Compare by activity · 7 descents · 7 grounds · metres from operators, park owners and the BLM
No rope, no harness. Just a hill that does not stop for seven thousand feet.
A downhill run is the one adventure where the number is the ride: how many metres between the top and the bottom. This list ranks the descents on Thrillgrounds by the drop that the park, the operator or the land agency publishes, from a 26-mile alpine-to-desert run in Utah to a gondola bike park in New Zealand. The biggest of them all, the Death Road in Bolivia, is not a ground yet and sits above the list.
The published descent of one ride. Where a park quotes lift-served vertical, that is the number; where a route runs from a summit to the sea, the summit height.
Vertical drop from top to bottom · 6 entries
7,000+ ft2,134 m · 7,001 ft
Moab, Utah · Ground 09 · Moab & Southern Utah
Pulse 4/5From Burro Pass at 11,200 feet in the La Sal Mountains to the Colorado River at 4,000 – 26.5 miles and “over 7000 feet of vertical”, alpine meadow to slickrock to canyon rim in one day. Shuttle up, ride down; the top opens July 1 at the earliest and closes with the snow.
Who can: advanced – “very tough, steep decents, large obsticles and some big drops” (BLM); shuttles sold direct
Source: Bureau of Land Management, The Whole Enchilada Trail (“11,200 feet” at Burro Pass, “4000 feet” at the river, “over 7000 feet of vertical”, “26.5 miles”)
~1,8001,800 m · 5,906 ft
Madeira, Portugal · Ground 03 · Madeira
Pulse 4/5Start at the island's third-highest peak, 1,818 metres, and ride enduro trails all the way to the Atlantic at Machico – nearly 1,800 metres of drop through laurel forest, eucalyptus and Enduro World Series stages. Guided, shuttled, sold by the local operators.
Who can: experienced riders; steep, rocky, exposed
Source: visitmadeira.com, Mountain biking in Madeira (“start a ride at Pico do Arieiro (1,818 m) and descend all the way to sea level in a single run — nearly 1,800 metres of vertical drop”)
4,946 ft1,507 m · 4,944 ft
Whistler, Canada · Ground 16 · Whistler & the Sea to Sky
Pulse 4/5The bike park the others are measured against: 1,507 metres of lift-served vertical, about 80 kilometres of trail and 120 named runs off the Whistler Village gondola, from green flow trails to the Top of the World off the peak. Passes sold by Whistler Blackcomb.
Who can: all levels by trail colour; rentals and lessons at the base
Source: Mountain Biking BC, Whistler Mountain Bike Park (“4,946 feet or 1,507 metres of lift-serviced descending”, “120 bike trails that span 80 kilometres”)
1,220m · 4,003 ft
Finse–Flåm, Norway · Ground 20 · Fjord Norway
Pulse 2/5The navvies' road along the Bergen railway: from Finse station at 1,222 metres, the highest on Norway's rail network, down gravel and 21 hairpins to Flåm at the fjord. Eighty kilometres from Haugastøl, over 20,000 riders in the July-to-September season. Bikes rented at the top, returned at the bottom.
Who can: gravel, not technical; July to September
Source: Wikipedia, Finse Station (“1,222.2 m (4,010 ft) above mean sea level”, “the highest point on the Norwegian railway network”); Wikipedia, Rallarvegen (“80 kilometres (50 mi) from Haugestøl to Flåm”, “in the short season from July to September, over 20,000 cyclists”)
3,000 ft914 m · 2,999 ft
Blue Mountains, Jamaica · Ground 15 · Jamaica
Pulse 1/5A van to Hardwar Gap at 5,600 feet, the highest point in the Blue Mountains you can reach by road, then 9 to 12 miles of coasting down through coffee plantations to brunch at about 2,600 feet – “95% no-pedaling”, from age six. The gentlest entry on this page and the only one with a waterfall at the end.
Who can: 6+; $109 adult direct, more with pickup
Source: bluemountaintoursja.com (“at an elevation of 5,600 feet”, “9 to 12 miles downhill”, “approximately 3 hours”, “Six (6) years and older”, “95% no-pedaling”; brunch stop about 2,600 ft)
450m · 1,476 ft
Queenstown, New Zealand · Ground 21 · Queenstown
Pulse 3/5Bikes go up the Skyline gondola, six minutes to the top of Bob's Peak, and come down about 450 vertical metres of purpose-built trail above the town – more than 30 kilometres of it, open for uplift September to May. Small drop, big lap count.
Who can: gondola bike pass sold by Skyline; all levels
Source: queenstownnz.co.nz, Bike parks (“450m vertical”); Skyline Queenstown, Bike Uplift (six-minute gondola, uplift September to May)
Records we have not measured ourselves – because the ground is not built yet or the operator publishes nothing we can check. Listed so the ranking is honest.
3,500m · 11,483 ft
The Yungas Road from La Cumbre near La Paz down to Coroico: “3,500 metres (11,500 ft)” of descent on a 64-kilometre road that the Inter-American Development Bank called the most dangerous in the world in 1995 – about 25,000 riders a year, at least 18 cyclist deaths since 1998. Bookable on GetYourGuide from La Paz; La Paz is not a ground, so it stays above the ranking.
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The most-booked bike ride on Thrillgrounds, from the rim of the Batur caldera down to Ubud – but no operator publishes the descent in metres, so it cannot be ranked. It is on the Bali page with prices.
Among rides you can book, the Death Road in Bolivia: 3,500 metres from La Cumbre above La Paz down to Coroico on a 64-kilometre road, sold as a guided day from La Paz. On Thrillgrounds grounds the biggest drop is the Whole Enchilada in Moab at over 7,000 feet – about 2,100 metres – followed by Madeira's peak-to-sea run at nearly 1,800 and Whistler Bike Park's 1,507 metres of lift-served vertical.
The Blue Mountain tour in Jamaica takes six-year-olds and is “95% no-pedaling” on tarmac; Rallarvegen in Norway is a gravel road with 21 hairpins, long rather than technical; Queenstown Bike Park has green trails from the gondola. The Whole Enchilada and Madeira's enduro descent are for experienced riders – the BLM's own words for Moab are “very tough, steep decents, large obsticles and some big drops”.
Mostly not, and we say so at every entry: bike parks sell their own lift passes (Whistler, Queenstown), Rallarvegen is a bike rental at Finse or Haugastøl, the Moab shuttles and Madeira's enduro guides sell direct. GetYourGuide carries the Death Road from La Paz and the Kintamani downhill on Bali, both listed with prices on their pages.
Alpine descents follow the snow: the top of the Whole Enchilada opens July 1 at the earliest and closes in September or October, Whistler's park runs roughly May to October, Rallarvegen July to September, Queenstown's gondola uplift September to May. Madeira, Jamaica and Bali ride all year.
Because one ride does not make a ground. Our deep test on 25 September 2026 found about 15,000 searches a month for La Paz adventures, 70 % of them for the Death Road alone, and no other bookable height in the city – Huayna Potosí is not on the platforms. So it lives here, above the ranking, with its number.
