Viewing 12 posts - 41 through 52 (of 52 total)
  • Whistler for the non gnar.
  • singletrackmind
    Full Member

    You mean the drop at the start of BNB ? the bombhole right at the start just after the road?
    Seriously ?
    If you dont like riding that, then maybe an early season day with Jedi would be money well spent.
    It took me years to get over my horror-show day with him, and get my head around the fact I will not end up on a spinal board everytime my wheels are more than 1ft off the ground.
    Double.- nah , nearly but not quite
    Tables.- Yep , in daylight , dry ground, nice sight lines no problemo.
    Steep and loose.- I do Ok , but put in a high speed drop and I chicken out

    If you are looking at dropping £2k for a big holiday and want to get the most out of it thats what I would do.

    I know there are miles of tracks that you can ride quickly ‘wheels down’ , but if you have the confidence / ability to leave the ground should you mess up and find yourself on a lip which pops you up and you panic ….

    Jusy dont go expecting an instant gnarr fix, its a progressive teaching technique. Dont go with a hangover , or carry everything you would need for the sdw in your camalbak

    yacoby
    Free Member

    As someone who was a very wheels on the ground rider when I went in 2015:
    – A line is horrible if you try and squash everything. it just doesn’t work as the jumps are just too big.
    – Crank it up was Ok squashing/casing things

    These are the “harder” bits of blue tech trails that I recall seeing people stopped at last year:
    https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/12360450/
    https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/12848801/ (IIRC this is an optional feature – but still marked as blue)

    Quite a few of the blue tech trails have features that will get you airborn if you hit them at any speed.

    This is a blue flow trail (has berms and jump after jump of things this size):
    https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/5712069/

    If you think you would be reasonable at either the blue flow or the blue tech, then you would be fine as there is loads to ride. If you don’t think you would be comfortable on either the blue flow or the blue tech then maybe don’t make a holiday just to ride the bike park – all the greens (bar one) are terrible.

    OTOH, if there is a way to get faster, it is to ride loops of the same trail in a bike park.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    Maybe what I was told was BKB isn’t!

    singletrackmind
    Full Member

    bombhole is about 2o seconds in.
    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUKkGjEubxk[/video]

    Ridden smoothly , but not quickly

    zippykona
    Full Member

    Nope that’s not it.
    We hooked up with a local and rode a trail a lot shorter than that and he said it was Barry’s.
    Obviously not.

    whatnobeer
    Free Member

    Maybe have a look on Youtube for the Lost Lake trails, Danimal, Cut Yer Bars, Highline, Farside/Riverside and some of the other blue trails on Trail Forks. Should give you an idea of what the trails on the easier end of the spectrum outside the park are like. One criticism I have of Whistler is that there’s not a lot of interesting ‘easy’ trails. The Lost Lake blue trails are great, but if you’re not confident on wood work (of any width), small rockfaces etc then they can be quite intimidating. The green trails tend to be pretty dull, smooth and wide gravel affairs. Basically not much approaching the UK blue trails that are mostly singletrack but not filled with rocks and potentially intimidating features.

    ali69er
    Free Member

    You cannot roll all of A Line, the tail head is a drop off but you can ride about trail and then link into it further down.

    walleater
    Full Member

    Whatnobeer, that was an issue for me when guided there. People would head over there due to hearing that Whistler was a mecca for mtbing but not doing any research. You’d ride around the Lost Lake trails and people would already be taking their bike for a walk. I’d then be thinking “**** they are here for two weeks! Where can I take them?!”. People tended to like the Flank heading south and down 27 Switchbacks. Probably not everyone’s first choice for a Whistler lap but at least people got ‘out there’ and got to see some awesome views, good lunch spots etc.

    whatnobeer
    Free Member

    You cannot roll all of A Line, the tail head is a drop off but you can ride about trail and then link into it further down.

    If you go – Do not do this! If you’re not comfortable with the small drop in you shouldn’t be riding the rest of the trail. It’s a fast black with some large jumps. That small drop in is a gate keeper and it’s there for a reason.

    Whatnobeer, that was an issue for me when guided there. People would head over there due to hearing that Whistler was a mecca for mtbing but not doing any research. You’d ride around the Lost Lake trails and people would already be taking their bike for a walk. I’d then be thinking “**** they are here for two weeks! Where can I take them?!”. People tended to like the Flank heading south and down 27 Switchbacks. Probably not everyone’s first choice for a Whistler lap but at least people got ‘out there’ and got to see some awesome views, good lunch spots etc.

    Yeah, I could imagine that being the case. I know everyone has different tastes and the standard tech that makes up a lot of Whistler isn’t it. At least Squamish is reasonably close with a decent selection of trails which won’t scare the pants off the less confident rider.

    I only really realised the lack of ‘friendly but interesting’ trails which I started teach my girlfriend to ride. She’ll get around most of Lost Lake, which is good, but where else do I take her? She’s not quite ready for Danimal so that leaves the Riverside trails in Function and Cut Yer Bars. So not a huge selection. If someone is happy to push through and accept that they might be walking a bit (or a lot) it’s fine, but it definitely not for everyone.

    sweaman2
    Free Member

    Only in Whistler would the Aline squirrel catcher be called a small drop… I’ve ridden it but I was feeling very confident that day and was still shaking a bit for the next couple of jumps just from adrenaline.

    mikey74
    Free Member

    I always forget about the squirrel catcher as it really isn’t an issue. There’s nothing to it. You could do, as many people do, and ride down Karate Monkey and pick up A-Line where you meet the fire road. Everything beyond that is rollable and the jumps are quite easy to squash.

    whatnobeer
    Free Member

    I always forget about the squirrel catcher as it really isn’t an issue. There’s nothing to it.

    You’re right, there isn’t really. It’s super easy and well built. But if you’re not sure you can do it….

    You could do, as many people do, and ride down Karate Monkey and pick up A-Line where you meet the fire road. Everything beyond that is rollable and the jumps are quite easy to squash.

    You shouldn’t do this. It’s there for a reason and if the small drop in isn’t in your skillset you’re likely to have or cause issues later down the trail. Just because it can be rolled doesnt mean it should.

Viewing 12 posts - 41 through 52 (of 52 total)

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