Khyber Questions

A buddy and I are considering riding Khyber Pass this weekend. We're thinking of taking Top of the World into Khyber - eventually making our way back to the bike park. But we do have some questions:

1. First of all - after all of this rain (and snow) is this ride even worth doing this weekend or are conditions going to be too wet and sloppy?

2. What is the best combo after Khyber to get us back to the bike park (or Creekside) - Babylon/Tunnel Vision?

3. Roughly how much time would this loop take to complete?

Thanks!

1. Probably sloppy, it rained a LOT, and these aren't rock armoured well draining bike park trails. I wouldn't do it but I live here and do it several times a year. I would give it a miss until things dry IMO, there's other stuff that will be way better in these conditions.
2. Best combo is the new trail middle of nowhere (starts near the end of kyber on the right) to Kashmir to Kush to bc's
Second best combo is kyber to Babylon to see colours and puke to highside to high line to business time.
3. Last time I did combo 1 I went up peak chair at like 11:30 and was in creekside like 3ish at a very slow pace riding with several people doing all of it for the first time. Combo 2 longer.

I will do a shameless plug, I do coaching/guiding for the park and it is possible to grab a guide for these routes, last time I did it with my DFX group and nearly every other group of people was asking me for directions and asking about the next sections and what route to go and stuff. I suppose these things happen because it will get more popular but some of these people seemed really clueless and in over their heads.

But most of these people were from far away, if you are good with black+double black (by sea to Sky standards) you'll be fine and have a blast… Once it's drier.

what Kevin said. Personally I'd give it a miss in these conditions. Upper Babylon is double black imo, fun, but really tech with a few shitty sections. SCAP/HighSide however will be really good in these conditions. AMPM/IBT looked pretty prime last night when I was out doing a bit of trail work.

Remember it's actually backcountry - go prepared, not like how most ride the park. We ran into two guys with flats, no tools, no tubes, no water, walking all the way down. Sorry, you're not getting my only spare tube up there.

I was going to ask this in another thread, but the topic seems appropriate. My kids keep asking me this, so I'd like to get other opinions on this: What's the best combo to ride in the wet? i.e.) minimizing slick rock faces, roots, etc. SCAP, Highside, HiHi popular so far, as is Microclimate. Appreciate knowing what others think.

microclimate is probably NOT a good wet weather choice. south side, lost lake, west side (to some extent) all better choices.

2. Best combo is the new trail middle of nowhere (starts near the end of kyber on the right) to Kashmir to Kush to bc's
Second best combo is kyber to Babylon to see colours and puke to highside to high line to business time.

oh man. i haven't ridden khybers in a few years, and hadn't considered how well it would flow into all of the great new work on that side… definitely on the list for this fall/next year!

did totw , ride don,t slide and bctrail 2wks back . i would not want to ride that in the muck , way too much grade and loam on ride don,t slide in spots . and i was injured and our ride was dragged out and was roughly 2 1/2hrs to get down to creekside . and hell yeah pack and dress accordingly , i was very glad i wore my safety jacket , it was the difference between riding off the hill injured and being carried off .

def save it for a drier time if you can. The ground gets soggy, you don't carry anywhere near as much speed, even without the slippery roots/rocks. Just much better in the somewhat dry.

Best trails i know of when like this is howler and billy epic. Some fun slick roots in there but mainly dry and not much loam, just rocks so still rides great.

def save it for a drier time if you can. The ground gets soggy, you don't carry anywhere near as much speed, even without the slippery roots/rocks. Just much better in the somewhat dry.

Best trails i know of when like this is howler and billy epic. Some fun slick roots in there but mainly dry and not much loam, just rocks so still rides great.

really good call on BE and Howler, great wet weather options.

Remember it's actually backcountry - go prepared, not like how most ride the park. We ran into two guys with flats, no tools, no tubes, no water, walking all the way down. Sorry, you're not getting my only spare tube up there.

We did Top of the World last week and felt like complete idiots when one of our group flatted about 1/4 of the way in and we realized no one brought tubes/levers. We had 3 or 4 people with packs too, and probably 10 tubes between us in the cars, just a complete failure to communicate and having the bike park mentality. It was about 2:30pm and thankfully a saint stopped and gave buddy a tube. It would have been a long walk down to Garbo as that dude was the last one we saw on the trail. Lesson learned.

We did Top of the World last week and felt like complete idiots when one of our group flatted about 1/4 of the way in and we realized no one brought tubes/levers. We had 3 or 4 people with packs too, and probably 10 tubes between us in the cars, just a complete failure to communicate and having the bike park mentality. It was about 2:30pm and thankfully a saint stopped and gave buddy a tube. It would have been a long walk down to Garbo as that dude was the last one we saw on the trail. Lesson learned.

ha! at least it's not a winter ski tour, now that would suck big time!

really good call on BE and Howler, great wet weather options.

+1 for Billy's Epic, soooo much fun!

I think I'll be postponing the TOTW/Khyber ride for another day. Hopefully things will dry up soon and I'll get a chance to ride it before the end of the season.

Appreciate everyone's input - sounds like there are some good combinations, especially with the opening up of Creekside.