Whistler's Name the Features Contest Gives Four Lucky Winners a Free Ride

By Randi Harris

British Columbia's Whistler Mountain Bike Park, one of the largest mountain bike parks in the world, is adding four new stunts to its already existing array of challenges and held a contest to give riders a chance to name them in exchange for prizes.

The new features will be geared towards advanced riders and interactive models can be viewed on www.whistlerblackcomb.com/bike/contest Exact design plans are still being discussed and the models shown might change, but the level of difficulty will not. The park's manager, Tom Prochazka, explains that the additions will be more similar to street riding than traditional trail stunts. "These features are more manmade," he said. "It's like when a guy downtown finds a wall and starts boosting off of it." Park builders will collect materials from what Prochazka calls "the boneyard" to construct most of the stunts: "The boneyard is where old stuff from the mountain gets deposited; it's a storage area for things that aren't being used right now, or might not ever get used. We scavenge and get things out of there to build."

The titles of the new stunts are the High Roller, chosen by Sean Symons, comprised of two tractor tires connected by a bridge and accessed by a ramp, Semi-Crazy, chosen by Joanne Sutro, which features a 45 ft long trailer to ride through, Swivel Me Timbers, chosen by Cathy Jacobs, a see-saw-like structure that rotates, and Logzilla, chosen by Chris Pogson, which is fairly apparent from its name. Winners received a season pass to the park, worth $300, and a one-year subscription to Bike magazine. The four winners of the contest were also automatically entered into another drawing to win a Marzocchi Monster T fork, with a retail price of $1,800, of which Sean Symons was the victor.

The addition of these stunts coincides with the resorts Garbanzo expansion, which will add 2,200 vertical feet to the park's trails, making a grand total of 3,400 vertical feet and doubling the number of lifts.