Typically early June is Whistler’s dead zone. The ski season all but melted, the summer sun a month or so away, the bars and restaurants of the Village uninhabited and dormant. However, early June, for the air-addicted mountain biker, is pure gravity fed bliss. I happened upon early June riding at the Whistler Bike Park last year and vowed I must return every June for the rest of all my days…so I did.
After 10 hours of mountain passes and spotty rainfall, my buddy Jeff and I arrived in Whistler on a Sunday night. Dead. No people. Next morning, with rain falling steadily, we cruised over to the lift and guess what, nobody. So we rode, super hard, until our hands could barely break the claw from our grips and our goggles were just a big smear of dirt. I crashed, my buddy crashed, but by the end of the day we were cracking the biggest and best airs of the year.
See, A-Line is the perfect bad weather trail. The soil is gritty and holds good traction even when you think it won’t. Because the berm masters in Whistler’s trail crew are so good, drainage is excellent and you’ll barely blow through a single puddle all the way down A-Line’s air-infused 1,200 vertical feet of wickedness. While the jumps were in mint shape, however, we were surprised at the amount of speed bumps already, the park only open for a couple of weeks. Goes to show you just how popular the Whistler Bike Park has become.
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The Crankworx course is starting to take shape
Day two dawned perfect. A Tuesday. Blue skies, cool temperatures, a nice brisk breeze to dry the trails and only a handful of locals on the hill. Dirt Merchant, A-Line, Clown Shoes, Rock City, Boneyard…it was on. Riding my bike never felt so good. Even though the upper portion of the mountain is still covered in snow, and won’t be open for a few weeks, the lower portion is in primo shape. Workers have already put a ton of work into the Boneyard course, with a new pack of dirt jumps and a wild bikercross course with massive tabletops.
So, if you’ve got the time, and a serious no-crowd itch to scratch, get to Whistler before the rest of the world does.
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