Suggestions to the park, 2009.

whenever i watch NWD movies all the dh'ers are riding mint single track trails. i want to see more of that. o ya less breaking bumps on a-line would be a bonus too

Build a huge pump track in the flat spot just before you drop into the Boneyard, and put a beer garden on the inside of the pump track.

a single track trail similar "world cup" at silverstar would be a good start

HELL ya, sign me up. todd - what would make whistler sit up and take notice? like, the voice of the people… letters? emails? and to whom

All the decision makers and advisors for the WBP are on this forum and read what all of you say. It's this feedback that has helped steer the park since the beginning.

If you wanted to contact someone directly, it would be Finestone (Brian Finestone) on this board.

Generally i have almost no complaints about the park. Im not a fan of that sidetrack trail either but only rode it once. As much as i like the jump style trails( i know, it is not every ones cup of tea) i always get giddy when im riding too tight. That seems to be a natural trail that would still be clasified as single track, no? A trail like that seems to be the right blend of tech and fun factor. If there were a few small drops thrown in there (perhaps with ride arounds or roll outs) i cant think of a funner trail. It may not be possible to create a trail like this any where but it may appeal to a lot of people. Not sure what kind of maintenance a trail like this demands.

I would flip out for an all mountian type of access that would involve pedaling and longer loops higher up. It would have to have some deapth to it to warrent bringing up a smaller bike. The rest of the mountain is more fun with more squish…to me any how.

another to chime in for more flowy fast techy reduced grade singletrack and less excavator.

on my Fromme days, perhaps my favourite part is Mach 5 along some of the Baden Powel Trail (always slow or stop for hikers though) but something like that

As much as i like the jump style trails( i know, it is not every ones cup of tea) i always get giddy when im riding too tight.

Interesting thing about this trail too is it hasn't seemed to have gotten as eroded as the other more fall line trails.

I think because you can only really do it at a certain speed and you want to do it without braking too much you keep up your flow, this trail seems to be quite 'sustainable'

'too tight' is one of my favorite trails on the mountain, i wish it was twice as long

too tight is the way it is because of its environment, skinney second (or third) growth trees that are tight together and hold the trail and surronding soil together with small root systems that a bike tire motors through……shit we even raced for 4 hours down it one year and it held up fine….

A cross between the upper jumpy section of upper whistler downhill, and too tight - i.e. tight, with small jumps and small drops, but still with technical corners and going rapid between trees - basically as flowy as possible! Basically D1 but a bit easier, and not just jumps…

Just to ride Whistler in 09 coming from the UK would be awesome, but that would probably be my biggest request! (Except maybe more maintenence, haha! People can argue about it being a DH track all they want but braking bumps don't make it tech, they just make it rough!)

a single track trail similar "world cup" at silverstar would be a good start

Makes sense, mainly singletrack, that can be ridden super fast or mellow. Less jumps would probably keep the groms off it, and reduce traffic.

The only disadvantage with a renegade style trail is that it is totally unsustainable, the only reason I find renegade to still be intact is because of its remote location and almost invisible trail head.

Why do you think Renegade is totally unsustainable? Seems like with some North Shore type armoring the trail should be easily sustainable.

I understand about 40 people ride the trail each day and with 54 hours of maintenance and armoring it held up pretty good in 2008.

I would have to repeat what most people have said. there is some sweet single track [HTML_REMOVED] tech riding, i rode some stuff that scared the shit out of me. Unfortunately access to them is a bit of an issue… :(

I brought a big group of guys up in '07 and they loved it. However, the bailed this year because they just couldn't justify the cost-because… What they like to ride is singletrack… And Whistler's singletrack tends to be easy blue or way over the top black/double black. They're solid riders but for a vacation most of the black/double black stuff is over their head. They don't come to whistler to jump, to ride A-Line, etc. They come to have a great mountain biking (singletrack) experience. And I don't think my friends are the minority. I know a lot of the people on this board are more the A-Line/Dirt Merchant type but the people who spend the most money is Whistler (which, remember, is why the park exists) tend to be older and not into sessioning A-Line all day long. They're the guys that have full time jobs, take a week off and come out with the boys. Spend a ton of money at the restaurants, rent the $100/day bikes, drop $150 a bar, buy clothes from the local shops, etc.

And if I can throw my two cents in it would be to build more blue level single track. How to keep it sustainable? Take out some of the grade-less steep means less braking for all riders = sustainable. And it's not like expert riders would get bored with it-you could still rip it, it would just take some LIGHT pedaling in sections to tear through it. Additionally, you could have alternate lines in the track, easy blue vs. harder black to keep options open in the trail and get more riders of different levels on it. In fact, I think a lot of the double black trails could be black/double black if some of the sections had easier ride arounds. This would double the options for a lot of intermediate/low expert riders.

For as many trails as Whistler has they really only have ~5 blue trails that could be considered 'single track'. And that might be being generous. Additionally, 27 of 47 trails are black or higher.

I agree with most of what you're saying, Bjenko, but the bike park is kind of what it is: lift-accessed mostly gravity fed DH/technical riding. If you prefer more all-mountain/xc-type riding, have you and your buddies tried any of the valley trails, ie) A River Runs Through It, Thrill Me Kill Me, Comfortably Numb, etc, etc? There's a whole network of amazing trails there in the intermediate/low expert range that you can still ride your big bike on (well, maybe not Comfortably Numb). If you're coming from out of town you can split your riding between the mountain and the valley for more variety (a drive to Squamish's or Pemberton's trails is worth it, too). Apologies if I'm telling you something you already know, but there's more to Whistler than just the park.