I’m trying to book three guided days that take in: as much bike park as poss plus as much XC/Trail as poss.
Obviously only ski people there at the moment, but I can’t get anyone to explain the type of riding that the park offers.

When I state that I’m not a full-on DH rider, their answer is “all of the trails in the park are DH”

Could anyone with experience please give me a heads up here: is there stuff in the bike park that a decent XC/Trail rider can do….. on, say, one of their Trance 29er hire bikes; that doesn’t require full-face/armour etc?

Also if anyone’s had experience of a good guiding company, that would accomodate my requirements ie 3days Park and XC, I’d appreciate the info.

I went last year but only as a tourist looking around, I would have loved to go but riding but would have really needed about three days as you mentioned!

In the bike park all of it is DH yeah and is fed by the lifts. I imagine there are off piste trails that aren’t but to get up the hill you have to either have a DH bike or rent one, they aren’t keen on you renting and taking something like a regular trail/XC bike up there. But there was (I’m told) a number of marked trails around the lower village area, some of which are listed here:
http://www.whistler.com/trails/bike/
However I got the impression that this is just the tip of the iceburg of riding around there. </jealousy>

The trails in the park are all accessed by lift and therefore the park is downhill orientated. In my opinion it would be wasted on you to ride the park on the bike you describe. There are a couple of blue trails which would be ok I guess, but the majority of the park is built around dh. Have you considered hiring a downhill bike, just to see what the fuss is about?

There are trails all around the whistler valley which would be more suited to your bike. And these trails are absolutely fantastic.

We went with Bear Back Biking who can guide you around the park or around the trails.

^ Yes, I must admit when I went up the gondolas and saw all the DH stuff (even the blue easier stuff) I really wanted a go! When in Rome and all…

Try a bit of uplift DH over here first before you spunk a few grand flying to Canada to see if you like it?

[if you’ve just got a few days then Personally I’d skip the guide and just hit the park, it’s pretty well signposted and the trails are clearly graded, hire something big and boingy, hop on the lift and get stuck in.

Just be careful not to overdo it on your first day totally blow out your forearms and hands and spend the rest of the trip walking around like a sore T-rex barely able to grip the bars.

Not that I’m speaking from experience, noooooooo.

I did a day there this summer and the shop I used wouldn’t let us take the xc/trail bikes on the park lifts. They insisted we used a DH hire bike.

If you go flat out then I am sure the trails could be serious (A guy did OTB on a 6ish foot drop and broke his wrist and arm, but he was a local and just got the speed a bit wrong. We were first to him and sorted out rescue / stopped people jumping onto him). I took my wife down a few black runs from the top and they were fine to ride, she only walked a few of the steeper rocky bits.

Phil

My 1st visit in 2008 I only had a hard tail ! Did borrow a D/H bike for some coaching . Went back for a season in 2010 bought a Spicy was perfect for my type of riding . ( I’m the wrong side of 50 ! ) There’s so much more than the park though , be aware XC over there is more like free ride over here on some trails . Where else do you find Black XC trails ? The usual way the company I worked for settled guests in was to take them to Lost Lake , there’s a network of trails there to get your eye in before tackling more advanced stuff . You’ll have a ball ! Like I said don’t think it’s just about the park . If you want anymore info feel free to E Mail me rolandjulie2001@yahoo.co.uk

One important thing don’t go like a bull in a china shop from the off , seen too many guests , riders spending there time in the medical centre .

The park is all DH based, some less than others.

You don’t ‘have’ to wear a FF & armour, in fact I probably spent as much time in the park with just a normal lid & knee pads as I did in a FF.

I’d ride the valley in the morning, until early afternoon, sampling the trails around there then ride the park until it closes at 8pm.

3 days of that every day you will be in bits anyway.

There are parts that are a bit ‘extreme’ but I’d say the majority is very ridable without being dressed like a storm trooper

just take it easy first time down a run to sort out the route in your head

For me though Squamish is just down the road and much more xc orientated but still difficult in parts, I enjoyed this area much more than the fabled whistler. trial map from the local bike shop whos name escapes me now

There’s DH and there’s DH – no doubt there are some very big scary and famous trails in Whistler Bike Park, we’ve all seen the videos of 10ft drops outside GLC, vert rocks to roll over and 1000mph runs down A-Line.

BUT and it’s a BIIIIIIIG BUT – Whistler Bike Park was designed, built and maintained to be a fun place to ride – it’s not Internet bravado to say that if you want a day or two in the park you’d could be very happy riding Blue graded ‘Flow’ trails all day without the need to unleash your inner Ratboy, the danger / difficultly is entirely down to self control – they’re very smooth, smoother than even the most groomed Trail Centre and they’re massively wide, singletrack? – you could drive a car down them. Personally I’d choose a big 6″ trail bike – some mates of mine turned up on a couple of Pitches – we arrived on V10’s and Shockers thinking they’d be on the back foot, but frankly their lighter bikes gave them an easier time, most of the time.

The Big Scary Famous Trails in Whistler deserve the rep they’ve got, but even A-Line is rollable – all the scary stuff like the big rock drop that in every Whistler video ever and the GLC drops are optional, in fact you’ve got to go out of your way to find them.

Honestly, it’s a great fun place to ride and most trails aren’t overly intimidating once you’ve had a run or two to adjust – if they built a hardcore only, triple tough and double hard Park they’d get about 5 visitors a day.

FOOTNOTE – personally I’d go for the FF and pads though, you can rent them for very little, you don’t need to pedal much, if at all so it’s hardly a hardship and the speeds involved are high – a FF might mean a big stack doesn’t get worse and a knee pad might just mean you’re riding the next day and not spending the day in the digs with ice on it.

PDF map of the valley (non-bike park) trails: http://www.whistler.com/resources/pdf/maps/hiking_biking_map_web.pdf you can get a feel for their difficulty on youtube.

P Jay summed it up well . I steered clear of the extreme stuff , but did go and have a nibble when the park was quiet !

Cheers all: I’ll spend a few hours picking the bones outa that lot; I’ll contact Bear Back I think (ed2k) as I don’t want to waste any time; it’s my 60th (eek) birthday treat from my wife, but only 3days/4nights of a 3week tour of Canada.

My guess is probably 1 day guided in the park (I’m a bit overconfident at times, hence current detached deltoid and 6 weeks out) and 2 days XC/Trail, but I’ll let BB design a package for me.

Once again , thanks all.

We went to Whistler in 2011 and stayed with bearback biking. I took my Orange Alpine and my wife took her Zesty 514. We did three days in the park and the rest in the surrounding area. There is plenty of riding in the park for everyone and I found my bike more than adequate for the trails I wanted to ride. When I go again I will probably have a week in the park but will still do it on a 6″ travel bike. There is some real scary suff in there but also loads of stuff that is just great fun to ride. I am sure Bearback will give you what you want, and their chalet is spot on too.

This looks like a good primer for it…
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voNqjCAy6Sg[/video]

This looks like a good primer for it…

Ah yes, lots of both sorts in the park (not sure which is the minority though!)

Honestly? [begin heretic content] I didn’t really enjoy the park stuff much, wished I’d spent more time out of the park.

That’s just me though, I’ve never really learned to jump so wasn’t confident on the big fast floaty jumps they have there, which made every trail harder work than it needed to be, and less fun/flowy. I think I’m in the minority these days of riders who don’t like jumps, but unless you’re confident and comfortable on the likes of Caddon Bank/Spooky Woods, I’d question how much you’d enjoy the park trails.

Conversely, I found the blue stuff mostly boring, too wide/flat, but I was probably riding it wrong (plus we were on Giant Glory DH hire bikes).

I also like my mountainbiking to feel a bit wilder, frankly I found the surroundings of the park mostly ugly and overdeveloped (hardly surprising).

I wish I’d made time to ride all the ‘lower’ trails in Whistler and Squamish, for someone with a full suspension XC bike I think that’s where the fun is.

So in conclusion? Maybe try a half day with a big hire bike, to say you have experienced it. If you’re less of a jessy than me and like your DH fast and jumpy, then you’ll love it I’m sure.

Edit: Thinking about it, I guess there was more than just the fast jumpy stuff, but for non-fast jumpy stuff I still think you’d be better served outside the park.

Depends what you want to do. We were there for a week last summer and I hired Mark from Bear back for a day, half for me half for my wife. It was an excellent and massively worthwhile investment. There’s loads of good natural riding like 99er, comfortably numb etc and also kill me thrill me etc which are sort of thrutchy tech fun xc – amazing. Did a day in the bike park as well but i like riding up hills and stuff so one day was enough

Just for the record I thought thrill me kill me and a river runs through were so over hyped

Squamish is certainly worth a visit and if you are touring then Nelson BC is more than worth a visit – trails map from the bike shop in town.

Watch out for bears though – I nearly shit myself 😀

Just for the record I thought thrill me kill me and a river runs through were so over hyped

Squamish is certainly worth a visit and if you are touring then Nelson BC is more than worth a visit – trails map from the bike shop in town.

Watch out for bears though – I nearly shit myself 😀

http://wxyzwebcams.com/en/webcam-983.php
decent webcam of whistler mountain, maybe need a fatbike if you are going there soon though.

Another vote for Bear Back, we stayed with them – the accommodation was fantasic, the people were lovely and the guiding was great – we had Paul Aston who’s a World Enduro Racer now and Casey Brown who’s top 5 womens WC DH racer.

Yep, drop us an email and we can cover all the bases and get you sorted with a plan that fits your needs.
We don’t just work with in-house guests and absolutely cater to riders not staying with us and looking to get the best possible out of their time.
We are a resort partner with the bike park so we can coach and guide on he DH park. We are also Whistlers only commercially tenured mountain bike guiding outfit for the valley’s XC/AM trail network so have those trails well covered also.

Our guiding/coaching staff history is something we are very proud of.

Bikes wise, we work with Summit Sport. They are super flexible and will work with multiday rates on bikes even when swapping XC>DH.
You would likely not be able to take a rental XC/AM bike up on the park.

With the time difference and winter work schedules phone is tricky, but emails are turned around pretty quickly.

Look forwards to giving you more info!

I rode a trail on cougar mountain, a trail called kill me thrill me. I rode it alone with no signal and dint see another soul all day. In hindsight it was a daft thing to do. In hindsight I’d have gone out with bearback.
Their “XC” is lots different to ours. In places it was as steep as anything I’ve found on UK DH trails. Very technical. No signposting. Great experience though.
There are more like this; comfortably numb etc. I wouldn’t fancy any on a racy XC bike though, but then I’m no Jared Graves.

Stopped with BearBack in September. Service was great from start to finish.
We had young Tom Skilly or should I say Hugh (lads from BB will know what I mean) he was a credit to their operation.
Basically on our first day he took us round the park and checked us out ability wise, then after that the mountain was ours. Oh and boy can he ride a bike this Dude is fast!
Me personally if it’s your first time I would get a guide to show you round, it maybe well signed but you could still get way off track!
Also for me I would class the park more suited to a FR bike than a full on DH rig.

Have a look at Spruce lodge for pure trail riding, looks footing awesome!

Never the less Whistler is amazing, I will be back in 2016!

http://www.bikepirate.com/trails/ – Go here, type in Whistler and have a look at the map to see the amount of riding outside the park. XC here = All Mountain in the UK from my limited experience. Plus there’s a massive amount more if you head down to Squamish or Vancouver.

It seems based on your bike and riding preference you might enjoy riding in the valley more than the bike park. There is SO MANY trails in the valley to ride.

Check out http://www.trailforks.com/region/whistler/ for maps with trail photos & videos.

What you could do is get the single lift ticket + Top of the World pass for thirty something dollars and do 1 lap of the park. The top of the world trail is pretty cool to do once and a more XC bike can handle it.

^That’s a good idea. Plus the Garbanzo lifties never seem to bother checking tickets so you could do easy Blue Velvet laps until you get caught 😀 Seriously though, if you are going to go in the Park, you may as well go to the top. It’s a fair way down.

I’ve seen people in their 70’s riding rigid MTBs with racks and fenders in the Park. Go in on a weekday as early as possible and it’ll probably be dead in there. Otherwise keep an ear out for fast riders. If you are at least a moderately competent rider and avoid A Line / Dirt Merchant and the double blacks you’ll probably make it down alive if traction is good! If in doubt get a guide from the likes of Bearback as long as they cater to your needs.

but even A-Line is rollable

Please don’t do this. Thanks.

. Plus the Garbanzo lifties never seem to bother checking tickets so you could do easy Blue Velvet laps until you get caught

Rfid passes thus year, no chance of cheating the machines 😛

A Line and Dirt Merchant are way easier to ride than most DH trails in the UK. Park /= DH. But equally, I imagine they’re not too fun if you don’t like getting air – they resemble a BMX track more than the downhill tracks I know.

There’s no need to be overly intimidated IMO, most of the well known trails are only difficult if you’re riding fast on the ragged edge. Most stuff is really smooth and wide. Anyone can ride e.g. Crank it Up. Having said that, the park rats boosting everything can be a bit intimidating if you’re not too confident at jumping. I’m sure you’ll have fun.

The point is that A Line for example is much like a platform game. Too fast and you overshoot and die….too slow and you never hit anything correctly. So having some noob doing 10Kph down it on a Sunday afternoon in August tends to result in a lot of cursing, and not really much enjoyment for the person holding everyone up. If you want to just roll along a gravel trail, you might as well go down EZ Does it, if that’s still there. There’s sooooooo many better options on the mountain for people who don’t want to spend all their time in the air. Or if you want to see what it’s all about, just hit it first thing on a rainy morning when all the local braaaaahs are still asleep.

Spoke to Jonny at Bear Back last night and email being typed stating what I want,as we speak…..cheers guys

Say Hi to Jonny and asks if he remembers Ed and Scott who visited in Sept last year!

Been to Whistler for 3 different vacations (once as the winner of a MBUK Freeride competition, once as the winner of a £3,000 holiday competition in an IT magazine where we went for 3 weeks with 2 weeks in Whistler and 1 week in Vancouver, once as a fully paid up tourist)

From the MBUK trip.

Awesome experiences, but not cheap. Have never regretted going there.

First two vacations on DH bikes (Kona Stab Garbanzo rental, Devinci Ollie), third vacation on single crown FR bike (Banshee Chaparral with Totems)

From the first MBUK trip – brrappp!

From the second trip – technical (this show is from Vancouver)

From the third trip – stunts!

The only regret I did have was not getting to explore the non-bike park trails in the Whistler area, due to having bikes we could not pedal with any ease.

The valley trails in whistler are definitely worth spending time on. I did a lot of morning xc/am rides then spent the afternoon in the bike park. Khybers pass is a good one to do on an am bike get lift to top of the world then ride down to the entrance as the pedal would be rather massive! Depending on your skill level/what trails you want to ride you can do it all on a 6″ bike spent about 7-8 days (out of 36) on my warden and didnt die! definitely worth trying to check out squamish for pedal trails as well and of course the shore if you can manage it!

Trails – there is around 40km of the Lost Lake trails which you don’t really need a guide as it is well marked that is about a 1/2 days riding.

Bike Park – again the Blue and Green runs are ride able at most intermediate levels… the Black runs as well are manageable. I would split the bike park into two 1/d day runs as a whole day is quite a lot.

The Bike Park itself does guided All Mountain /XC guides – 4hr to full day riding.

Try Ticket2RideBC for various guiding in and around Vancouver

Did some of the Rainbow Trail, Lost Lake, Cut Yer Bars, and River Runs Through It in the snow on a fat bike last week. Great fun.

If anybody is out there skiing I’d say it is definitely worth renting a bike for a day to explore.