Whistler trails 2021 (Not WBP)

With the caveat that I'm one of those weirdos on a hardtail, I agree that DC is punched these days and not worth the climb. I loved the low-angle stuff in the last third of the trail. Once upon a time, it could mostly be ridden without braking. It's all super chunky now with the traffic and erosion. But I get that loamers don't stay loamers forever. I kinda miss the days of clandestine sprints up the road and the looming threat of confrontations with the bear tour people.

I'd suggest doing the Blackcomb climb early morning or evening. (The Blackcomb trails get the last rays of daylight with the western aspect.) The road is often unrelenting and loose. It's not exactly the kind of climb you want to be doing completely exposed to the afternoon sun on a 30ºC day.

Westside is great. Jank gnar only gets better with e-bikes and erosion. LOL I love all the stuff off the Flank (e.g. Legalize It) in spite of silly comments on TF about "lack of flow" or whatever. Embrace the jank! If coming from the village, a techy run of High Society > Three Birds > AC/DC can be followed with a gradual XC-style route home on Piece of Cake > A La Mode > Whipped Cream > Cherry On Top > Green Jello > Beaver Pond > Beaver Pass > Beaver Pass Summit + Slab. The climb from Creekside is even better this days with the new lower section of Piece of Cake.

As far as LOTS goes, still a few snow patches in the alpine but it might be a welcome relief with all this heat. There have been a few grizzly sightings near On The Rocks and Beverly Lake.

Posted by: dmc

I'd suggest doing the Blackcomb climb early morning or evening. (The Blackcomb trails get the last rays of daylight with the western aspect.) The road is often unrelenting and loose. It's not exactly the kind of climb you want to be doing completely exposed to the afternoon sun on a 30ºC day.

I've done that pretty much every time I've ridden Blackcomb just because of when I was up there to ride haha. Painful.

The names thing with secret trails does make it easier to find them. You'll hear a name, then it will be on some instagram story/post, you'll see "oh that rider was at X location that day" and know there's something there. Maybe they post some public trails the same day now you know ballpark where it is, maybe what trails it is between and it's off to the heatmap. Then there are people putting strava segments on secret trails.

Posted by: grambo

Then there are people putting strava segments on secret trails.

I will never understand this. It's bad enough when people post the ride to Strava but making segments defies belief.

Finally did Lord of the Squirrels... holy fuck my legs.

Posted by: thaaad

Finally did Lord of the Squirrels... holy fuck my legs.

Looks beauty up there, glad you could make it. My 37lb bike was a bit of a slug getting up last year, but the climb position was much improved from years prior. The extra grunt up to the Happy Hour lookout makes it seem twice as long (but well worth the beer view).

I know Lord of the Squirrels is a long pedal but how hard is it? Like is it fairly melow and long or is steeper? Would love to do it but I'm not the biggest fan of climbing so just wondering if it's something I should try this year. Comparable grade to anything?

Once you're at the start of Into the Mystic it's not technical at all, but I'd say 1 or 2 degrees steeper than you'd really want it to be. It's a grind, but it does have a few flat or downhill spots where it's easy to catch your breath. Probably 7% grade on average?

Trailforks says 7.5% for lower ITM and 7.3% upper, but it's worse than 7.5% for the first half because the first bit is flat before you turn and start really climbing. It's definitely got painful grunty sections but like Bees said, you get recovery sections to bring the heart rate back down. It's a purpose built climbing trail in the forest so honestly it's less painful in some ways than climbing up Blackcomb on the road in the sun. Bring lots of water/food and take breaks. On 2+ hour climbs I find I'm faster overall if I jump off the bike and push up the worst steep parts versus redlining and having to recover from it, call it the tortoise approach. For what it's worth I'm fat and a slow climber, I still managed to do the entire ITM, Ninja Lakes, Rush Hour/Last Call, LOTS loop in about 8.5h with lots of breaks. The climb from Stonebridge to top of ITM/start of On the Rocks takes me 2h15m-2h30m typically.

LOTS is a must ride IMO just for the experience/views, especially the On the Rocks section in the alpine. The actual LOTS descent is pretty damn fun as long as it isn't super wet as there are lots of roots exposed now.

How did you find the ninja lake portion grambo? I look forward to hitting that up on the next trip, but it would definitely add significant mileage. 

I agree it's a "must", but only for those who like a little suffer in their biking diet.

You can always really suffer if you go at it from the function junction side, 'Don't Look Back' was one of the harder climbs I've done recently. That first climb to DC/Micro is just horrible though, like the one all the way up to Upper Mad Hatter in Alice lakes. Shaley, rubbley and exposed all the way. Blech.

up to 19%:

yeah ITM is pretty shit for an alpine climb trail. Wish they would go and rework it. Sick ride and the rest of the network up there is amazing, but the climb was a miss as its so steep that it forces people to redline then bonk.

Glad people much fitter than I are feeling the same about ITM. If they could switchback some of the grunty steep parts so that you could climb at a conversation pace it would be a lot more pleasant for sure. Wonder how much work it would be? Grateful for those involved in the entire network though, sweet to have alpine accessible from the valley without shuttling (and that close to the city).

@Mammal - Ninja Lakes took me about 2h15m from the top of ITM and back. From memory, the first part you descend a bit down With A Twist and just think about having to climb back up haha. Then it's some nice rolling alpine bench cut with a few climbs. There's a nice view of Rainbow lake and then the actual Ninja Lakes part is pretty short, maybe a 6-8min climb and a 1 min descent through cool terrain with little lakes, rock formations and more great views of Rainbow with Blackcomb in the background. Somehow the trip back to top of ITM felt easier than getting out there. Worth doing if you have the time and energy for sure. 

Two years ago I climbed up from Function and yeah just brutal, do not recommend unless you are fit and enjoy tough climbs. Parking on Stonebridge and climbing up the road then across Flank feels the easiest to me.

agree re/ ITM, when the muni guys started building we had a bit of a "WTF are you doing?!" moment as it was even steeper in places, and they did improve some bits of it, but still could use some mods here and there.

Full loop is worth it, imo, but I love big days. It's really nice to be able to spend a lot of the ride in the alpine and get to see lots of different views and angles of distant mountains. Definitely a full day though, bring lots of food and water. Did the full pull a year ago, 50km and 2100m-ish of climbing https://www.strava.com/activities/3890292463