[Closed] Tweed Valley or Whistler..

Whistler - more dust!

Is there more dust at whistler though? I suspect not.

Can't say but I would hope Tweed Valley because I'm 30 minutes away from it. But is suspect Whistler will continue to trump it for the foreseeable future.

No chance of getting a chairlift in the tweed valley - I'll eat my helmet if one ever gets built

And why do you think that TJ?

is this a serious question?

No chance of getting a chairlift in the tweed valley - I'll eat my helmet if one ever gets built

flatfish - why wouldn't it be a serious question?

Is there more dust at whistler though? I suspect not.

There had to be more dust at Whistler!

Surely you've depleted all the dust in the Tweed Valley by now?

😉

maybe similar levels of dust, but the tweed valley dust looks more like a paste 99% of the year.

And how long does whistler spend under snow each year?

Smee - Member

And how long does whistler spend under snow each year?

Oooo - good point.

I'm with TJ on this though. Much as I think it would be a great idea, I just can't see the cost case stacking up. Is the idea that some income from the wind factory will subsidise the chair/resort?

as tj says the chance of a chairlift being built is slim to none.(this is britain after all)

secondly have you been to whistler for riding a bike and riding a board? if you have you'll know what i mean.

I think so, but the finer details of the plan are not readily available.

flatfish - i know that 8ft of powder snow would be a proper pita to ride a bike on.

What's the Canadian equivalent of Walkerburn then?

😉

don't get me wrong smee, i'd love to see a chair lift built in the tweed valley but i can see two senarios, it'll take years in the planning and never go ahead due to build costs or council planning t0ssers or it'll be built but go WAY over budget and will be cost prohibitive that very few people will use it.

Dogger - what is the canadian equivalent of Thornylea?

And how long does whistler spend under snow each year?

Probably about 6 months, bike park is usually open may to octoberish, the first month or so might be a bit wet. You asked if there was more dust, I suspect whistler is dustier longer than innerleithan having spent 30 years in scotland, and one year in vancouver, we had a great summer here last year and all the locals were like this is shit, if it was I can't wait for a good summer.

So is 6 months of Whistler better than 11.5 months of the Tweed Valley?

Smee - Member

And why do you think that TJ?

Because the economic case for it is utter rubbish. The figures they produced last year showed this. For example they had every downhiller in the UK visiting 20 times a year, thousands of tourists a week every week of the year going up to look at the view.

Total pie in the sky economics.

I repeat - the day it opens I'll eat my crash helmet live on STW. You can remember this and take me to task up on it.

The economic case for the 7stanes was utter rubbish too. Who ever said that the thing had to be self funding? - there will be plenty of grants available to keep it running. There is no shortage of funding available for tourist projects in this area.

So is 6 months of Whistler better than 11.5 months of the Tweed Valley?

Yes, even one week is better, don't get me wrong though, I love the trails in the tweed valley.

Nonsense.

Smee - go look at the figures. You are talking multimillion pound subsidy not a few thousands *shakes head sadly*

I have looked at the figures.

How much of a subsidy do you think they would need per year once the thing had been built?

Not ridden Whistler, mores the pity, but aren't we talking 1000+ m between top and bottom of the bike park? Even if you ran a chair lift to the very top of Minch moor, which would never happen, you'd top out at ca. 400m altitude gain. Not much to work with in relative terms.

It would still be f'in brilliant, mind. Just needs someone to put themselves above the noise and get it done.

ok, i'll stop winding you up smee, for the chairlift to be viable they'd be better sticking it in at glentress and sticking in a few more runs all the way down from around the top of spooky wood area. I think people view Innerleithen as more of a hard slog xc route or a full on downhill route, most riders i think prefer the type of trails at GT and would probably be more likely to pay for a chair that serviced those trails.

at last, somebody who hasn't been to whistler and is talking sense. pointing at> Garry_Lager

Smee - from my reading of the figures a couple of hundred thousand a year

rs - the development plans included more trails.

rs - the plan is to build a load more trails at inners, suitable for all types of riders.

Oh and any subsidy would depend on how much they could get away with charging. Knowing how much folk grudge even paying for parking, I'm not sure how much income could be generated this way.

I can't see how a chairlift in the tweed valley will ever happen.

A) The cost would be massive and would take forever to recoup.
B) Maintenance costs are also high. Do you really expect it to turn a profit?
C) Trail Maintenance: Trails would need a big dedicated maintenance crew working all year to stay on top of it!
D) Ski resorts like Whistler can see tens of thousands of skiers/boarders on any one lift. Thats how they can justify the investment.

Let Google images decide 😉

Whistler girls

[img] [/img]

Innerleithen girls

[img] [/img]

fair enough guys, would be good to see more trails, how far up did the proposed lift go? still think GT would be a better option, its far more established. [dreaming]You could even turn all those flattish fields next to the road into a mini whistler village. always thought that would be a great location to build some little holiday cabins.[/dreaming]

Whistler bike park can be dusty for late July, early August and early September. The valley XC stuff doesn't suffer like the bike park though.

Pemberton is Uber dusty, squamish not too bad, ever.

We've had record snowfall in Squamish and Vancouver this year and consequently the trails are only just opening up. Normally in Squamish you can expect not to ride in Jan and Feb, but good to go year round aside from that.

Whistler is an entity that will never be equalled or rivalled. In fact, Whistler bike park management are so convinced of that, they established a consultancy company to help resorts develop summer operations. Whilst resorts could become as good as whistler in 10 years time through constant development (assuming viable business case and funding) but in that 10 years, Whistler will have developed so much further that they still wont be comparable destinations.
Gravity Logic - the consultancy company formed [by Whistler Blackcomb] with a view to creating wide spread access to quality facilities bearing in mind that Whistler will always be the premier resort destination and they figure exposing people to resort riding in other locations will ultimately draw them to Whistler.

I'd love to see a lift assited riding facility in the UK along with an enormous trail network, but until a UK bike specific trail center that allows you access to 1,200m vert and 100+kms of lift serviced world class DH trails and 250+ kms of XC trails and a local bike club who's membership is 10% of the local population exists, then I don't feel there a fair case for comparison.

The bike park is currently 10 years in development and the local bike club has been sporting the development and maintenance of XC trails for 20 years.

Tourism Resource Consultants have been appointed and have begun work on the detailed
feasibility study for the development of a purpose built downhill mountain bike park,
including the option of a chairlift, at Innerleithen in the Tweed Valley, Scottish Borders
FD. [b]The team of consultants include Gravity Logic from Whistler in Canada.[/b]

and [url= http://www.innerleithen.tv/forums/topic-36799-innerleithens-chairlift-plan ]Innerleithen site[/url]

I hope it works out UK riders

GW 😆

Bearback got the STATS, still if I ever become £££££££££££ i'll make both you and TJ eat ya hats

Whistler bike park can be dusty for late July, early August and early September.

BearBack,so,not dusty in late August(last 2 weeks to be prescise)then?
Thats when a group of us are coming over.

are people wtill dreaming of a chairlift at "Inners"? LOL!

The Party is Over - see item 10 [url= http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/FCSMB3Sept08.pdf/$FILE/FCSMB3Sept08.pdf ]here[/url]

[i]For FES, Alan [Stevenson] highlighted the fact that a consultation exercise was underway for the first draft of the National Mountain Bike Strategy for Scotland* – to date there had been no reaction to our stance that [b]no financial support would be forthcoming for new technical or specialist mountain bike facilities on the national forest estate[/b].[/i]

if FES/FCS isn't going to invest any more then it's dead in the water. huge capital costs, huge running costs, f*ck all chance of making money. go ask glencoe mountain and nevis range how much they make out of mtb...

* still not published btw.

proteus. FCS were never going to be providing any funding.

you don't get it. step aside.

proteus - stop being a cock end.

Smee - think of a famous phrase using the words kettle, black and pot.

The financial case for the chairlift is rubbish - it would need many millions to build and many many thousands a year of subsidy to run it.

Its dead in the water / pie in the sky.

sorry for that, a reaction to the chairlift nonsense i've read over the years.

as you seem to know who is paying the bills, can you enlighten us on:

* sources of funding (and i don't mean "the lottery") for the chairlift (install and run)
* sources of funding (and i don't mean "the lottery") for the trail network (build and maintain) you'd need going need to support the rider numbers you'll need to come close to paying the bills
* how to going to encourage non-riders to use chair to subsidise the mtbers - cafe at the top? add that into the chairlift number above.

if you can't answer these then you're just one of the dreamers.

although to be honest. garry_lager hit the nail on the head a few hours ago.

innerz vertical iz saracing.

(but i still like it)

>
For FES, Alan [Stevenson] highlighted the fact that a consultation exercise was underway for the first draft of the National Mountain Bike Strategy for Scotland* <

Aye, he's rather adept at leading consultation exercises and strategies that dont get published...

>
to date there had been no reaction to our stance that no financial support would be forthcoming for new technical or specialist mountain bike facilities on the national forest estate.<

Och, don't worry about that - 'twas primarily for consumption by the Bolsheviks over at Carron Valley...

>Whistler is an entity that will never be equalled or rivalled. <

Liking the advert Bearback 🙂

You're right though and these public agencies / quangos will create another Cairngorm Funicular at their peril. FES (who recently refused to take on the Cairngorm choo choo remember) have sensibly, on this ocassion, stepped away from the fire.

As far as I can see the leading lights in the DH community are conspicous by their absence - have any private equity partners stepped forward to help bankroll this racing certainty? IIRC there was a fair number of private investors (ordinary punters basically) who put £hard earned into Nevis Range - they've got a cafe, skiers,DH runs, trail network, Mountaineers etc etc and I don't believe any have seen a penny in return.

As the man says, Whistler is a highly successful business with a pre existing / intergrated uplift infrastructure serving a massive ski network. Innerleithen needs to plonk a cafe at the top to bolster the business case and talking of cafeS - aren't FES currently sinking a cool £5m into building a new cafe / visitor centre just 5 mins up the road? This is surely another reason why FCS are walking backwards on this one. If a sensible case was to be made then surely the location, the cafe, the uplift could only be centred at one of these locations?

Of course if we'd had sight of FES MTB strategy then all of these seemingly disjointed ideas would be much clearer 😉

Sorry, another helmet muncher here.

Is the girl in the middle of the Whistler photo a zombie? Anyhow, I think I have more chance with the Innerleithen girl. Apparently, the chairlift is going to open on the same day as the reopening of the Peebles to Walkerburn railway.

[i]if you can't answer these then you're just one of the dreamers.[/i]
sweet dreams...

Been reading this thread with interest.

This may be a naive question, but since the motorised uplift only runs every other weekend (in the warmer months?) - doesn't that show a lack of demand for the service anyway?

I'm not local and haven't used it - just looked into booking it recently and was surprised how infrequent is is by comparison to Cwmcarn.

I've never ridden whistler (well not yet anyway), however, I know the answer to the question. Tweed valley is just leith hill on steroids.

chakaping - the uplift at inners runs fortnightly through the warmer months but the trucks/busses will be in use on another hill running racers to the top one week a month and the other week will be doing uplifts at Ae. so they are busy most weekends.
I've been pushing at inners most weekends this year and some non-uplift weekends the car park has been as full as an uplift day.

Whistler was dusty in early June when I was there, and that was two days after pissing down.

If I had to choose between 6 months Whistler and 11.5 months Tweed Valley, I'm afraid it would be Whistler no contest. I've never had so much fun on a bike, nor been so confident on a bike afterwards. The hardest stuff in Tweed valley is about 60% in Whistler, and I'm far from having godly bike skills (especially right now). Throw in fantastic skiing for the other 6 months rather than 2 minute runs for your 30 minutes of queuing in Glenshee and there's really no argument.

What was the point of this? I think the chairlift [i]should[/i] go ahead if a full on bike park is developed. Just wish it could have happened 5 years ago.

Car park might be full for truck/bus uplift, but you'd need a much bigger car park and for it to be stuffed to the gills every weekend (if not everyday) to make a chairlift feasible.

Still no comment from Smee I notice? LOL!

Looks like he's done a runner!

Even if i lived so close to great trails i wouldn't be so arrogant as to compare them to Whistler!!! 🙄

There are dozens of smaller ski hills in the states that have better bike trials than Glentress or Inners would ever have.