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Published: March 6th 2007
World’s most dangerous road…I’d seen photos and heard all about it, so it was a must do for me in La Paz. For those of you who don’t know, it has done enough to earn its stripes as the World’s most dangerous road. It’s hard to get absolute statistics, but on average, it is estimated 200 people die on this road every year (It was completed in 1935) The year 2003 was a particularly bad year, reporting the worst single accident of 85 Bolivians who died on a bus returning from a festival in La Paz. In 1994, 26 vehicles went over the edge. There have been 7 mountain bike deaths, the most recent one’s were 6 months before I did it, and 5 days after. The road is now not as dangerous as it used to be as a new road on the opposing mountain has been built, and takes 99% of the traffic that world’s most dangerous road used to take.
So it was with a small amount of apprehension, and lots of excitement, that we commenced the downward spiral from an extremely wet, foggy and cold mountain pass. Before we got to the starting point however,
there was the small matter of a 4km uphill section at over 4000m above sea level. Of course given my previous levels of fitness, I felt it was of utmost importance I beat everyone (except the guide) up this hilly section. I don’t think I have felt pain like it since I did my one and only half marathon. My heart wanted to pump its way out of its cavity, and my lungs were ready to internally self combust at any moment. It took a good 15 minutes for my respiratory and pulmonary systems to sort themselves out again, but most importantly I did beat everyone but the guide.
After a break to check the bikes were all working, the descent started. The road drops 2000m in about 35km. To add to the vertical descent, the at times only 10ft wide gravel road, has sheer drops of up to 500m on your left. One mistake, and there were no second chances, as an Argentinean, and Englishman demonstrated right in front of me. Firstly, I think the Argentineans’ self belief far outweighed his actual ability. Within 3 minutes of starting the descent, he was looking all out of control around
a tight right hand turn before pulling it all together. All good, apart from the fact that there was a sharp left coming up, and fast. It was all too much, and he lost control of the bike and went within 1 foot of his bike, and potentially himself taking a trip down a 200m sheer drop. It was then after lunch, an Englishman was to strike some unfortunate luck. He was actually quite a good rider, but after a left hand turn, the rear of his bike went sideways, and he either grabbed the front brakes, or the front wheel hit a rock, and he went straight over his handlebars. After a couple of minutes dozing in and out of consciousness, he awoke asking his mate if he had the camera. We all thought it was funny and were about to continue on, when his mate mentioned the accident, of which he had no recollection of anything happening. He could remember having lunch 10 minutes earlier, but had no recollection of the accident. It was in the bus for him and no more bikes for the day. Luckily for him, Downhill Madness provided full face helmets which saved further
concussion, and some nasty facial adjustments.
After all the excitement of the two accidents, it was easy to forget the stunning surroundings. However you couldn’t help but be amazed as you rode down this road, cut into the side of a stunning mountain, with another mountain just as scary and beautiful on the other side. Looking down over the left side of the road was an exhilarating feeling, and was the big appeal of riding on such a dangerous piece of dirt.
So it was a feeling of accomplishment as we sat at a tiny village on the edge of the Amazon, some 3400 metres below where we first began, and enjoyed a Bolivian Cerveza sharing tales of near misses, and hits in the cases of the Englishman and Argentinean.
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