BPP and/or West Van are also building a climbing trail from the Cypress Lookout switchback which will help get in the gravel/off road/car-free climbing metres in.
(Does anyone [@kever ?] have any news on the progress of this climbing trail?)
Biking up Grouse Mountain Service Road Permanently closed
Top 80% done , but still lots of signs to Keep Out
maybe too steep in some places for gravel bikes unless they have mtn bike type tires and low gearing
Also maybe too steep for the big bike crowd. So maybe the planners had ebikes in mind?
and what trails will the riders who like uphill challenges go down from the top? the choices are unsanctioned trails or DH shuttle trails
ps: I think a new North Shore Triple Crown (since the original route that descended from Grouse is no longer possible) should use as much non-road climbing as possible. So GSM-Mushroom-Enquist instead of highway on Seymour, No 1/4 and secret trails above 7th on Fromme instead of Mtn Hwy and the usual traverse over to Grouse, and this new Cypress Trail from Millsteam instead of BLT or the highway on Cypress
Last edited by: taprider on Oct. 14, 2024, 6:42 p.m., edited 3 times in total.
My grieving process has moved to a next stage. Sadness. :|
Thanks for the plan Bs floating around.
Posted by: bogdank
RE LSCR: I need sustained ~1000+m vertical up, it does not seem that it would do the trick.
Not sure why you "need" a 1000m vert climb, sounds like a first world problem if you ask me.
However, if you're willing to travel out to Coquitlam and Eagle mtn you can start at Harrier Park on Runnel drive and climb from 10m elevation all the way up to 900m. You can finish with a 15min push up to the White Rock for some great views of metro Van. It's pretty steep in spots and there is one section of the road that you'll have to push. The other option is to climb Burke all the way up to the old ski hill area. Starting near Coast Meridian and Gislason streets, you can climb trail pretty much all the way to the top of Burke and that will give you your 1000m. Great views up there as well.
I've done both on an mtb and I'd say the Eagle mtn is the harder climb because you're gaining more vert over a shorter distance. +
Lastly if you really want some punishment start off in Lions Bay and climb access road all the way to 1380m. No idea what it's like tho.
Posted by: syncro
Lastly if you really want some punishment start off in Lions Bay and climb access road all the way to 1380m. No idea what it's like tho.
I have tried the Lions Bay idea towards HSCT like 10 years ago. It was brutal (even hard to push bike) alder above 1000m and the road completely eroded in places. Now it must be even worse, or someone fixed it?
Perhaps I should tell more about my biking to narrow it down. I have climbed up on my bike many peaks in SW BC. Because often the alpine settings, these are subject to snow conditions, fire and driving distance. These are often multi-day trips that are need to be slotted to short time season window. Normally I'm using google earth to find anything bikeable that has "some top" and at least 1000m elev gain, anything up south of Cariboo and west of Rockies. Sometimes not on any maps. Sometimes blesses with 2000+m sustained uphill. Clocking some years 100K meters elev gain per season (including other self-propelled activities).
I don't consider myself a gravel biker as everyone understands it. I have XC bike (hardtail), with decent tires, XT, Fox. I do some black runs too (sometimes a struggle on my XC bike).
But what I'm looking for is "everyday training" VO2 and nature exposure. Located in Vancouver, the North Shore is a reasonable drive. The Grouse was allowing a sustained effort. Cypress BLT and such does not rock my Garmin watch data as much since some sections provide recovery, but I guess the best alternative for me closer to home.
Yeah, a first world problem.
Last edited by: Climber on Oct. 14, 2024, 7:23 p.m., edited 10 times in total.
The worst part of all this is that this is all for a bike park with subpar trails that is only going to cater to tourists. Nothing there for the locals...
Posted by: fun-house
The worst part of all this is that this is all for a bike park with subpar trails that is only going to cater to tourists. Nothing there for the locals...
Seems to me this way. Next to caged bears, noisy lumberjack show, a fake windmill, constant ICE ATV run by employees thru tourists paths. I cannot image to pay the say 30-50$ ticket twice a week or so. Then also pay for the gondola parking, wait in lines etc. Not clear if they will allow your own bike or must rent? I was told by the boss that the only entry there will be from gondola. So this was not clear about bikes.
But if they sell me $100 season pass that I can use from Lynn as usual I'm set.
Similarly Whistler Blackcomb, too expensive. I rather go to Vernon to ski or so. But in winter I'm mostly doing XC skiing on Cypress.
Last edited by: Climber on Oct. 14, 2024, 7:53 p.m., edited 3 times in total.
The solution to your problem.
Electromagnetic resistance front hub. Turn any ride into an endless mountain climb.
Posted by: fun-house
The worst part of all this is that this is all for a bike park with subpar trails that is only going to cater to tourists. Nothing there for the locals...
You have some inside info to share here?
Reading the copy on their site (only info I personally have access to) seems like it will initially seek to provide progression and act as a bit of a bridge to help riders gain skills to ride the shore with less of a steep learning curve. Seems a reasonable enough mandate at least for now. I imagine it will take a few seasons to really start to round out the trail options.
That's sucks about the service road.
I was hoping they were going to use that windmill to set up a charging station for ebikes.
Posted by: earleb
The solution to your problem.
Electromagnetic resistance front hub. Turn any ride into an endless mountain climb.
How long till someone puts one of those on their ebike so they can get a better workout?
Posted by: syncro
Posted by: earleb
The solution to your problem.
Electromagnetic resistance front hub. Turn any ride into an endless mountain climb.
How long till someone puts one of those on their ebike so they can get a better workout?
The internet tells me ebikes are a good workout
All I see is dudes soft pedaling on boost mode not even close to breaking a sweat.
While a rider could theoretically stay in the upper zone 2 and get a great conditioning ride it I would bet the hr data points at lots of zone 1.
Posted by: earleb
The internet tells me ebikes are a good workout
All I see is dudes soft pedaling on boost mode not even close to breaking a sweat.
While a rider could theoretically stay in the upper zone 2 and get a great conditioning ride it I would bet the hr data points at lots of zone 1.
The ebike is a good tool in many respects, but like any tool its effectiveness comes down to how the user actually uses it.
Human nature being what it is, my gut has always told me that most people are going to reach for the boost or greater levels of help to make the climb up as easy as possible. I think over the longer term, people on ebikes will lose fitness unless they are highly focused on watching heart rate and using the ebike to get the most out of their riding fitness as opposed to simply getting the most riding in.
Humans are generally getting softer as time and tech advances.
I used to care about e-bikes as a phenomena I wanted to stay away from. Now I'm OK if they are not in my way. But I noticed something that bothers me more. Since so easy to reach places on e-bikes, there is more and more pushback from "land owners" (Grouse case too?). Before, when just few crazies like me self-propelled to places, there was not a big deal for anyone around.
I sometimes have experienced cases when e-bikes were limiting the riders. I even ignore the battery level issue. Sometimes in XC routes, it is too steep uphill with some technical /loose rock/overgrown. I just carry my bike. e-bikers sometimes must surrender since bikes to heavy to carry them. That puts a smile on my face.
Posted by: SixZeroSixOne
BPP and/or West Van are also building a climbing trail from the Cypress Lookout switchback which will help get in the gravel/off road/car-free climbing metres in.
(Does anyone [@kever ?] have any news on the progress of this climbing trail?)
Coming along, could be done this fall or next spring. It's a bit of a climbing trail to nowhere unless you have a long travel enduro bike though. All the trails down in that zone are DH bike flavoured. And the climb is only one way for MTB. So not sure it helps the climbing enthusiasts. Maybe it'll help the triple crown riders, as taprider said. My guess is that DWV had hikers in mind more than MTB, as the original "Old forks trail" aka Mystery DH was used extensively by DHers, so they wanted to give hikers a trail.
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