Where it all started.

Twenty-five years of freeride.

Red Bull Rampage started in 2001 on a ridge outside Virgin, Utah. A handful of downhill racers, dirt jumpers and early freeriders showed up to find out whether bikes could get down terrain nobody thought was rideable. Wade Simmons won it, and freeride has been pushing on that question ever since.

This isn't a race. Each rider picks a line down the mountain, builds it by hand and gets two runs on finals day. Judges score the best run out of 100 based on how hard the line is, tricks and style, control and flow.

For the 25th anniversary, Rampage went back to the original 2001–2004 venue and added a new section above the old start gate. That made it the tallest Rampage venue ever, with 678 feet from the start gate to the finish corral. It was also the first time the men and women dropped from the same start gate. Women have only had their own Rampage competition since 2024.

Seven days, three diggers, 100 sandbags.

Every line at Rampage is dug by the rider and their crew. The riders arrived on September 29, and every team got the same budget: three diggers, 100 sandbags and seven days. Power tools and outside materials aren't allowed. All they get is picks, shovels, sandbags and a lot of water to make the desert dirt hold its shape.

Going back to the old venue didn't make the digging any easier. Most of the original takeoffs and landings had crumbled away, so nearly everything was built from scratch, and the extra height meant about twice as many features to dig.

Riders tend to bring diggers they trust completely, usually close friends from home. A digger does a lot more than move dirt. Diggers talk riders through speeds on features nobody has hit before, and on finals morning they're out on the line watering and raking it clean.

Crash, reset, send it.

Practice is where a line stops being a drawing in the dirt. Hannah wanted a chute in her run this year after going without one in 2025, so she centered her line around it. Pepper in some jumps, a few massive step-downs and a mind-bendingly large step-up, and Hannah had a line with winning potential.

Not everything went to plan. While testing the 40-foot Big Lebowski drop, she crashed and somersaulted down the landing. Completely rattled but physically OK, she hiked back up and stomped it before practice ended, landing her the BFGoodrich Tires Toughness Award.

Painted by her sister.

Hannah rode a Transition Bottlerocket, the freeride bike Transition brought back and developed with its freeride athletes. It rolls on 27.5-inch wheels front and rear.

Her sister Abby, a tattoo artist at Warhorse Tattoo in Bozeman, Montana, designed and hand-painted the frame. Hannah says Abby went with a vibrant retro theme to mark Rampage's 25th year: blue-to-pink swirls, old-school flames running up the fork and seat stays, and HB on the swingarm. Abby painted Hannah's Rampage bike last year too. This year she also hand-painted Hannah's ION chest protector, so the bike, armor and kit all match.

Event day.

The women's final ran on Thursday, October 8, with the riding order set by a random draw. Hannah's first run linked big jumps, drops and chutes at full speed on one of the longest lines on the hill, and after the first round she sat ahead of defending champion Robin Goomes.

Goomes answered with a cleaner second run and won with 93.50. Hannah finished second on 92.75, three-quarters of a point back, for her second Rampage podium in two years. Kirsten Van Horne was third.

A blank canvas.

Before picking a line, Johny walked the mountain with his crew and called it a blank canvas. He settled on a run that ended with a canyon gap: a 20-foot drop into the run-in, then a gap to a cliffside landing with no room to stop.

Mint, gold and go big.

Johny rode a Transition Bottlerocket, the same freeride bike as Hannah, in mint green with orange Transition lettering. His name and a reminder for Rampage 2026 sit on the frame: Go Big.

He ran a Fox 40 Factory fork and Float X2 shock, a SRAM XX AXS drivetrain and Maven brakes, Industry Nine Hydra 2 wheels with Pirelli Emperor tires, a Tenet Bodem AL V3 bar and Tenet Omen SL pedals.

Holy Toledo.

The men's final ran on Saturday, October 10, and Johny was third to drop. He rode his line top to bottom, crossed into the finish corral with his family and friends waiting, and scored 82.37. That put him in the lead until Kade Edwards topped it.

Then the wind came up. After nine riders had dropped, it was too strong to carry on, and the event was called off. Rampage rules say every rider has to get a first run before a winner is named, so 2026 has no men's champion. Johny's score finished as the fourth best of the day. Our other Rampage rider, Talus Turk, chose not to drop in the wind.

Johny said it took him a couple of days to take it all in. Cancelled or not, he did what he came to do.