I have been contemplating writing this post for almost two weeks now and the one thing that has held me back is where to start. As soon as I started mountain biking I had heard of Whistler, the ‘Disneyland of world mountain biking’. In the winter, Whistler Blackcomb is the fourth largest ski resort in the world and will be hosting the winter Olympics in 2010 and in summer it turns into the largest Mecca for DH mountain biking in the world.
I had been traveling up through the west coast of America for three weeks before I arrived in Vancouver and immediately wanted to get biking and experience something much different to what the rest of the trip had been about. I hooked up with Tom from
MAD and Jerusha, a Canadian girl who I know through the Trinity bike club. We took the incredible drive up North on Thursday 9 July and I knew I would have a little over two weeks of full on DH biking ahead of me so was determined to make the most of it. I got checked into the Southside Lodge, which is 5minutes outside of Whistler town but well served by shuttle buses
and hit the trails immediately.
I instantly saw why this place is so special. I rode the Mega Avalanche the year before in Alps d’Huez and thought they were the best trails in the world but Whistler really blew them out of the water. There is just so an insane variety of such fun stuff on every trail. For example, a trail like ‘No Joke’ starts off with really fast. flowy berms and tabletops thrown in for good measure. Then you’ll hit a really open rocky section that will shake you to bits, then you’re catapulted into a forest where there are endless line possibilities through some of the most technical riding I’ve ever done. Truly a maze of roots, rocks and stumps. The really special thing about it was the time and attention to detail that went into building the trail so everybody from pro to complete beginner could really enjoy themselves. For example, you could be flying along and hit a small two-foot or so gap. However, if you looked farther down the trail, there was almost always another landing that you could hit if really pinning it. I’d imagine it is almost impossible not to progress with the trails setup like this. The trails are also very different in Ireland. Although the trails in here are definitely as challenging as over there, Whistler trails can be much steeper while remaining so much safer. For example, there are endless really steep rock slaps over there that if you can kill your speed on, you over shoot the end a bit and go into loose soil. In Ireland, if you over shoot the landing on a steep shoot, much of the time there is a massive hole from when people were building the trail or some large, sharp branches left behind by Coillte to impale you. Manager Drop on last day before storm closed in:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=123897173637&subj=526656300 One of the things that immediately struck me about Whistler is how comfortable the locals are in the air and how uncomfortable I am up there. I found I could hold my own on the technical stuff around but most of the trails invariably turned into an ‘A Line’ affair with flat out berms and massive table tops the whole way down the mountain. Local guys were comfortable clearing the 15foot or so table while getting almost as much air while I struggled to get across three quarters of the table. This was something that I felt I needed to sort out before leaving so on the fifth day began hitting them as hard as I could. Everything was going brilliant and I was getting more air time that I ever have until on one of the last ones I decided to boost as much as I could, overshot the landing while the front of the bike dipped down and threw me over the bars. I landed heavy on my chest, head and knees. (thank god for my Leatt Brace and chest plate!) and had to be ATV’d off the mountain to hospital. It was all a pretty traumatic experience as I went into shock straight away and was sure I had busted one of my knee caps. I must mention how good Tom was at this point. He picked me and my bike up and got us off trail and went about calming me down and making me comfortable. Fair play man, I owe you one. In the end, I was super lucky and got away with a couple of swollen knees, slight concussion and leaving a bit of my hip behind on the trail. I had to take about 4 days off the bike but it wasn’t such a bad thing as I was getting really beat up and tired on the trails anyway.
This takes me nicely onto the other, non biking side of Whistler which is almost as good as the biking itself! My two friends who I had been traveling with came up from Whistler to spend a week with me before they went home so we got to see the wild, après bike side of town as well as the incredible picturesque lakes. Whistler is filled with these incredible, crystal clear glacier fed lakes. It’s like something straight off the Coors Light bottle. We just lazed about and swam, eating loads by day and went out at night- just what I needed to take my mind off the injury. After five days of this, I timidly got back on the bike and was back riding the trails at a severely reduced speed. I got over this anxiety after a couple of days and began really enjoying it again.
On my final day, I met Tom at the lifts at 10am with getting a really hardcore day of trail riding in mind. We took it easy up until lunch time when we met up with Aussie Kev from Dunbar Cycles (Jerusha’s shop). He’s a really talented rider and knows the trails well which really helps when riding stuff I wasn’t very confident on. The plan was to ride a few double black diamond (these are graded as the toughest and most technical trails on the mountain) trails that I had not gotten around to riding during the week. I rode everything I wanted to and we decided to take the Garbanzo lift (the one that goes to the very top) for one last run. As we were going up, a predicted lightening storm closed in and we got to witness and incredible thunder storm. For a month before this, it had been very hot which had caused an extreme fire risk. As we were watching the lightening rain down on the other side of the mountain, a bolt hit a tree, setting it and the rest of the mountain on fire immediately. Within minutes fire fighting helicopters had moved in to put the blaze out- all pretty cool to watch ! The rain had begun pouring down which kept the mud down and made the trails super grippy and fun. I had the funnest and most out of control run of my life down some of the steepest and sketchiest trails finishing it off with the GLC drop into the finish. I left Whistler absolutely STOKED after that and completely satisfied that I gave the place my all.
Back to Ireland and reality now. The bike took some beating over there. Blew the fork seals, thrashed the back wheel, buckled the front wheel, bent the rear mech amongst other things. My verdict on Whistler: 10/10 –the first place I’ve ever visited that I could see myself living in the future. Trying to get back to fitness at the moment for the rest of the K Capital cups which is proving very difficult as my right knee keeps swelling up as soon as I put any effort in. I reckon the knee cap might be chipped from the crash I had during the MAD NPS but time will tell…
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