October 16th 07

From the horses mouth..
"This report is always the hardest one to write, because there is nothing to report - no new trails, no new features - nothing. The Boneyard is getting a massive liposuction as all of the features are being bulldozed, the "Washasaurus" is gone and the place is deserted - not exactly a happy picture - but there is always next year...

I may have previously mentioned that I'm not fond of meetings when I could be riding my bike, but our planning meetings are an exception. This where we make rough plans for next year and chart a course that we would like the Bike Park to head on in the years to come. Can you imagine sitting in a room with your closest riding buddies and planning what new trails you want to build, how many excavators you will need to build those trails, how many buddies you will hire to help you with this project, which new chain saw you're going to buy etc., etc. etc. I'm sure that a lot of riders have experienced a similar scenario, lounging in their basement on a Friday night, cheering every new idea with a loud clink of beer bottles, filling the room with laughter. Beats watching Fridays Without Borders on Showcase, but I'm afraid that the end result may be the same - both scenarios will leave you highly exited, but true satisfaction may not be easily attainable. You see, building new trails cost a s**t load of money, so you would have to find a super rich friend or rob a bank to finance your project. While it does not hurt to dream, for us working in the Whistler Bike Park, dreams come true and we don't have to rob a bank - we have a super rich buddy whose name is Whistler Blackcomb.
While old Whistler can be a bit tight fisted at times, he has been nothing short of generous over the past nine years and helped us to build a pretty sweet bike park. All indications are that next year, old Whistler is prepared to shower the Bike Park with enough of his hard earned cash to give us the resources to build some more cool stuff...

Some of the projects we can talk about - Blue Velvet, No Joke - other projects can't be mentioned in case they don't happen. What we can say is that the Garbo zone is going to get a lot of love and our plan is to have Blue Velvet connect to the lower park by mid August. We also have plans to build a whole new "No Joke", but we do not have any firm completion date - it will be done when it's done. The Fitz zone is going to get a whole lot of maintenance and "Ninja Cougar" - yes you read it right - will hook up to "Karate Monkey", which will undoubtedly become everyone's favourite. I can't wait!

So OK, the fall is not all doom and gloom for us. It is pretty exciting to be planning for next year and years to come. Six years ago, I could not have predicted the state of the Bike Park now, but I think that now I am better equipped to predict what the Bike Park will be like in five years - much BIGGER! Creekside, Blackcomb, who knows? But it will expand, that is for sure. I'll leave it at that for now...

We had an amazing year in the bike park and it could not happen without the riders making us a major part of their lives. Whether you have 100+ days in the park or you just visited for a day - you made a difference and left an impression. And I hope that the bike park made a difference for you. A BIG THANK YOU to all!

The bike park would be nothing without awesome people working there. Whether you are frontline staff, trail crew, patrol, guide, lift maintenance, electrician, building maintenance, retail, make the smoothies at GBB or serve the beer at GLC - a BIG THANKS for making it happen.

It is with mixed feelings that I wish everyone a great winter. See you next year.
Tom Pro"


Monday Aug 13, 2007

Trail conditions: This years weather has been completely opposite to the Whistler weather in previous years causing the biking stock to crash and the beer stock to go through the roof. Currently the sun is out and the trails are tackier than Mr Rogers pants covered in glue...wow thats tacky

Trails Open/Closed: All trails open

Maintenance/Work: The long awaited lower section to krank it up has been recently un-veiled. The long wait has proved worth it with the trail featuring some of the sweetest berms on the mountain. However the trail is a beginner trail and I give it 4 days before the trail turns into one huge breaking bump

Forthcoming attractions: Everyone is leaving me

Lift Status: Alive and breathing

Trail of the Day: Peak chair to RDS





Tuesday,July 10, 2007
Update by: Adam

Trail conditions: Hero dirt up top with the occasional run off mud hole. On the lower mountain it is getting extremly loose which is good but always a bad combination if dry..... which it is.

Trails Open/Closed: All trails on the lower mountain are open. Upper mountain is still without its beloved section of No joke, but all the other good ones are open. There are whispers amongst the trail crew that there will be a new no joke next year, one that is sposonered by VANOC enabling them to finally install there much talked about mechanical jewel in-crusted bears that eat money at every trail head, and thank god because its about damn time.

Maintenance/Work: Wow were do I begin. Lower krank it up is almost completely etched in, and by etched i mean the new Canadian transcontinetal highway through Whistler is almost complete. The Nationals course is also been cut , it will be the same as last year in the beginning cutting back and forth across the field next to fantastic. The lower section will start in detroit rock than cut off onto a new trail which crosses over alongside joyride joining up to Joy ride after the wooden bridge.

I also know the exact path of Garbanzo DH which will feature three sections of new trail that have already been cut and the course is.......

Forthcoming attractions:
Carlos shaved his chest

Lift Status: Garbanzo and Fitz are both open and humming. If young Ali Holden happens to unload your bike make sure to grab her ass and run off cackling.

Trail of the Day: I cant even write it because carlos is kicking me off the computer insisting that I stop sulking about my female troubles and go out and have a re-do of my Buffalo Bills French girl wall special.... okay bye im going to bills









Saturday, June 24, 2007

Update by: Adam

Trail conditions: Sloppier than I was after the Phat Wednesday race... oh a wait that’s not possible. In the last three weeks the park has not had more of an hour or two of hero dirt before once again the clouds unleash. Local and weekend warriors alike are beginning to grow tired of the constant rain. Im sure these wishes will quickly vanish after July and August bring temperatures that cause ones testicles to have to be surgically removed from the sweat graphed that forms between the inner thigh.

Trails Open/Closed: All the trails on the lower mountain are open although such trails as smoke and mirrors and lower clown shoes could have burnt to the ground in recent weeks without me knowing or caring.

Maintenance/Work: Trail crew is still slaving away on Krank it up. I recently heard Pro say that if they did not finish the trail by next weekend he would be personally destroying there bikes with an excavator forcing them to shred the park on Canadian Tires Finest new DH bike the CCM Shredder (Featuring disc brakes which im pretty sure are made out of play-doh)

Amidst the panic to not lose there bikes trail crew is still managing to get up onto Garbo and use bulldozers to clear the snow which in some spots on Bear Cub and Goats Gully is still up to six feet. Organizers had hoped to open it up this weekend but the snow proved to much pushing back the opening to next week.

On the Foam Pit front Pro and I have been making some serious head way. For those not in the "know" the city shut down the foam pit last fall declaring that in was not zoned as a homeless shelter. It seems as though certain riders were spending so much time there that it was violating certain building permits. City council stated that in order for us to re-open the pit we had to install rooms or at least large sized refrigerator boxes for riders to sleep in. It’s okay Emily these cold summer nights ahead you will have a roof over your head.... or at least a box.

Providing that Kenmore comes through with the promised Cardboard this week we will be opening the doors to foam land on the 1st of Canadia Day

Forthcoming attractions:

1.)This weekend brings the return of the much anticipated Red Bull elevation. You can once again expect all the riders to be riding what looks like your little sisters bike except they will be pulling tricks that neither you nor any other mtb'er will ever be able to pull. Much respect

2.)Recent Rumors have been floating around the village that after the Elevation comp there will be a Red Bull Snowmobile crew throwing down on the last jump in the elevation line. Rumors comes from a reliable source but the proprostriousness (that just happened) of the rumor makes me raise an eye.


Lift Status: Today saw lift lines spilling out of the rat race dividers and into the G1 area. Next weekend will bring the opening of Garbanzo and the return of the much missed Gondola; easing the strain on ol' Fitz chair.

Trail of the Day: Angry Pirate to World Cup to Hochi's Minge to A-line to Hornet to dislocated pinky on that god damn slick wet off cambered rock. This being my 4th serious finger injury in the last 6 months has brought me to the conclusion that im going to start injecting steroids into my fingers. Watch out ladies.





Friday

Update by: Adam

Trail conditions: Man-tastic. This last week the park has seen a mixture of sun and rain. Today brought the first day of consistent sun in almost 10 days, producing hero dirt for everyone to play on. Tomorrow calls for more sun with the clouds unleashing rain upon us again this weekend, perfect to greet the masses migrating up the highway.

Trails Open/Closed: All trails are as open as Ben's sexual orientation is to try something new

Maintenance/Work: We were all interrupted today in the bike park lift line by what sounded like a crack of lightning coming from the bone yard. I looked up to see Tom Pro atop the Giro trailer clad in a Moses like robe. He called unto us that although the gods were un-happy with us ripping through the village on our bikes and using people as pylons, that we would soon be bestowed a completed crank it up. He than hopped onto his orange Kona and flew into the sky. Surprisingly no one else but myself in the lift line was phased by this site, everyone went back to there slow, sheep-like migration towards the chair loading without saying a word.

Forthcoming attractions: Word has it on the bike park pulse that the infamous Crabapple turns will once again run along side Angry Pirate. This news came after Vanoc realized they didn’t have enough money left in there budget for the project that they had hoped to build there; a 200' x 150' neon flashing version of the Olympic signs along the highway.

Lift Status: Lift lines have been Short all week and if the rain again makes an appearance this weekend you can bet on no else making one.

Trail of the Day: Crawl to the bathroom, to throw up, to crawl back to bed.



Monday June 11 2007:

Update by: The Hoff- input from the Mustachio connection

Trail conditions: Greasier than Carlos's Mexicaness. The trails this weekend saw less rain than forecasted. Saturday and Sunday brought nothing but tiny little sprinkles of wet stuff however a heavy downpour Sunday night has gotten rid of the tacky and replaced it with grimy and maybe a bit of sloppy too.

Trails Open/Closed: All trails on the lower mountain are open including Dirt Merchant. Expect Joyride rock slab to be closed during heavy rain periods. The end of Heart of Darkness was diverted to make room for RBC's Olympic circus tent where the most important summer sport athletes, the spinning and flipping trampolinests, were putting on a show all weekend.
The Royal Bank through a royal gala on Saturday evening, pulling out all the stops and paying WB for the first Fire and Dirt show. Similar to the Winters Fire and Ice show except replaced with bikers and flame throwers instead of a ring of fire. The flame thrower however proved too much for one rider who went "footless of the last drop" as the announcer would put it, concussing himself and breaking his wrist. I am glad that RBC is putting all are 50 cent transaction fees to good use.

Maintenance/Work: This weekend Heart of Darkness saw a little love from the trail crew. Breaking bumps were smoothed out and corners buffed up. The bikers cross also saw a face lift this weekend. It seems now that Cowan has left the country trail crew thinks it safe to comeback in and mellow out the doubles and step down. They obviously didn’t see eye to eye in that back flipping is the fastest passing technique.
Trail crew also said a big apology this weekend for draining out all of the ponds that developed in the boneyard. They unfortunately weren’t informed that WB was trying to bring the family to the mountain bike park via the California Children’s Wading pools. Families were going to be soaking it up Cali style all awhile being gapped by Whistlers finest

Forthcoming attractions: Ben Tiramiso cake has returned to Whistler for the summer. The Whistler Diaries team is now trifecta material. Look out for even more blasphemy in the coming weeks.

Lift status: It would seem as though people didn’t like riding in the rain this weekend as the lift lines were shorter than Si's 3 incher

Trail of the Day: Fantastic to Detroit Rock to HD



Friday June 8th, 07:

Update by: The Hoff

Trail conditions: Tackier than my pants after watching Mr. Rogers neighborhoood. The last two days the trails have not seen any rain but they are still saturated from almost a week of constant wet stuff. Most of the mud is gone leaving sticky dirt, but forecasts are calling for rain all weekand

Trails Open/Closed: All trails on the lower mountain are open including Dirt Merchant. Expect Joyride rock slab to be closed for the weekand also might be minor closures on Heart of Darkness because of those stupid gymnasts playing on there trampoline

Maintainence work: Lower Krank it up is still be worked on, everyday its looking closer to completion. This last weeks rain has left the newly packed jumps in the boner yard in a state of landslide. Luckily Team Cowan and I already got paid and no longer care if the whole thing is washed down to Squamish. Sorry trail crew.

Forthcoming attractions: Rumor has it that Seb has made a secret deal with WB. They will help him get back into the Country providing that he spend his days riding around the park dressed up as the new bike park mascot. Keep an eye out for Paulie the Bike Park Panda pulling them big flatties on A-line

Lift status: Due to the continuing renovations on the Gondola you can once again expect lift lines this weekand to be extending into the sky. Remember to dress your best, if you cant be riding than at least out-dress everyone else in the lift line with your newest Factory Jackson kit.

Trail of the Day: Im gonna say Smoke and Mirrors because I dont want you to be in front of me on Angry Pirate to Crab Apple to World Cup to Crack Addict to Heart of D.

FOR MORE PHOTOS AND AN UPDATE BY SOMEONE UP TO HIS ELBOWS IN TRAIL GLOOP IN THE BIKE PARK CLICK HERE FOR JOHNNY ROCKETS BIKE PARK TRAIL BLOG


2/6/0702:09

It’s hard to imagine but the bike park has been open for almost two glorious weeks and I have only ridden 3 days. I wouldn’t know about these glorious days of riding though because I have been slaving away making every single lip in the bike park perfect for all you little huckers out there. Yes that’s right some how I managed to get hired on by Cowan to help build the boner yard. Someone obviously didn’t tell him that my idea of a perfect jump is a 20 stair drop to flat.

The days of building have been long and hard but I think everyone will be very happy with the new biker cross and the changes to the boner yard. It seems as though John Cowan has somehow persuaded the patrollers to turn a blind eye to the fact that every feature in the bone yard is three times as big. The now open biker cross features a 30 foot step up and various opportunities to triple up jumps. Even after some serious accidents over the weekend (our wishes go out to aussie boy Harry who broke half the bones in his body) the jumps remain.



On the boner Yard front there are many new lines to play on. The visual vomit that is the mavic box has regrettably returned. Even some strong players were quoted saying “I wish I could light that thing on fired and dance around it naked”. One must remember that everything at Whistler Blackcomb is for sale, I myself had an offer to shave my mustache reading, “ride the Whistler bike park” however me and the marketing department had some contractual disagreements.

Eye sore

After the Mavic box the line follows into the returning step down to step up, however for this year the step down is 5 ft higher and another 10 ft out. The step up that follows has also been injected by the needle and is roughly 32 feet in length. The lip and landing have been mellowed out, hopefully preventing all the 15yr olds from Pemberton getting turned into boner yard casserole.

Step Down
Step up flanked by the biker cross step up that claimed so many


The Quarter pipe is still situated after the step up but this year sees a variety of new options. The dirt landing and the quarter now intersect making almost a 90 degree angle. Riders can take the same line, or transfer over the pile which seconds as a spine, pull a huge 30 ft pocket air to the up-hill side of the spine, or skip the feature all together and hit up the hitching post. I had suggested installing a 15 stair huck to flat following the hitching post line to which Cowan promptly reminded me too shut up and not look at him in the eye.....ever.
So many options

The Staff housing box has been moved further up the hill and has been raised up off the ground with the landing been dug out. The Giro trailer has been moved down the hill and is now at the entrance to the Kona Jump farm. The step up on of the past has been scrapped for a spiral wall-ride on followed by a 10 ft out and 13-15 ft drop off into the Kona Jump Park which from the vert lips will be a strictly little bike play area.

Jump Farm
Satelite dish situated in the Jump Farm

Last years Triple Step up has been scrapped for a single step up. The cool part of this is that riders will use the berm in the biker cross as the jump to get up onto the ramp. For the next month the bridge will be 10 ft of the ground and will be raised and rebuilt to 20-25ft for Crankworx.
Will be raised to the top of the beams for crankworx - Open to the public soon

It’s sad to say but the WD crew’s bikes have already begun to feel the pressures of the park. My bike’s rear end has been looser than the girl Foz picked up last night and Carlos’ suspension has been blowing up more than the word "steeze".. I attribute it to Carlos being a fatty. Were all scraping to pay for our repairs, some have been more hands on in their acquiring of goods than others.

It was like witnessing two bears fighting over the last drop of honey

Gabe and Ksmash at their finest

Well that’s it for now see you this weekend.. except for Seb.

Posted by Adam