Mike and I and a bunch of friends just got back from 10 days at Whistler Mtn Resort in BC. For those of you who haven’t heard of Whistler’s Mtb park, let me fill you in. It’s awsome, definitly the best ridding I have ever done. They have around 50 lift access trails, as well as hundreds of miles of cross country trails. The lift access trails were so good, well worn in, fast and flowy, with well designed stunts and jumps which made it comfortable to really push yourself and improve. Probly their most well known trail, A-line, for air line, was one of my favorites. It was like a dirt jump trail for DH bikes, without having to worry about landing on shovels and rakes left between the doubles. Wide open, perfectly banked turns with big tabletops so that if you didn’t make the backside of the jump, landing on top was no problem. But of course after a few days of riding, hitting the backsides was also no problem. There were long technical trails which started from the top of the mtn near the glacier, short steep trails which wound between tight trees in dark pine forest, long steep rock slabs, and tons of wooden ladders and bridges. Of course you can get realy hurt there, in more ways then one. A friend of ours, disregarding the commonly accepted wisdom of taking it easy on the trails the first day, was riding too fast. He crashed and hurt his wrist pretty good, so he hung out for the afternoon and had some drinks. That night we all went out and the drinking continued. I left the bar by midnight, not being a drinker. Evidently at some point in the night he blacked out and wandered off. Some time during the wee hours of the morning he arrived back at the condo with a hugh gash and rock rash covering half of his face. He had woken up in a creek. That day he went to the clinic and had a cast put on his broken arm and stiches on his face. He told them that both were from the bike wreck.
We were there during the their Crankworks festival, the highlight being the huge invitation only Slopestyle competition on the last day. Top riders get huge air and pull sick new tricks like the back flip trail whip(think about it) in a huge dirt and wood park with some drops and gaps as big as 40 feet.
The village was also awsome. Huge, big enough to get lost in. Lots of really good shops and restaraunts, and of course my favorite, ice cream and chocolate shops. Nothing like taking a mid day break from riding to have a hamburger and ice cream cone while watching practice for the Slopestyle. Not to mention the Marky Mark sighting at a night club. There was also a kick ass swimming lake, complete with nude beach (on the other side)for anyone you really wouldn’t want to see in the nude. Highly recomended (Whistler, not the nude beach).
—Hillary Elgert