The Whistler Thread

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The Whistler Thread
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flag KyleIsaman
Posted: Aug 26, 2016 at 19:12 Quote
ThunderChunk wrote:
Thepureface wrote:
MTB-Colada wrote:
Hi y'all. Considering a trip to Whistler and CGP. How is Whistler riding end of September? Trails still being maintained? Rainy/cold? Is the town dead or alive? Any info welcome! Thanks.

Great time to come out.

Trails will still be maintained till they bike park closes for winter.

If it's anything like the past few falls, it won't be cold. Like t shirt weather, not overly hot. Perfect biking weather.

The town is apparently dead in the summer vs the winter but I've never been in the winter, everything will be open and I guess it would be alive.

Winter is crazy ridiculously busy. I love snowboarding but I don't why, I just never never have fun at whistler in the winter. But the wife loves it so I have to go.

End if sept/early oct (until the bike park closes) is perfect. Favourite time to head up. I can ride all day with the cool weather.

+1... best time to go
flag MTB-Colada
Posted: Aug 26, 2016 at 20:40 Quote
Great, thanks all!

KyleIsaman wrote:
ThunderChunk wrote:
Thepureface wrote:


Great time to come out.

Trails will still be maintained till they bike park closes for winter.

If it's anything like the past few falls, it won't be cold. Like t shirt weather, not overly hot. Perfect biking weather.

The town is apparently dead in the summer vs the winter but I've never been in the winter, everything will be open and I guess it would be alive.

Winter is crazy ridiculously busy. I love snowboarding but I don't why, I just never never have fun at whistler in the winter. But the wife loves it so I have to go.

End if sept/early oct (until the bike park closes) is perfect. Favourite time to head up. I can ride all day with the cool weather.

+1... best time to go
flag eightflateight
O+
Posted: Aug 26, 2016 at 21:22 Quote
How difficult is TOTW? Is its difficulty mostly due to its length? The trail forks description makes it seem pretty rideable for a more intermediate rider. I'd like to take the Mrs up there but I'd say the hardest trail she can comfortably ride is monkey hands and i know how short that trail is. Do you think it would be worth taking her up there?
flag leelau
Posted: Aug 26, 2016 at 21:52 Quote
eightflateight wrote:
How difficult is TOTW? Is its difficulty mostly due to its length? The trail forks description makes it seem pretty rideable for a more intermediate rider. I'd like to take the Mrs up there but I'd say the hardest trail she can comfortably ride is monkey hands and i know how short that trail is. Do you think it would be worth taking her up there?

She'd be fine. Take in the view and take it easy. A bit blown out in spots so make sure to pick your way through so as to not get get flats
flag gramboh
O+
Posted: Aug 27, 2016 at 12:42 Quote
^^^ ditto what Lee says. I'll add that the most technically challenging part is the first section which has a few somewhat committed rock armored turns. They aren't even hard, it's just that you could fall onto rocks if you screw them up so it's visually intimidating to newbies. Make sure she knows it gets much easier after the first bit (which she should be fine on if she rides Monkey Hands) and yeah watch for flats/bring tubes and a pump as it's a long walk down.
flag freerider11
O+
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 7:59 Quote
Looking for a bit of advice. I'm heading to Whistler for 10 days the week after next. For the first 4 days I'll be riding the park with some friends. Then after that I'll be solo for most of the rest of the trip. I'm bringing both my dh bike and trail bike. I'm hoping to ride many of the valley trails on the trail bike with maybe a trip or 2 to either squamish or pemberton. All of these rides will probably be solo. I've got no problems riding alone, and will carry all necessities with me (tubes, pump, tools, cell phone, etc.). My concern however with many of the remote trails I plan to ride is the wildlife I could potentially encounter. Primarily bears and cougars. With cougars having me especially freaked out. I'm hearing that one of the first rules to help avoid these encounters is to never ride alone!

For those of you that frequent these trails, are my concerns justified or am I worrying for nothing? Do you ever encounter dangerous wildlife on the trails and do you ride them alone? Recommend I carry bear spray, and/or a knife? How is cell reception on these trails? Any tips?

I'm more looking forward to the all mountain riding outside of the park then I am riding dh in the park. So hopefully me being alone to do it isn't a bad idea.
flag leelau
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 8:51 Quote
Cell reception is generally good. Be smart about wildlife. Headsup. Keep noise level high (make noise if you're on lesser traveled trails). No earphones so you can be alert. It's great you're being bear/cougar aware but dont't let that fear take away from riding these fun trails. Should be raining soon which makes conditions better!
flag leelau
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 8:51 Quote
Del double post
flag freerider11
O+
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 8:59 Quote
Thanks for the tips. When you say keep noise level high, I'm alone on a quiet bike, so you mean lots of yelling and talking to myself?! Bear bell a good idea? I've heard mixed opinions on those, not to mention how annoying the constant ringing will be for me! Bear spray and a knife a good idea? Or is that just being overly cautious and making my pack heavier than it needs to be.
flag leelau
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 10:10 Quote
Sing to yourself lol. That's what I do or talk out loud.

Bear bells don't make enough noise and are a false sense of security imo.

Being aware is the best thing.

The knife and spray and bangers are useful in wide open alpine areas where you have good line of sight. That won't apply to lower treed trails. You can get them if you want but they'll likely just be baggage
flag kevin267
O+
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 10:13 Quote
To be honest I never take any precautions, and I ride alone pretty often. Bears run away if they hear or see you, I've thrown rocks at them to get them to go away if they were too close or on the trail. Cougars are extremely rare, better chance of getting mauled by the trails themselves.
flag Intoxication
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 10:38 Quote
^ pretty much this. Bears will run away when they see you or hear your bike. I would be much more scared of trails itself than cougars. Especially if you're planing to do double diamonds trails like green monster, bush doctor, gargamel, ect... , they are gnarly, much more difficoult than trails in bikepark, Riding them by yourself is a risk.
flag sheldonuvic
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 10:43 Quote
kevin267 wrote:
To be honest I never take any precautions, and I ride alone pretty often. Bears run away if they hear or see you, I've thrown rocks at them to get them to go away if they were too close or on the trail. Cougars are extremely rare, better chance of getting mauled by the trails themselves.

This. I routinely ride 40km+ before/after work in prime "encounter" hours (dusk and dawn), and consider myself lucky if I have the rare opportunity of not seeing anyone on the trails!

Bottom line, you are much better off ensuring you are prepared for mechanical and injuries over any sort of animal conflict.
flag watch123
Posted: Aug 28, 2016 at 17:43 Quote
Black bears (what you'd encounter in Whistler) are not usually a big problem. They typically won't attack people unless they are literally starving to death, or you are between them and their cubs. However, bears do have the natural instinct to chase after something running away from them (such as you on a bike), so take that into account.

And in the treeplanting industry at least (or the company I was at), there was a saying that for every black bear you see another 10 saw you.

 


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