Whistler Bike Park and trails conditions

[skiingnow]

I'm going to ride Kyber pass tomorrow to check it out for myself. I've heard mixed messages but can't imagine there isn't some damage. WORCA in on board with these events, they a bit bigger picture then most locals who are against these events. If people want to keep the status quo and try to prevent change, then yes the best thing to do is to join WORCA and try to stop these events on the local trails. But that is a step backwards. The more people who use these trails, the more events you can have on these trails, the more legitimate trails you can build in the future. Maybe even in the alpine.

Sure you can say throwing money at it doesn't justify it. But just like the sport, the trails will evolve. And yes, after the Enduro craze fades, we'll still be riding and fixing the trails.

Its a catch22, remember the only constant is change. I can see both sides of the coin. I'm not against such events, but yes they will change the trails that are used.

[skiingnow]

Lee went to the Chilcotins this week so I volunteered for crankworx Tues/Wed/Thurs

Weather cooled off, rain fell Thurs/Fri so conditions should get a bit tackier!

Some shots of the events:

Garbonzo DH. I was at the top, you can really see the difference in skill levels between the riders! While I ride the same trails at the pros, I don't think we do the same sport!

Brazilian rider, came in 14th.


Next day was the Air DH, I was near the bottom on the turn when B-line merges, some pretty sketchy moves here!


Emmiline Ragot 4:39, 2nd in womens


Sam Blenkinsop 4:18, one of two riders to take the outside line


Steve smith- he won...4:12


Then I was at the jump for the Best Trick. Don't ask me to describe it...

Mike Mongomery - I think this was the winning one, or the one before the winning one without the tailwhip


Sam Dueck - he performed.


more of my pictures here

Now its time to ride!

[powder11]

You're totally right, Sharon! The only thing that kind of bothers me about this are people trying to justify the whole thing by saying the trail is the same as it's always been. I ride Billy Epic once a week because it's an awesome trail right behind my house and an easy loop after work. I know every fucking bump in the trail, so I kind of laugh when some dude who's been out of town for over a year get's up on his high horse about how he thinks the race had no effect when it clearly did. For the guy who won the pro category to mention it in his ride blog is fairly telling. In the end, we are damn lucky to have such problems and I do more than my share of trailbuilding and maintenance, so I'm not going to worry about the dudes who should probably take up motocross, which would probably be more fun for them and less expensive!

[Clownshoe]

Definitely a double edged sword. Tourism keeps our town in business, so I think there is a case for holding these types of events that showcase out town and our trail network. It's also a bummer when trails as sweet as those get trashed. I guess it will remain to be seen what type of time and effort is put into rehab by the parties involved. All the international athletes raved about the event, so there is an upside there I think.

[xyz]

Definitely a double edged sword. Tourism keeps our town in business, so I think there is a case for holding these types of events that showcase out town and our trail network. It's also a bummer when trails as sweet as those get trashed. I guess it will remain to be seen what type of time and effort is put into rehab by the parties involved. All the international athletes raved about the event, so there is an upside there I think.

Yup, pretty much. You guys live in a tourist town. Whistler wouldn't exist without tourism. Punched trails is just part of the compromise. If you don't like it, move to some small low key town with rad biking and skiing. There's more than a few out there.

[skiingnow]

One way to minimize the impact on the trails is to not announce the course until the morning of the event.

Sure riders will bitch, there will still be traffic on the trail but not as much since people won't preride to figure out where they can braid and this will also make them ride more conservatively since they won't know the trail.

[t.odd]

You're totally right, Sharon! The only thing that kind of bothers me about this are people trying to justify the whole thing by saying the trail is the same as it's always been. I ride Billy Epic once a week because it's an awesome trail right behind my house and an easy loop after work. I know every fucking bump in the trail, so I kind of laugh when some dude who's been out of town for over a year get's up on his high horse about how he thinks the race had no effect when it clearly did. For the guy who won the pro category to mention it in his ride blog is fairly telling. In the end, we are damn lucky to have such problems and I do more than my share of trailbuilding and maintenance, so I'm not going to worry about the dudes who should probably take up motocross, which would probably be more fun for them and less expensive!

some dude, who's been the president of worca, and membership director, and done lots of vollie trail work. If you're you're going to call me out, call me out, Toby. I stand by my statements, as you well know. I'm not a fucking idiot, I do trail related planning work as a part of my career. You over exaggerated the impact on Billy, highly, the monies given to worca to mitigate the impacts will be more than enough to cover the impacts, by a lot. I've been here for 10 years, and because I was gone for 10 months I have no right to have an opinion? You called people who've done more for trails in this town than you ever will "sheep" and that's just fucking sad. I never said it didn't have an impact, I said the impact was way less that some of you would have people believe and that it will be easily mitigated by paid builders, which it will. Jesus.

[powder11]

some dude, who's been the president of worca, and membership director, and done lots of vollie trail work. If you're you're going to call me out, call me out, Toby. I stand by my statements, as you well know. I'm not a fucking idiot, I do trail related planning work as a part of my career. You over exaggerated the impact on Billy, highly, the monies given to worca to mitigate the impacts will be more than enough to cover the impacts, by a lot. I've been here for 10 years, and because I was gone for 10 months I have no right to have an opinion? You called people who've done more for trails in this town than you ever will "sheep" and that's just fucking sad. I never said it didn't have an impact, I said the impact was way less that some of you would have people believe and that it will be easily mitigated by paid builders, which it will. Jesus.

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. The only reason I brought up you being out of town for a year is because Tim did quite a bit of repair work on Billy Epic last fall and it was looking much better than it ever has and you probably never saw that. Not having all the time in the world to go ride all over the place, I ride Billy Epic quite often, so I know the before and after picture quite well. Certainly not the end of the world by any stretch, but it sucks having my go to trail get hammered like that and then have the folks responsible play it off like it didn't happen. I would never call into question your knowledge or committment to the local mtn bike community, but you are really going to piss me off if you continue saying I'm overexaggerting the impact. I'm certainly not the only person in town who feels this way and the dude who won the race saw the impact in only a couple of days. I'm talking about mutual friends, who have actually built awesome trails, who really resent the way WORCA handled the situation, but don't say shit publicly because they don't like rocking the boat. Downplay it all you want to justify the action, but the bottom line is that this sort of racing has a large impact on trails not designed to take the abuse. Yeah, we can constantly send people out to fix the damage, but there will always be a visible mark and a lot of people who have been mtn biking in town a hell of a lot longer than both of us combined think that is a bad idea, so don't point your fickle finger at me like I'm just someone talking out his ass. All I am doing is responding to you trying to steam roll an opposing opinion held by many others in town, but the difference is that I'm not the type of person who is going to just sit back quietly and take it, so you better get used to hearing about it from me because I'm not part of the popularity contest that goes on around here. You can try to paint me into whatever corner you want, but I have many, many, many hours of eating dirt and sawdust, out in the cold rain or sweating balls while getting eaten alive by bugs, working on a trail that a lot of people now enjoy riding regularly, so I am etremely confident in my quiet contribution to Whistler trails. I think you should quit the holier than thou cool kids bit and at least acknowledge there's problem here and provide workable solutions like the professional you are. We can all work together to find common ground or set up opposing camps and go to war. The choice is yours.

[skiingnow]

Rode Kyber Pass today, if you didn't know there was a race on it you wouldn't know there had been a race on it. Some areas have deeper ruts, wider spots but probably not much more impact then the regular increase that's been happening in the last while.

We also rode IBT. I haven't ridden it yet this year so can't say how the event impacted the trail. There are braids around the rocks that weren't there last year. Friends who did ride the trail before the event and after did say these lines started to appear earlier this year and are more established now. They also commented on the ruts at the top that weren't there before. All these are easily fixable though.


Chilly 7oC at the top! 17 in the valley.

The rain has done the trails good. TOTW is pretty rocky.

[xyz]

I rode IBT/AMPM the week before the Enduro and again yesterday. It seems like the same great trail it always is.

[brannen]

Hecklefest was re-god-damn-diculous again! still cant ride my bike, but sure enjoyed watching other people doing it

[dfinn]

brannen stop reading here





so good out there tonight! I was able to avoid the place all during CW and it was so rad to come back to good dirt, lots of fixed up trails and hardly any crowds. I'm looking for people to ride with so if anyone is in town or wants to get some laps in, hit me up. I'm usually out there from 4pm on during the week.

[brannen]

dan,
im still available to shuttle you losers around in the evenings.

[robnow]

What a great last bunch of days. Sunday was a Kashmir to Kush day in the wet, Alberta boy here freakin' out on those slip roots. Next day was a good ole P11 tour. Yesterday got in all of Business Time, had only done BT to AMPM before, liked it...then onto High Society/Industrial Disease/Moose Knuckles, that was EXCELLENT...then over to Rainbow Flank, didn't know where to go so went back to Billy's. Today had a great day in the park, conditions were perfect.

Get out there and get some!

[powder11]

What a great last bunch of days. Sunday was a Kashmir to Kush day in the wet, Alberta boy here freakin' out on those slip roots. Next day was a good ole P11 tour. Yesterday got in all of Business Time, had only done BT to AMPM before, liked it...then onto High Society/Industrial Disease/Moose Knuckles, that was EXCELLENT...then over to Rainbow Flank, didn't know where to go so went back to Billy's. Today had a great day in the park, conditions were perfect.

Get out there and get some!

Too bad you didnt keep on keepin on up Rainbow flank to Howler. Probably what Billy Epic looked like just before the enduro race All kidding aside, it's probably what Billy Epic looked like when it was built. Fast fall line single track all the way to the valley. I think trails like IBT can handle an enduro because there is a fair amount of punchy climbs and you never really hit speeds high enough to rip shit up. Khyber was cooked long ago and is pretty much a blue square version of RDS. I also see it as a WBP trail, so have at it for enduro racing. It will be interesting to see how Clark's funduro pans out. I like the slight changes in format as well as not announcing the trails until the start. Seems like common sense.

[Schemeboat]

Valley trails tomorrow? This desk jockey is joyously sneaking out for an afternoon ride before an evening thing at 6pm.

[TeCeBe]

Interestingly enough Billy Epic was a trials trail before it was a bike trail, or so I've been told.

[nickel]

I know Billy Epic is a classic and all, but am I the only one who thinks it's really funny to complain about a fall line trail getting shit kicked? Maybe we need more, newer fall line trails... meh.

[D(C)]

I just signed up for the Westside Funduro. Who else is planning to race?

[dfinn]

Are the bees always super aggressive this time of year? It's turned into motivation to not stop on any of the trails, any time you stop you're at risk of getting stung. Between me and a buddy we have 6 stings in 2 days of riding.

There's some new trails over on the westside that are pretty damn loamy and fun.

[White Chocolate]

The bee's are pissed all over the PNW this year. More so than usual.

[D(C)]

Anyone interested in meeting up for a westside ride on Sunday?

[White Chocolate]

Sounds like some Grand Fondo roadie spandex slap and tickle fest will be fucking Hwy 99 up royally between Vancouver and Whistler Saturday. I'll still hopefully be dead sailoring crank it up and casing the hell out of dirt merchant both days. If anyone is playing park tourist feel free to yell stop sucking to the hack on the black n gold single pivot morewood.

[dfinn]

Sounds like some Grand Fondo roadie spandex slap and tickle fest will be fucking Hwy 99 up royally between Vancouver and Whistler Saturday. I'll still hopefully be dead sailoring crank it up and casing the hell out of dirt merchant both days. If anyone is playing park tourist feel free to yell stop sucking to the hack on the black n gold single pivot morewood.

I'd be down to point out all the best case points. I know 'em pretty well. Hit me up if you wanna meet up.

[Incompetent Boob]

After all LeeLau's trash talking I'm looking into doing a two week trip to Whistler next year. What would be the best time of year to be there considering weather, trail conditions and crowds?