SILVERSTAR "2015" THREAD

Cams first update :)

March 19, 2015 - Bike Park preparation

The snow is melting slowly but there is still 3 weeks left of skiing. With FrostBike over and the days getting longer I start thinking and planning for the coming summer. Now, I know it looks like an early spring, but that doesn't mean the park will open early! It still takes a lot of work to get the trails ready and open. What it does mean is that maybe, just maybe we'll get to put a lot more TLC into the trails before opening for our first bonus weekend.

We are starting the second year of a 3 year major expansion here at the Silver Star Bike Park. Last summer we saw upper Jedi Mind Trick come to life, we opened over 30 km of new XC trails and we completed the first stage (6.3 km) of the epic Beowulf. The trail crew worked right up until the first heavy snow fall late October smashing out as much of Beowulf as we could muster. The end result is an out and back from the Village that will take most riders 1.5 - 2 hours just for the opening section of Beowulf. This will be open early this summer and will give you a good taste of what the full 35 km trail will be like when finished. Just remember when you get to the end of the line, turn around, otherwise it will be a long push back out (you won’t like it). We are working towards the full trail being completed summer 2016.

So what do we have in the works this summer other than working on Beowulf?

We are going to connect the dots on Jedi Mind Trick. With the upper and lower sections running really well we should have the middle sections pulled together by mid-summer! After that we will make any tweaks to the trail after a winter hardening and the trail is running at full speed.

After finishing Jedi Mind Trick we will start working on the final section of Walk The Line. We know this has been highly anticipated from the expert riders in the park. And trust me when I say the trail crew is chomping at the bit to get to work on this trail! If all goes as planned and the summer and the weather co-operates we will be riding this before the end of the summer.

We also have a lot of large events coming to the resort this summer. Events like Single Track 6, BC Cup DH, FMB slopestyle and the BC Enduro Series stopping at the resort - we have an action pack calendar. Check the web site for one of the many events you might want to attend.

Lastly if you are an avid mountain biker, have some experience building trail; we have a couple spots open on the team this summer. This is not for the faint of heart and you have to love moving dirt because we have a full agenda of trails to build this summer. Send your resume to me [email protected] if you want to apply. The application process is open until the end of March. After that we will slim it down to the top builders that want to join the Silver Star Bike Park Trail Crew.

Until June 20, our first bonus weekend, see you on the local trails where I will be getting my legs ready for bike park season.

LaterCam

2015 Bike Park Hours of Operation:
•Early season bonus weekend June 20 [HTML_REMOVED] 21
•7 days a week June 25 to September 7
•TWO bonus weekends September 12 [HTML_REMOVED] 13 AND September 19 [HTML_REMOVED] 20.

2015 Bike Park Season Pass Pricing [HTML_REMOVED] Benefits:

Early Bird Pricing

2015 Summer Season Early Bird Price Regular Season Pass Price - on or BEFORE May 31st

Adult (19+) $339.00

Youth (13-18) [HTML_REMOVED] Senior (65+) $306.00

Child (6-12) $240.00

Tot: FREE**

XC Add on $25.00*

• Gain unlimited XC riding on our expanded network in 2015.

**All free passes are subject to a $19.00 processing fee.

Hey Sheff,

If you need help testing the comfort of the lifts or something like that shoot me a PM and I'll come by and help out. I'll even bring my bike so you don't have to drive me back to the bottom of the lift.

It has been a bit since my last update and I must apologize. I have been out on the mountain with the crew smashing out as much trail as possible before our early opening. That’s right! If you have not heard Silver Star Bike Park has added an extra weekend to the calendar, June 13th and 14th! This is on top of our June 20th and 21st weekend. After that we will be open every day starting Thursday June 25th and with extended play the lifts will be turning every Wednesday and Friday until 7pm.

Things to keep in mind for that first bonus bonus weekend are - we will be running the 5K Foam Fest adventure run so the village will be VERY busy (roughly 5000 participants). And parking will be crazy, too. The group putting on the 5K will be charging for event participant parking but NOT bike park traffic parking. Unfortunately there won't be any camping available that weekend due to lack of space. However, there will be beer gardens in the village, live music and some fun parties going on!

With this hot spring it has allowed us to push for the extra weekend, contrary to what I said in my March 19th update. Added bonus for all you season pass holders, this gives us 2 extras days to ride this season and we all know how good the trails are early season! With the trail crew walking every trail with rakes pulling off all the winter debris, shovels filling those holes that show up at the end of the season and Pulaski’s busting out those few break bumps. The trails are looking top notch. We even pulled in the cavalry this week to get us ahead. Nine of the patrol team had rakes in their hands getting everything ready for you! The logistics of getting a 20+ team around the mountain has proven challenging but well worth it!

If you are sitting on the fence about getting your season pass and the extra weekend was not enough you push you over, here is what is happening this summer and there is a lot!

Jedi Mind Trick is getting the dots connected! As soon as we have the park ready to open the machines will be breaking ground!

Walk the Line will be completed later in the summer for all the high end riders! Get your jump on!

The 10-man trail crew will be dedicated to keeping the Bike Park in pristine condition! Along with making little tweaks here and there to the trails we all love, the maintenance will keep going - allowing the trails to stay smooth [HTML_REMOVED] buttery.

All the new XC trails will be in prime form after a winter of snow pushing down on them! If you did not get a chance to visit this new addition to the Park last year, there is 35 km of new trail to explore this summer!

5 km of Beowulf will be open for a tease of this 35+ km epic that we are building! Now remember that 5 km is only Beowulf, add on another 5 km getting to the trail head over Silver Shack, which was running great last summer! We will be pushing more of this epic in all summer, right until the snow starts falling again in the late fall. When finished we will have over 75 km of XC trails, on top of our already 50+ km of dedicated DH trails in the Park.

This is going to be a very busy summer at the Bike Park. We have events on almost every week and one of the newest is the Turbo Air DH. This is in memory of the charismatic AJ Cleary who is no longer with us. But every jump I re-face, I think of AJ scrubbing through our Park. We will be holding the race on Pipe Dream and it will be a blast! The atmosphere is going to embody Turbo and if you did not have the privilege of knowing AJ (AK Turbo, AK Flying squirrel, AK the list goes on) you will want to do the race to feel the vibe this guy put out! All proceeds are also going to the youth program NOCS is working on. Something AJ was close too, getting kids on bikes and teaching them the love of the shred!

There is enough to keep every biker busy in the Silver Star Bike Park this summer. Now I need to join the team on Blast Off to get that trail buffed for June 13th.

Later,

Cam

Awesome! I was wondering if this was going to happen considering the lower snow fall and hot spring.

Will Beowulf be open the early weekend? I'll probably bring the big big but definitely tempted to try out the new XC trails, I've enjoyed them the last couple years and am excited to see a glimpse of this 35km trail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq-ZcFACXXc

**Things to keep in mind for that first bonus bonus weekend are - we will be running the 5K Foam Fest adventure run so the village will be VERY busy

First of all…Thx for the detailed updates :)

Thinking of coming over on the 14th…will we be sharing access to ticket purchases and the lift with the other 5000 people?
Thx

great update!! will wait till the 21st for SS…gotta help dig some trail on the 14th at Stake……

It's ok…we got it sorted.
The run event was Saturday only.
Great start to Sunday on this bonus, bonus opening date…rained/hailed out by 1:30/2pm tho. Good wake up call to be prepared for some cold mud runs! :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rvEwvm0qbw

Do you remember making mud pies as a kid? Sitting with your little sister and having tea? There was that fine line between too much water in the pie and not enough. The same holds true with mountain bike trails. If we have just the right moisture content the trails hold together, staying nice and tacky, negating brake bumps and keeping the berms good and steep. Without that moisture they crumble just like your sister's dirt pies.

The first two weekends saw that moisture in the soil and gave all the riders the perfect opening runs! The park is running great and we had a day of good rain again this week. With any luck this heat wave approaching won’t take all the moisture out of the trails. I know today they are looking amazing and I can’t wait for the lift to start turning full time tomorrow!

The crew is frantically working on the new and improved pump track beside the main parking lot. We are going to push to have it ready for the weekend but it is going to be close. If not completed for Saturday - watch for it early next week. Along with the pump track, we are adding in a series of small, medium and large dirt jumps. They will start to appear along the sides of the pump track this summer.

The third and final stage of Jedi Mind Trick is coming along. The first series of jumps are almost complete and will be ready to open by July 1st (moisture permitting). This third phase is built in sections so they will be opened as we build them over the summer. Keep your eye on the board at the bottom of the lift because as soon as it is ready we will be dropping the gates.

See you in the lift line this weekend!

Later,

Cam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dajrD28nlKw[HTML_REMOVED]feature=player_embedded

So what are the must ride trails at silverstar? I'll be in Vernon this Friday and was planning to ride the park Saturday or Sunday. I'll be on my process 153.

double dog, dags, pipedream, flow and gnar, worldcup. Pretty much everything black