Whistler: Mountain Bike Mecca

Symi came for three runs. The bottom of the chairlift, notice the jumps
in the background that are part of the Crankworks madness

 

Top of the World. Awesome scenery, dubious trail in many places

What can you say about Whistler that hasn’t been already? It has the most famous lift accessed trail in the world (A line) and the most ridden trail in the world (Crank it up, runs into Heart of Darkness).
It is also home to many pro riders who use Whistler as their base. The trip started by arriving on an afternoon when rain set in to Whistler. The next day was the first for riding and had intermittent rain. Not ideal for getting acquainted with steep trails, wooden structures and the many tree roots. It was enough to get a feel for the trail ‘signature’ of Whistler and start to learn some trails. Luckily I met up with Mark from Perth who was on his fourth trip and he assumed the role of de facto trail guide.

Upper mountain, on Freight Train

The rain continued the next morning, no point riding in this, two runs was enough to pull the plug and retreat to the dryness and warmth of the indoors. The beauty of longs days and lifts open 10am to 8pm, is there is a long riding window. Returning at 5pm and doing 8 runs (5 CIU and 3 A line) with drying hero dirt was fantastic. One thing Whistler is good for is learning to hit jumps at speed staying away from the two levers that get you in trouble (the brakes). The tabletop

Wall ride. Lower Blue Velvet

ramps are big, tops long (many 6-8m) and transitions long. Also a feature is many ‘fade away’ jumps, step-ups and step-downs. A line (A=addictive?) upped the ante for me, only two jumps not conquered completely (including a 10m table, but so close!) and some intermittently conquered. The big lesson learnt here is release early on jumps, that is before the top of the ramp and have suspension rebound slower than you think necessary. The second last run of the day I came screaming around a corner on HOD and there was a black bear happily standing in the middle of the trail. An emergency stop while shouting loudly saw the bear take off down the track. Danger seems to come from unexpected places (MH17 included!).

Daily sightings of these guys, normally from the lift

Lower Blue Velvet :)

After the rain came the ‘heatwave’ with temperatures topping out at 35 degrees. All in all fine for riding with the added advantage of short queues for the lift. By far the longest wait was 15 minutes, with the vast majority under 5. A strategy was to ride higher on the mountain up the Garbanzo lift where temperatures were significantly less. The other discovery was Lost Lake which was between the RV Park and lift. Great for recovery and spending time with Symi (who was missing her Dad). The 11 days of riding were enough to become very familiar with many trails in the park. It was enough to require almost daily visits to a bike shop. Beware bike parts in Whistler are horrendously overpriced. However another full fork rebuild only cost $40 in labour! It also involved a shop visit because a lift attendant popped my tyre (two days old), he didn’t roll my bike far enough from the lift

Four rear tyres in 11 rides, argh

and the chair ended up on top of the rear tyre exploding it. The bike shop fitted a new tyre at the resorts expense (plus a free day on the mountain) but the mechanic didn’t listen to my request for a robust rear tyre. ‘Trust me this tyre will be fine’ (2.35 TR high roller, $90+ retail!!). Two hours later I was back at the shop after destroying the tyre. Not happy with my complaint he ended up throwing (literally) another tyre at me, this time a DH High Roller (non-tubeless). He mustn’t think people with grey thinning hair ride hard? He did the same thing to Mark the next day who was buying a DH tube for me (wasn’t game to show my face and the DH tyre didn’t want to run tubeless exploding off the rim upon landing a jump!) and was told he only needed a light tube. The lesson here is Whistler destroys light rear tyres, my choice would be a Minion UST dual ply in the future.

Drop In Clinic, yes that's the correct angle

Two weeks at Whistler went in a blur. It’s a dream place to ride and I am thankful for the opportunity to ride here. Of course it should be on any mountain bikers bucket list. My riding skills progressed massively in all areas. Favourite trails include the above mentioned plus Original Sin into lower Blue Velvet, No Joke, Drop in Clinic, Side Track, Duffman, upper

Joyride, Bel Bocca Vista…………Luckily I only had one minor fall and a ‘save’ from what would have been a huge crash on A line. Overuse injuries amount to sore hands, particularly flexor tendon of right hand. Unfortunately I didn’t ride the vast network of singletrack that surrounds Whistler (could also mention North Shore Vancouver and Squamish), there is soooo much here not sure even where to start. The Nomad survived the DH abuse, however due to the many rough braking bumps it’s not the weapon of choice here and I would want to come back with a light carbon DH bike, preferably a Devinci with ………..

Some Gro Pro action, enjoy. Hopefully more to come.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB33gSp_gaY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FELtl3Ok31M

Symi on berm. Crank It Up.
Time for a new camera!