We All Wish Our First Trips to Whistler Were This Good
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 Szymon with a big bike |
Whistler Blackcomb was chosen as the best snowboarding place in the world by the Extreme Sports Channel a few years back. When it comes to mountain biking it deserves the same title, as a place responsible for developing the whole modern freeride and slopestyle scene. The Crankworx Festival in Whistler, since its first edition back in 2004, has become the home of gravity mountain biking legends and my lifetime goal to take part in it.
My dream came true last year when, after some very good performances on the FMB World Tour series in Europe, I was invited to the Red Bull Joyride in Whistler. For me this was a breathtaking adventure to compete in this biggest slopestyle event, but I used the opportunity to be there to also improve my freeride skills before the Red Bull Rampage that was coming later in the season. Whistler is where I would finally get to spend some time on my freeride bike in order to get used to it and build up my confidence in order to ride lines at Rampage.
Whistler is a magic place and I hope to come back every year. During my first stay there my friend Bartek Wolinski took some great photos that you can see below:
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| One of the best playgrounds out there is slowly waking up and getting ready for some serious shit. |
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| Seems like the top of the world, definitely the top of the freeride world. |
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| Flying is always good. Last view before my first drop in. |
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| Moto-whipping in the middle of the Dirt Merchant track, the coolest trail in the Whistler Bikepark if you like jumps! |
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| This type of natural obstacle is not an easy place to take a good shot, but after so many photo sessions together Bartek and I make it happen everywhere we go. |
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| Views like these will always make hiking up hills pleasant. |
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| Careful on the rocks as it's not dirt anymore. |
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| Sick style on technical jumps is what we all want to see and feel. |
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| Do you know any trails that can compete with this view? |
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| What goes up... |
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| ...must come down. |
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| Spot the landing, and then go for the next takeoff as quick as possible, the whole idea behind properly shredding Aline. |
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| Practicing lines like this was good enough to finish Rampage in 11th place. |
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| Spending time close to the nature is one of freeride's benefits. |
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| Catching air while chasing the hawks seems like fun. |
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| Lights and camera ready? |
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| Here we go again! |
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| At the top of the bike park you can find so many different things to ride. |
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| Same here - steeper is better! |
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| The need for speed is a basic instinct of all freeriders. |
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| And the Dartmoor Roots bike is a perfect tool to get it with style. |
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| That's it, that's all. Thank you very much Whistler. |
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| And this happened a few months later when I came back to North America for another dream trip of my life ! |
Photos by: Bartek Woliński
MENTIONS @shamannnpl / @wolisphoto / @dart-bikes / @MarzocchiMTB / @redbullbike
Author Info:
Member since Apr 5, 2007
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I was lucky enough to have a chance to go there last year since we were visiting Vancouver. It had been a lifetime goal of mine for over 10 years, and was truly even better than I imagined! Anybody who at least 'likes' mountain biking should go; its unbelievable - this is considering I didn't even have the ballls to attempt much beyond the blue lines and a couple of the black runs, and also that only the lower zone was open because it was a week before the bike park shut down for winter! GO THERE!
Also, genuine question: It seems very rare to see elite riders like Szymon wearing elbow pads. Is this because you manage to never hit your arms when you fall off, or you just don't fall off anyway?!
So saying 'The birthplace' is a lil misleading. Maybe use, 'one of' or 'big mountain'..?
mmbhof.org
Yep, for example Verbier Bikepark in Switzerland
Maybe I'm just being overly cynical...