Whistler Report #10

After 7 races in 8 days, I’m finding it hard to put into words what I’ve felt and what I’ve experienced. Last Wednesday I put in a good effort and landed on the podium in the first PhaSt Wednesday of the year, I then spent 4 days challenging myself in the 5 events of the 4 Queens stage race, and tonight was the season’s third Phat Wednesday downhill race. To say I’m pretty much on the brink of exhaustion isn’t far from the truth. Some may say it’s actually the truth, given my blathering, babbling, and apparent inability to form rational thoughts and/or sentences! But it has been an amazing week, and there’s nothing like pushing yourself to the limit to see what you’re capable of. And being surrounded by like minded individuals that love to ride their bikes is always a pleasure!

Michael Light posted this video of last week’s PhaSt Wednesday race on the Phat Wednesday facebook page. It would be a shame not to share it with everyone.

Last week we saw the first PhaSt Wednesday dh race of the year take place. We run these as something a bit harder and more technical for those of who like to push ourselves on the tougher tracks of the lower mountain. The course saw us hitting Schleyer to Lower Whistler Downhill to Lower Rock City (Ski Run steeps) after a couple of the switchbacks in the woods on LWD. What a great course! With a great mix of flowy tech on Schleyer, and flat out speed on LWD, everyone was pinned and having a blast on the course. For the Junior guys it was Cam Johnson taking the win with a 2:50.441, putting over 4 seconds into second place Benedict Fredenmann, and Thomas Zonneveld rounding out the podium in third. In the old man category it was none other than the Silent Assassin Chris Dewar destroying us with a 2:47, yours truly (Todd Hellinga) rolled into second over 4 seconds back, and our fine man from the GLC, Alan Golds, joined us on the podium. For the Women it was again the talented Sarah Leishman laying out a serious beating on the ladies, winning by over 7 seconds. Brook Baker continued her podium ways this year with second and Shelly Flood was third. In the hotly contested Men’s category it was summer resident Curtis Keene with a 2:36.37 edging out the hungry Kenny Smith by just half a second. Harry Armstrong was third almost 5 seconds down on the dynamic duo. Thanks again to Seb Fremont and his staff and vollies for all their hard work in giving us such a fun series to race in!

   Hot days call for drastic measures. I haven’t busted out the spandex only in a long time, for the first stage Time Trial I was shameless! Photo – Maya Klvana

Ah the 4 Queens. I’m not even sure what I can say about this event at this point. Those that took part understand the range of emotions and pain and elation that one feels through such a unique event. What with having to use one bike and one set of tires for four very different and unique stages. Seb Kemp is posting his 4 account of the event on this fine website, check out his first and second installments. I’m going to leave it at that, and just let his wordsmithing take you through it all. Suffice it to say that this was another event for the ages, with many a crazy tale to go with it.

The Time Trail on Thursday evening was probably the tamest of the events, although no less painful. The Garbanzo DH on Friday night was probably one of the craziest events ever, with bikes coming across the line totally annihilated! I think of the first 10-15 riders to come across the finish only 4 or 5 didn’t have a serious mechanical. Highlights though are eventual stage winner Chris Johnston exploding his tubeless tire off the GLC drop at the end and demo’ing his rear wheel, Seb Kemp’s wagon wheel 29er dropped a chain and got bent up, I broke my chain out of the gate, rode chainless and was 11^th, Jinya (the MACHINE!!!) on crack addict went to pass the big bossman of Chromag, Ian Ritz, and lost a shoe on a stump. Instead of stopping he kept going, shoeless down the rest of Crack Addict, Longhorn, Monkey Hands, and the big GLC drop, on a HARDTAIL, with ONE SHOE MISSING, and he still finished 4^th!!! That’s really just a small sampling of the carnage, and there were more tales at the GLC that evening. Carnage for sure, but still lots of smiles and laughs.

   Dylan Wolsky’s only stage victory of the weekend came on PHD Saturday afternoon, but Dylan’s consistency landed him on the top overall. Photo – Maya Klvana

Saturday was the Chromag Double Shot which saw us in the No Flow Zone of Emerald first thing in the morning for a tech xc with time bonuses for cleaning gnarly sections. The afternoon saw us travel up highway 99 to the Rutherford for a Super D race in the 36^oC blast furnace that was PHD. Sunday was the final day and saw us in Pemby for some classic conditions. Hot, dry, steep and loose! After a cruise around Sphincter Rock and Grumpy Grouse we headed over to climb the now legendary Big NIMBY and its 101 switchbacks, followed by the new Middle Earth climb up to the top of Gravitron. Anyone who hasn’t heard of Gravitron probably doesn’t understand how much fear that descent puts into those of us who have ridden it. Let’s just say that it’s one of the scariest trails around on a downhill bike. On a 5” all mountain bike though? Terrifying! That being said, the fine folks from the PVTA and Ticket 2 Ride went in the week before the event and put the finishing touches on Gravitrout, a route that crosses Gravitron a few times and takes out the ridiculously steep parts of the original line, which is still there, don’t worry. While it is definitely easier than Gravitron, don’t let that fool you, it’s still super steep, and loose in all those classic ways we love Pemberton descents. Only now it’s got the a snakey descent and big catcher mitt berms were you need them to dump speed! I had an absolute blast on the descent, although many made a wrong turn higher up and ended up on Gravitron proper.

All in all this event was another hum dinger from the mad mind of Tony Horn. Everyone was high fives and tired dirty smiles at the finish, and the lake and cold beer never felt so good! A huge thanks goes out to everyone involved, Tony, Tracy, Anne, the Chromag guys for the double shot stage, Johnny I, the bike Co and the PVTA for the Pemby day, and everyone in between! This really is an event like no other, and I’m stoked to be able to take part in the legend that is Whistler nutjob mountain bike races! Thanks to all my fellow racers too for being awesome and really showing the spirit, taking mechanicals and crashes in stride, helping others out on the trail, and most importantly, having fun on our bikes!

  Vince Marcotte was one of those guys that just couldn’t avoid serious mechanicals. He destroyed a front wheel on PHD, but still came out Sunday to finish off the weekend. Photo – Maya Klvana

Although many people persevered through the weekend, I also want to give a special shout out the Dave Burch. He had 3 flats, a destroyed wheel and a broken chain in the downhill friday night. On Sunday his rear shock blew and sat fully in its travel, literally a hundred metres into the race. At which point he drove back to Whistler, got a different bike, came back and still rode the course! So awesome! I really hope there’s another race next year!

In the end it was Mr. Consistency Dylan Wolsky taking the Men’s victory by 0.75 points over Kiwi Chris Johnston with Chris Clark in third. On the Women’s side, Joanna Harrington topped Sylvie Allen in second, and Fanny Paquette in third. Hope everyone is recovering, I know I’m eating like a pig and sleeping tonnes! See you next year!

The Park
I hate to sound like a broken record, but after having 3 friends smash themselves up real good in the bikepark last night, I really can’t stress enough how loose and blown out things have gotten. Berms have huge holes in them, with lots of loose dirt on the insides and creeping up the berm walls for that matter. Big loose boulders and babyheads are lurking everywhere too. On the back end of a 4 person Freight Train train the dust was really heavy and more than a couple of times I found myself staring at big rocks as the dust would clear just enough to see them and I had to avoid them with quick dekes or a bunny hop. I think the early season hero dirt has a lot of people pushing things a bit, and when it gets dry you tend to sometimes get lower into corners than conditions allow for.  When it goes wrong it tends to hurt a lot, with hard slams and lots of gravel into skin. Be mindful out there!

That being said, the trailcrew has been working really hard at patching things up in the park. Blue Velvet, which was definitely feeling the wet start to the season, has had berms patched and holes filled, and they even opened the new section below bear cub down to the In Deep ski run crossing. The new section is really fun, with a big multi-option rock wall ride to play on. If you go for the right line to drop, just be sure to check your speed, the landing is really short and really steep! There are a couple more berms after the wallride and then a ladder bridge drop option line coming out of the woods to the In Deep junction. At this point this new lower section of Blue Velvet is signed Double Black as the only way out after it is In Deep and Facrobat, so please plan accordingly and ride within your ability.

  Dylan Wolsky celebrated his overall win by sculling his champers, Joanna Harrington sprays down the crowd with hers. Photo – Maya Klvana

On the topic of In Deep, I had a conversation last night with the always awesome Bethany Parsons, über ripper and bikepark patroller. Seems the mountain is really struggling with trying to curtail braiding of trails. As much as I love racing, it seems that this new “must go fast all the time” mentality is really starting to take its toll out on the trails. People have been way too liberal with their inside lines between corners, straight lining through switchbacks instead of using the trail, and general asshattery. They are struggling with it because they have really been trying to minimize the amount of rope lines. This issue is starting to take away from the good work that the trail crew is doing up there as they now have to take time away from maintaining trails to block off braids all over the mountain. I mentioned In Deep as towards the bottom the evidence of this is most apparent. Where the trail used to stay well to the right of that big tree, with some tricky steep corners, people have taken to bombing down the left side of the tree straight into the next corner. This whole area is basically one 20m wide braided trail now. It’s an ugly mess.

I think the whole issue is a combination of things; tough trails where riders start looking off the trail for easier lines, and the racer boy “I’m so clever going off trail to go faster” side too. But in the end, it needs to stop. If you don’t like the way trails in the bikepark are built, offer some suggestions to trail crew. They’re pretty open to a lot of ideas and always looking for feedback, but to slice and dice apart their work only hurts the cause for everyone. We struggled with this same issue in our Phat Wednesday downhill series a couple of years back and frankly one of our best techniques was flat out public shaming. It has cleared most issues up quite a bit. Nothing like calling people out in front of a couple hundred people to get them to stop! Anyway, please,= ride the trails as they’re built and don’t go storming through the brush making new lines.

In other less preachy news, WORCA and the Whistler Bikepark are teaming up to put on a Pumptrack Challenge on Sunday July 25. The winners of the event will gain entry into the new Ultimate Pumptrack Challenge that will be taking place during Crankworx on August 12. I can’t wait for this event, and think it’s really going to showcase how talented the pro athletes are!

   Ryan Coatta snapped this beauty photo on top of Windy Pass last weekend, as you can see, still lots of snow in the high alpine.

Up in the Southern Chilcotin snow is still lingering in the higher areas and bowls surrounding Windy Pass, Taylor Basin and Camel Pass. A co-worker was up there last weekend and spent some time route finding in the snow, it didn’t go as planned. It’s a good reminder to be fully prepared when one ventures up there. Extra water, food, and a dry jersey/gloves/jacket into the pack just in case. You could be 8 hours away from any type of help, so keep that in mind with your decision making out there!

Well, that was a lot of reading if you made it this far! Hope you’re enjoying your bike where ever you’re reading this from. Get out and spin the wheels this weekend!

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We’d love to have some more personal reports about the state of the park – here…