Cypress - New Survey is up - TRAILS ABOVE 1200ft IMPACTED

That's very depressing. That's a huge part of my crew's weekly shuttle gathering.

Agreed.

Its a good test case. If we end up with pressure to turn the zone into Espressos, then the builders are out and NSMBA will have to make a decision to stand firm or not

Its a tough spot to be in, if there is pressure from the landowners there isn't much for the NSMBA to stand their ground on, especially with the builders and their own stated conditions, remember this is the alternative to decommissioning.

DWV very much wanted NSMBA involved in this

I think the outcome of this depends on the DWV's view and expectations of the NSMBA's work/building style. The NSMBA has been on the light enduro/trail riding kick for quite some time now which is not the type of trail the builders and therefore NSMBA want to be creating. If the DWV is so adamant in bringing in the NSMBA its possible that they have seen something like GSM to John Deer with the NSMBA label and are looking for another. (see climb trail installation).

However if they are only looking to sanction these trails just like the rest of the official networks on fromme and seymour - with the NSMBA - I think it would be a great opportunity for the NSMBA to return to the more DH/Freeride side of things (imagine digger getting to build some proper ladder hucks up on cypress in the future!)

right now we need to trust that people will follow through with what they said. I believe that they will.

Me too, cautiously optimistic for the short term and stoked for the long term if it means the NSMBA can be let loose with the gnar

Thanks for the info Ddean

All good points and our concerns too.

We worked hard to set expectations re continuing as black diamond trails instead of Cypress Espressos as we knew that this was going to come up repeatedly. The builders have been crystal clear and if you look at all of the press on the topic from NSMBA, it is clear too - these will remain black diamond trails. We are not naive and know that people say what they say to get things done, but we have done all we can to protect the difficult of the trails, recognizing that influences will come on later.

We wanted to make sure that parties were aligned on that topic so we used an existing sanctioned and authorized trail as an example of exactly what we mean when we say the trails will not be dumbed down. I wont say the name of the trail that we walked and discussed as the difficulty level and standard we need to maintain, but its starts with B and ends with oundary.

I wont speak for all involved but Im cautiously optimistic on where this is headed. I trust in the team. I trust in NSMBA to stay the course. Im stoked for the climb trail. Hopefully this doesnt turn into a mistake but it is, at the very least, a terrific test of what could be a great new path forward. At the bare minimum some trails on Cypress are protected from the future much better than they were. Kudos to BPP for playing such a strong role in moving this forward too.

Great job by all those involved, it has come a long way from the Chainsaw Massacre, I hope that we dont have the issues of dumbing down in the future that most are concerned with!!  Hopefully this will lead to more legit trails in that zone and all over Cyps.

Posted by: ben.rogers
If the DWV is so adamant in bringing in the NSMBA its possible that they have seen something like GSM to John Deer with the NSMBA label and are looking for another. (see climb trail installation).

Side note of clarification... Penny Lane/GSM was not  "nsmba" built, but built by independent builders (100% volunteer) and was not an "nsmba plan" (At the time the trails were built, there was no agreement with CMHC so nsmba had no authority for permission; yes, the trails are now authorized through an agreement between RST & nsmba). Likewise for John Deer

Posted by: Ddean

All good points and our concerns too.

We worked hard to set expectations re continuing as black diamond trails instead of Cypress Espressos as we knew that this was going to come up repeatedly. The builders have been crystal clear and if you look at all of the press on the topic from NSMBA, it is clear too - these will remain black diamond trails. We are not naive and know that people say what they say to get things done, but we have done all we can to protect the difficult of the trails, recognizing that influences will come on later.

We wanted to make sure that parties were aligned on that topic so we used an existing sanctioned and authorized trail as an example of exactly what we mean when we say the trails will not be dumbed down. I wont say the name of the trail that we walked and discussed as the difficulty level and standard we need to maintain, but its starts with B and ends with oundary.

I wont speak for all involved but Im cautiously optimistic on where this is headed. I trust in the team. I trust in NSMBA to stay the course. Im stoked for the climb trail. Hopefully this doesnt turn into a mistake but it is, at the very least, a terrific test of what could be a great new path forward. At the bare minimum some trails on Cypress are protected from the future much better than they were. Kudos to BPP for playing such a strong role in moving this forward too.

Thanks for the additional info beyond the press release & what nsmba has said, and thank you to you and all involved for all of the trail/advocacy work.

Posted by: ben.rogers

Improve safety... I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means.

Pretty stoked though if Morgies can see a re-imagining, always felt like a bit of an afterthought

The safety messaging is important for the District and the points are an easy sell. Everyone wins with this plan.

1) Hiker safety is improved by no downhill bikes on the hiking route.

2) Downhill biker safety is improved by the DH trails being designated biking-only.

3) Uphill biker safety is improved by pedalling up the new climber and staying off Cypress Bowl Road.

And there’s no one who played a larger role in this Cypress news than Alan right up there. 

Many people have worked on this for many years. Some were there at the start, some at the end, Alan is the only one who was a driving force for all of it.

Thanks Dave, but this was very much a team effort. It would NOT have happened without support from you, Keever and others already on Cypress.

The objective is to enable Cypress builders, unless they really want to take on the extra paperwork. 😁

Darn I missed the survey, but thanks Dave and Alan for continually advocating.  Glad to hear there seems to be agreement on keeping the trails dh/freeride oriented.  No Cypress Espressos!

A big thanks to Alan and Dave and all others involved for negotiating through the bureaucracy and animosities to achieve this positive result.

Some of us are old enough to have seen the full devolution at Cypress from the early positivity of IMBA organized trail days through the darkness of the knee-jerk municipal chainsaw massacre and the later Trail Nazi vigilante period.

If it works out, this new chapter could preserve the historically challenging character of Cypress riding while perhaps establishing a template to save some west side trails.

No matter the eventual outcome, this is a giant step in the right direction.

Posted by: HulaOtter

A big thanks to Alan and Dave and all others involved for negotiating through the bureaucracy and animosities to achieve this positive result.

Some of us are old enough to have seen the full devolution at Cypress from the early positivity of IMBA organized trail days through the darkness of the knee-jerk municipal chainsaw massacre and the later Trail Nazi vigilante period.

If it works out, this new chapter could preserve the historically challenging character of Cypress riding while perhaps establishing a template to save some west side trails.

No matter the eventual outcome, this is a giant step in the right direction.

Agreed, thanks for all the hard work to everyone involved!

Another post to say thanks to Alan, Ddean and everyone else involved in the progress. I don't get to ride Cypress much these days (traffic, see the other thread lol) but many fond memories of shuttling DH bikes on the east side trails. Great to see progress/protection status. No longer have a DH bike or crew to shuttle with so I'd be one of those guys climbing up to those trails on an enduro bike to ride em again.

I can't recall ever encountering hikers on the DH tracks around Mystery, can someone enlighten me as to why people hike there? Guessing proximity to parking (ease of access) and general increase in outdoor traffic due to COVID? I dunno why you wouldn't just drive a bit farther to the ski resort/XC area for multiple hikes with awesome views instead of slogging up DH bike trails.

I've was up in the Mystery zone about once every week or two, this May-September. I've never seen people hiking in there.

I've not ridden that zone for a long time but when I do, I normally continue down Stupid Grouse to Skilift Rd/21st and I've seen plenty of people hiking up that section. 

I'm not sure why they'd continue higher but even so, they'll be hikers around the area of the switchback for sure...