet, somehow, Atherton seems to find different results in his latest film, The Last Forbidden Kingdom. In this seventh release of his Ridgeline series, Atherton and his team travel to Nepal for some truly spectacular and terrifying riding.
Think “backcountry” and multiply it by 100. The mission takes place in the Himalayas, more than 4,000 meters above sea level. If the raw, steep, and jagged terrain isn’t fighting him, the elevation certainly is.
The team filmed the project over 18 days, and Atherton, in normal fashion, rode some of the gnarliest lines on the planet. And, of course, Atherton did it on his A.200 downhill bike, chosen for being the lighter option considering the literal mountains he would climb.
And, along the way, they were met with unmatched Nepalese hospitality. If you have 24 minutes to spare, give it a watch!
