How difficult is mountain biking in actual mountains if you've

>>42165110
uh, it depends?

Depends. Are we talking well-trafficked fire roads/hiking trails? Pretty easy. As long as you don't get too crazy on the downhill and skid off a cliff you're good.

Single track with hairpins on a steep downhill? Not so easy until you have great balance of front + back wheel and braking. I would still do it, but make sure you don't just disappear one day and break a major bone then die in the wilderness.

Ability to rock hop and the cool jumps you see on youtube and think "wow that looks like fun! I can do that!" come later.

Expect to fuck your shit up. Get up and keep trying.

I do a 20 mile mixed single track/fire road trail with about 1/4 of solid dirt jumps once a week. It can be a rush, but I've been riding seriously for 15 years. I know how to fall, and I wear a fullface helmet.

It can be a lot of fun and extremely fulfilling, not to mention /fit/ people tend to pick it up more quickly than fatties off the couch.

>>42165175
I want to try my luck on the red trails

https://www.whistler.com/trails/bike/

>>42165216
all of the red trails look like downhill segments, which is more a test of bike handling skills, balance and concentration than fitness. if you're a novice, start off with basic XC trails and develop your skills from there; see also what >>42165202 said and, for specific skills etc., GMBN on youtube has a lot of videos

>>42165295
>than fitness
You've never done this. Not with a stopwatch.
The cardio demands of true timed downhill are on par with sprinting.

>>42165493
i misspoke; the limiting factor for a novice will be their bike handing skills. (we're talking to a person who's asking the question "How difficult is mountain biking in actual mountains if you've never done it?")

>>42165493
>>42165539
also, as you might be interested: http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/ijspp.2014-0135

>>42165216

whistler has a lot of long, fast trails. with a few mandatory jumps. when i first went biking it was on burnaby mountain my friends gave me a 5 minute crash course and then took me down intermediate trails. a lot of rough ground, rocks, tree roots and stuff. and no run off area if you screw up. needless to say i bailed a lot. but if you keep at it it can be pretty fun and you'll pick it up fairly quickly