Chip Vincent riding a bit of tech on In Deep
It’s 5 p.m. on the first day of a seven-day stay in Whistler, and I’ve done exactly one run. It’s not that I’m lazy or not stoked on this place. I blew up my fork on the very first lap when I went off the lip of a jump and heard the loud metallic “thwang” of something going really wrong. Despite the fact that I broke my rebound cartridge clean in half, the guys at Fanatyk had me up and running before the lifts closed. Two runs later, I broke a rear derailleur and finished the day chainless. Average cost per lap at the end of day one: about $230. Was it worth it? You bet your ass it was!
The fall trip to Whistler has become an annual tradition for many riders, and for good reason … there’s no place like it on the face of the earth. Other BC bike parks like Sun Peaks and Silver Star have some pretty sweet trails, but Whistler is still the undisputed champ when it comes to vert, variety, and overall sickness. No place in the United States even holds a flame to the goods up in BC. More than anything, Whistler provides an opportunity to get way better in a big hurry. A week of riding in Whistler is about the same as a year of riding your local trails in terms of progression. You just can’t help it. People show up there having never hit a jump before and are sending 20-foot tables before the end of their stay. You look at something on day one and think, “No way.” By day four, you’re sending it on every lap and not even thinking twice. So load up your bike and get up there. This is what you should know before going …
Layout
The mountain is separated into two sections: lower mountain and upper mountain. The lower mountain is packed with fast, flowy trails, massive berms, the occasional tech, and jumps ranging from micro to massive. Anyone from complete beginners to world-class rippers can spend days lapping the lower mountain and have a seriously kickass time. There are a couple flowy trails on the upper mountain, but for the most part this is where you go for really big jumps, steep rock rollers, and full-on big-bike mega tech.
Toni Walbridge styles the big creek gap on Dirt Merchant
Expensive Parts
The good thing about the shops in Whistler is that they’re fully stocked and really know what they’re doing. I got a new RC2 cartridge for my Fox 40 and was back on the trail the same day. At the same time, you’re going to pay out the nose for anything you have to buy. Expect to spend $50 on brake pads and drop a C-note on a new tire. Basically, you should bring every spare part in your garage when you go there. The best plan is to bring two complete bikes. Seriously.
Big Crashes
When you go down at Whistler, you tend to go down hard. Riding at Whistler gets you comfortable with going really fast and really big, so the wrecks can be pretty nasty when they do happen. One of my friends crashed bad enough to bend a handlebar. Another woke up in the woods, his bike 50-feet down the trail, and had no idea what happened. He needed a trip to the doc and had to buy a new helmet to ride for the rest of the trip. Two seasons ago one of my buddies stuffed it into a berm and got a helicopter ride off the mountain. The doctors said his Leatt Brace probably saved his life. Armor up accordingly.
Big crashes happen all the time up here. Be prepared.
Rain
Whistler is on the west (wet) coast, so expect to do some rain riding. On my first time up there, we rode in complete torrential downpour for five straight days. This time it only rained on us once, and people were commenting that it was the driest season they remember. The trails hold up really well, so few things close as a result of rain, but expect to get really muddy and remember that roots and woodwork are slick as donkey snot when they’re wet. You can still ride them … as long as you do it right.
Trail Maintenance
The trail crew here is as dialed as dialed gets. If a trail is closed, don’t complain. It will be open later that day or maybe tomorrow, and when they drop the rope, it’ll be as buff as you can imagine. Dirt Merchant was closed on my first day, and when they opened it on day two, it looked like it was new. All the lips were dirt-jump-park crisp, the step-up was bigger than before, and the whole thing was so buff that you could have ridden it on a hard tail and been just fine. Well worth the wait.
Zak Brown, Alex Meyer, and Chip Vincent run a train down the newly tuned-up Dirt Merchant
Really Good Riders
Like any mountain, Whistler has riders ranging from first-day to really good. The important thing to know is that the really good riders are really damn good. So, don’t drop in behind someone and blindly follow his or her line because there’s a chance that you’re going to get broken off hitting something way bigger than what you were expecting. Then again, most people won’t be able to keep up with Whistler’s really good riders anyway, so it’s not such an issue. The point is, just because you’re the fast guy at home doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check behind you every once in a while to make sure you’re not holding up some 18-year-old ripper.
Chairlift Stoke
In the States, all you have to do is rail a corner within view of the chairlift, and someone will be cheering. At Whistler, it’s pretty common to be riding a chairlift and see someone throw a no-hander or a can-can, so don’t expect anyone to be cheering for your half-assed table. Our crew consisted of some pretty serious rippers, and only one got any chairlift stoke by throwing a monster one-handed whip.
Toni Walbridge high-marking the subwoofer above the village. Despite the fact that this was right under the chairlift, it got no more than an under-the-breath "Sic ..."
By the end of the trip, I had only one more minor mechanical, got a few shots of my friends ripping, and brought my average lap cost way down. As the week went on, we fell into the routine: get up, check tires, ride all day, eat dinner, soak in the hot tub, repair bikes, go to bed, get up and do it again. As it always does, Whistler lived up to all expectations, and you could see everyone’s smiles right through their full-face helmets.
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Tags: downhill, mountain biking, whistler