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February has been a disappointing cycling month so far. Temperatures shot through the roof and it rained a lot. The wonderful snow disappeared at lower elevations and suffered greatly up higher. Thankfully, the mercury dropped last Friday to make Saturday the coldest day of the winter, yet. For the first time this winter I pulled my warm Smith Vantage helmet out of the armoire and strapped on my ski/fat-bike goggles. Thicker gloves were pulled out of the drawer and I put on a thicker long sleeve jersey under my winter jacket. Despite riding at temperatures of around -16°C, I felt very comfortable on Saturday's 4 1/2 hour fat-bike ride.

Ever since I began fat-biking in March of 2013, I've been roaming across the area between Biel and the Chasseral. When the snow cover didn't reach town, I used to drive to Les Prés d'Orvin or Nods. Now that I live in Grenchen, that area is out of reach. Since Christmas, snow has remained at the foot of the mountains, making the drive to higher elevations unnecessary. Instead of driving to my old fat-bike playground, I've been exploring the mountain chain north of our house, and it's pretty spectacular.

In 2020 I rode 135 times or 300 hours, totaling 5’195 kilometers and climbing 144’439 meters. Due to our move in 2019, which saw my riding time greatly reduced for the second part of the year, I hoped to get back to a 2018 level in 2020. But that wasn’t possible. The pandemic had little to do with it. We had a few months with short time at work, which would have given me more time to ride. However, in early 2020 one of our cats was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and her sister shows signs of it, too.

Right in time for the Global Fat-Bike Day 2020, a low-pressure system brought lots of humidity from the south and turned our mountains into a gorgeous winter wonderland. Five, six years ago, when fat-biking saw a boom, we managed to get a half dozen people together for the occasion. I had honestly not paid attention to GFBD this year as I've not been able to devote as much time to cycling as I would have liked. It was only after instagramming my ride on Saturday that I realized that it coincided with GFBD2020. My Instagram post was tagged appropriately to mark the occasion.

While the previous weekend was spent single-speeding, last weekend was all about exploring the first snow on my fat-bike. What both weekends had in common was a short drive to get me closer to the Chasseral. From home, this favorite peak of mine is now a 7-hour loop away. While that's doable, I can currently not be away from home for such a long time. For the two single-speed rides, I started in Frinvillier on Saturday and just above Biel on Sunday. For the two fat-bike rides, my point of departure was Les Prés d'Orvin.