It was time again to head back to East Africa to follow up on some of the Wheels 4 Life work we have been doing there in the past years. Our charity has evolved and grown a lot, we now have an infrastructure in place with a team of field volunteers that enables us to run this non-profit organization pure, efficient and effective. Our mission was to meet many of our project leaders from Kenya and Uganda in the field, as well as a lot of our previous bike recipients to monitor first hand the impact the bicycles have had on their lives and give a whole lot more away at the same time, 270 bikes to be precise. We also wanted to learn, about the countries, the people, their needs and character. We are often asked the questions; “Can we make a difference, are we making a difference?” The answer is yes; most definitely we can and are.
The MTB Ayiti event was organized this year for the first time with the ultimate goal of developing mountain biking in Haiti through local, microenterprise Haitian businesses. The Haiti Ascent Mountain Bike Stage Race is a cornerstone event – it’s more than just a race. This race will develop a mountain bike ecosystem in Haiti and provide a transforming experience to participants.
I was contacted by the organizer in the early planning stages last year. It sounded very promising, even though I’m not a racer anymore and never was into endurance racing – I thought it would make a nice ride to traverse this beautiful but poverty stricken Caribbean Island at my own pace. There was a great opportunity to tie in a Wheels 4 Life charity project and to help develop a local mountain bike infrastructure that could potentially attract mountain biking tourism in the future and help the grim economic situation that country is facing, especially after the devastation earthquake in 2010 that destroyed many cities and killed over 300,000 people.
We just completed a cool and exhausting trip to some of the famous Ecuadorian volcanos with Swiss Freerider Alban Aubert and photographer Patrice Schreyer.
Our goal was to ride each volcano from between 16000 to 17000 ft, about 5000 meters. The idea was to drive as high as we could with a 4×4 vehicle, then hike to the Refugios/ mountain huts, spend the nights at high altitude and then climb a bit further in the morning before descending into the low lands.
The Spell of Roop KundIndian Himalayas Oct. 2011by Hans Rey & Carmen Rey
The last thing I pictured myself doing, if I could reach the mysterious Roop Kund Lake in the remote Uttarakhand region in India's Himalayan Range was crash face first into a pile of muddy human bones. Well, that is exactly what happened. I had paid tribute and my respects at the little shrine only minutes before, a necessary precaution since I have had my interesting experiences with bones and spirits in the past. Was it coincidence, an accident or a spell from the gods that suddenly pulled my front wheel from underneath me and made me go down faster than the speed of light? I might have been delirious from the lack of oxygen at 5000meter/16400ft. when I followed Joscha down the footpath to the shore of the tiny alpine lake and all of a sudden realized that the many human bones reported there, weren't just in the lake, but everywhere, all around us, even on the shore where we were at that moment riding. That very second my front wheel felt like it was yanked from beneath me and I crashed hard, face first in the wet mud! In the process hitting a huge boulder that had bones and skulls laid on top just like a sacrificial altar. I immediately jumped to my knees, partly freaked out and partly shocked, it was then that I realized I had landed face first on top of countless bones.
It was time again to head back to East Africa to follow up on some of the Wheels 4 Life work we have been doing there in the past years. Our charity has evolved and grown a lot, we now have an infrastructure in place with a team of field volunteers that enables us to run this non-profit organization pure, efficient and effective. Our mission was to meet many of our project leaders from Kenya and Uganda in the field, as well as a lot of our previous bike recipients to monitor first hand the impact the bicycles have had on their lives and give a whole lot more away at the same time, 270 bikes to be precise. We also wanted to learn, about the countries, the people, their needs and character. We are often asked the questions; “Can we make a difference, are we making a difference?” The answer is yes; most definitely we can and are.
The MTB Ayiti event was organized this year for the first time with the ultimate goal of developing mountain biking in Haiti through local, microenterprise Haitian businesses. The Haiti Ascent Mountain Bike Stage Race is a cornerstone event – it’s more than just a race. This race will develop a mountain bike ecosystem in Haiti and provide a transforming experience to participants.
I was contacted by the organizer in the early planning stages last year. It sounded very promising, even though I’m not a racer anymore and never was into endurance racing – I thought it would make a nice ride to traverse this beautiful but poverty stricken Caribbean Island at my own pace. There was a great opportunity to tie in a Wheels 4 Life charity project and to help develop a local mountain bike infrastructure that could potentially attract mountain biking tourism in the future and help the grim economic situation that country is facing, especially after the devastation earthquake in 2010 that destroyed many cities and killed over 300,000 people. 
We just completed a cool and exhausting trip to some of the famous Ecuadorian volcanos with Swiss Freerider Alban Aubert and photographer Patrice Schreyer.
Our goal was to ride each volcano from between 16000 to 17000 ft, about 5000 meters. The idea was to drive as high as we could with a 4×4 vehicle, then hike to the Refugios/ mountain huts, spend the nights at high altitude and then climb a bit further in the morning before descending into the low lands.