Redbull Rampage with Hannah Bergemann
Interview by Jeremy Dunn & Jaden Anderson.
Photos By Robin O’Neil
SMITH: First of all, congrats on a successful Rampage! It was exciting to watch, and even though the Men’s side was canceled because of weather, the cool thing is we got more than our fill of the action from the women’s field.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell from out here on the internet what actually goes into the creation of a Rampage course - which you and your team have to do yourself - before you even get up there to take your final runs. Can you take us through a little bit of how you approach the event as a whole?
HANNAH: I'd say 90% of the event happens before finals day. There’s so much prep that goes into being ready for finals. Lots of training and riding throughout the year - trying to practice tricks and features I might want to do in my run. And then eight days of planning and digging our lines. We start with a blank canvas on the mountain and have to route and build a line down, which is super challenging to visualize mentally, and then physically bringing it to life is a ton of work. If you want to see more BTS about Rampage, we did a vlog series of each day on my YouTube channel.
Tell us a little bit about your crew and dig team; how many people is your entourage when you travel out to the desert for this event?
My team consists of Skye Schillhammer and Kelend Hawks as my diggers. They are two good buds from Bellingham who I’ve been digging with and riding with for the last 10 years. They’ve taught me a lot of what I know about building and riding, and I trust them, so we make a great team. Ana Julia Gutiérrez is doing media for me - she was capturing content and photos each day and making the vlogs for me. Plus, Robin O’Neil captured action on the day.
We all saw the slo-mo video of your tumble while you were out testing the track (“oh hi Mark!”). What’s the way - what’s the internal dialogue that happens to get you back up to the top of the mountain? Like, how do you psyche yourself up? What’s going through your head?
Maybe it’s par for the course for you, but for the rest of us, it looked gnarly.
In this case, I first made sure I was okay, and that adrenaline wasn’t hiding any injuries. Then, I tried to process what I did wrong and use it as a learning experience to know what to do better. In this case, it was easy, and I just needed to go a little faster. So I just trust that I know what I need to do, and then go for it. It was good for me to be able to do it in the moment while it was fresh, and then I can lock it in.
Am I remembering correctly that you donned a brand new, freshly painted Hardline Helmet for the event? In fact, design-wise, your whole kit looked rad! Tell us about the inspiration for this one?
Yes! I had a freshly painted Hardline Carbon helmet for Red Bull Rampage that was a collaboration between Red Bull, Paint House Customs, and my sister Abby. My sister designed the kit and bike - she went with a fun retro theme with a flames design for the 25th anniversary of Rampage. Then Paint House Customs added the flames to my helmet! Easily the coolest kit, bike, and helmet I’ve ever had!! Felt sooo cool to have a piece of my sister's work with me at all times!
EXTRA CREDIT: Inside the New Hardline Helmet with Hannah B. Check out the Hardline Carbon development story here.
Women’s Rampage just wrapped its third year; what are some of the differences between this one and the first iteration? And what’s in store for the next one??
The progression from the first year to now is pretty rad to see - more tricks, bigger features, more complex lines, etc. I think we will continue to see forward progression on all fronts!
Ok, before we go - Women’s Freeride is taking off (a huge thanks to you and your Hangtime Event is in order too). Who are some of the riders that we should be keeping an eye on?
Women’s freeride is the best, and there are so many rad up-and-comers to keep your eyes on! I had a whole crew of my favorite groms come to cheer me on at Rampage, which was so cool!
Mayumi Wakefield, Peyton Lee, Lilly Mollenkopf, London Tobia, & Amelia Mason came to watch me, and all of those gals are ones to keep your eyes on.
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