idle profile

Wow, Finn's time was fastest on the day.

Posted by: ReductiMat

Conditions couldn't have been better this year.

Definitely miss that singles line and riding after 5pm.  Here's to hoping we get that back next year.

It really was a great year, I agree.

nickel, thanks to you and the rest of the crew for all the work you did over the summer keeping the trails running better than any season I can recall.

Posted by: nickel

Agreed. It's a creekside thing. "But I live over here" is a pretty common refrain when confronting poachers. 

My recent favorite is a guy who rocks up on active tree felling. I ask him how many closures he rode past to get to where he is, to which he replied "soooo many"

Jesus.  How is that not an instant revocation?  I'd be seething.

Posted by: Stuminator

It can be helpful if someone can "tow you in." That way you can get an idea of the speed you need.

Yes, that'd be nice.  I don't normally ride with anyone that hits it though, so a tow is possibly difficult to come by.

Posted by: nickel

Re:f2b road gap, if you're comfortable with reasonable speed on the biggest at Joyride jump park, it's not crazy different in size. Make sure you're consistently landing perfectly composed though. The corner after the first f2b drop is basically immediate. The run in is chunky but it doesn't require a ton of speed. You could start from a stop at the armor rock in the run in and be fine with a bit of work. 

The second one usually requires a bit of pedaling unless you nail the corner and pump the rollers with finesse and power. The step up onto the operating table often requires a small brake tap. The speed is all over the place in there tbh, picking the features apart one at a time isn't the worst way to go.

Thanks for this extra info, nickel.  I'm comfortable on the biggest drop, even with some extra pedal strokes.  I would definitely break it down into smaller chunks, yeah.

Maybe next season.

Posted by: thaaad

Hard to say since you can send that large drop super small if you creep off of it. If you pedal in to it you can probably make it nearly as big as Fade to black but not quite as big unless you hammer.

The Joyride drops are easier since you see them coming a mile away and have plenty of time to adjust speed and get your line right. But the landing is occasionally shredded since it's the exposed logging road, it can get quite loose.

The FTB drop is harder since you're coming out of a tech section with a slightly chunky corner immediately before the bridge, but you definitely have time to compose yourself and even get a pedal stroke before the drop.

I would say if you're comfortable sending the large joyride drop with speed then you'll likely be fine dropping a drop the size of the FTB drop, provided you can stay composed before the bridge. There

Thanks for this info!  I knew it was a trickier run-up, just wanted an idea of the size compared to something I had hit a few times recently.  I guess I could go look at Fade to Black to get an idea.  Good point on the variability of the drop size in the Joyride park, too.  I have not been pedaling hard into it after the jump, but feel the speed is pretty decent.  That of course all being relative, and I'm not the fastest person in the park by any measure.

The trail is outside my comfort zone at the moment, and definitely am will not be trying it for the first time when riding solo.

For those familiar with both the Joyride Skills area drops and Fade to Black, how similar is the largest drop in the skills area to the ones in the trail?

I got there a bit late (12:30), but the longest I waited was around 20 minutes.  

Trails are running great.

Posted by: grambo

Meh, $18/year, worth it to me, TF has been awesome to use over the years. Strava is $10/mo.

This is the early adopter rate, from what I understand.  From 'launch' of Pro until September 22 it's $18/year (for life), but the cost will increase $36/year after the promo period ends.  

Yes, the trail data is user provided, but the development of the app/maps/product and the hosting does cost money.  Seems reasonable to me in order to keep the service running and help them expand functionality.

Posted by: nickel

Posted by: idle

nickel, I see a few new trails in Creekside -- will those be opening this year or are they planned for next?

Time will tell. We're trying to get some of it completed for this year but the buzzer might sound on creek gondi first.

Thanks for the reply!  That's understandable, the end is nigh.  There's always next season.

nickel, I see a few new trails in Creekside -- will those be opening this year or are they planned for next?

Posted by: Cheez1ts

I'll be up there for the first time this year tomorrow.

Similar to what DaveM asked, can I pre-purchase a day pass online and load it onto the Vail card reader I have from last year's season pass?

You have to call the support center to have day passes loaded onto an existing card.  I have done so already this season.  

It can be done as long as the card was issued in the last couple seasons, but a rep has to do it manually.  I just dialed the support line with hands free while I was en route from Squamish to Whistler and they were able to get me sorted.  The one caveat is that they ask the last few digits of the serial number of your card, so make sure you know the last 3-4 before you call so you don't have to fiddle with the card while driving.

@DaveM, if you don't have a recently issued pass from a 5-day or higher (within the last 2-3 seasons), you'll have to go line up in the village to retrieve your day pass, I believe.