After much blood sweat and tears the Whistler bike park finially completed the much anticipated Crank it Up trail!! Although only a blue run, it definitely fills a void for the beginner riders and it is a super fun fast flowy trail for those with more experience under their belt!

In honour of our new trail, this week the Events Dept. decided to use it for the Phat Wednesday race. It was an awesome sunny afternoon and about 140 riders showed up to compete (a special mention to the 22 riders in the womens category)… here are some pics

James Mackintosh Crank’in It Up

An early rider

Kevin Rehill - A Loyal Volley

Rachelle from GR rippin it up in the womens category

The sexy crew of volleys at the GLC after party…

Yesterday was our first Phat Wednesday race for the season. The course was set for B-line and with the sun shining and the competition hot over 180 racers entered with many deciding to go chain less to keep things interesting!

Winner Mens Sam Reed 3:45.9mins
Winner Womens Angale Teng 4:15.4 mins
Winner Junior Ian Morrison 3:52.8 mins

Whistler Dirt Jumps are in great condition this year… with many of the locals ripping it up each afternoon!

Jimmi Mackintosh

Scott Collingridge

For May long weekend a group of us decided to book a cabin at Lac La Jeune. Just 15min out of Kamloops on a beautiful alpine lake, we booked out a 4 plex cabin for 12 of our closest friends!! It was a great weekend, with loads of mountain biking and dirt biking… the highlights being Harper Mountain and the Kamloops Bike ranch at Juniper.

Just opposite out cabin was an old ski hill (Stake Lake), which provided some awesome XC mountain biking, dirt biking and a great place for everyone to play!

Nice views after an awesome XC climb. Bring on the downhill!!

The girls ripping it up DH mountain biking at Harper Mountain, Kamloops

Unfortunately the shock blew my bike first run, so it got to enjoy the lake views all weekend!

Just a little clip from riding the Dirt Jumps in Whistler.

I’ve hit up the Dirt Jumps a couple of time lately; they are in really good condition since they have been worked on.  The dirt has dried out and packed in a bit since all the rain.

There are so many different lines you can take, and I advise everyone to go up and give them a go as the builders have done a really nice job with them.

I was talking to some guy up there yesterday, and he had just hiked a-line up to the rock drop and said that it was mostly clear of snow,  he said there was a big patch  of  snow on one of the corners after the rock drop and then a large patch on the rough long shale slope.

Also in speaking to one of the bike park trail crew, the have been busy digging out the trails as there is still quite a bit of snow up around the mid station of the gondola, but he still thinks most of them will be ready to ride on the long weekend, but probably still really muddy. He said that as the top of Dirt Merchant and Golden triangle that there is probably still 6 foot of snow, so it will be highly unlikely that they will get that open.

Keep your fingers crossed for warm sunny weather so the snow melts and the trails dry out.

I just went up to the jumps to see if any more work had been done to them. I guess due to the rain they have been unable to work on them as it is now pretty muddy up there. It’s meant to keep raining for the next few days so I gues no more work until after the weekend.

Heres are few pics of what it look like at the DJ’s.

Last Saturday I finally decided that the Whistler dirt jumps have had enough time to dry out.

I rode into the village and checked out some of the happenings going on due to the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival.

After that, I rode over to the jumps, and they looked like they were in relatively good condition, seeing as though they have been buried under snow for the last 6 months. After riding them I decided that they were actually pretty good, sure there were a few rough sections, but over all really good.

On Monday I headed back up to the jumps to have another little rip, and to my surprise the maintenance crew were there re-shaping and fixing them up. So no riding today. I asked one of the guys who was working on them how long they were going to be working on them and he gave me the answer, “two weeks, but you should be able to ride most of them by the weekend”.

The re-shaping that they had done looked pretty good, and they had even mixed the dirt with a small amount of concrete to harden them right up, which should help them last a bit longer.

So no more jumps until the weekend, but it should be great after that.

Yesterday I went for my first ride of the season in Pemberton. We parked at the gravel pit and rode up to Overnight Sensation. I usually do shuttles, but as it is the beginning of the season and the need to get fit we decided to ride up. It nearly killed me, but once you get tot the top you forget how hard the ride up was.

The trails in Pemberton are in prime condition at the moment. On the ride up the only snow I saw was at the turn of to Overnight, so I guess if you went on to do Cop Killer, and most defiantly Gravitron, then there might still be snow on the trails, but with how warm it was down there I don’t think it will be long before they are too clear of snow.

As for Overnight sensation, I don’t think the conditions could have been better. The trail is completely dry, so dry that any drier it would be dusty. After that we hit up Blood, Sweet and Fear, and as you can guess it was in perfect condition as well.

By the time we got back to the gravel pit there were a lot of cars and people shuttling, so I’m guessing a lot of the more popular trails, such as Cream Puff, are getting a beating now. This Saturday is a trail maintenance day in Pemby so if you can get down and help out then you should meet at The Pemberton Bike Co parking lot at 8:00 am. Don’t forget to take tools if you have them.