Cypress Trails planning (North Shore): Come out and make your voice heard

Mar 2, 2012
by Lee Lau  
Cypress Blues

West Van makes progress towards sanctioned trails on Cypress, but will you want to ride them?

Cherry Bomb, S & M Connector and 5th Horseman. The Cypress trails and features have a reputation for being steeper, rockier and more challenging than anywhere else on the North Shore.

With the Draft Parks Master Plan Report, the District of West Vancouver is moving towards having sanctioned, sustainable trails on Cypress, however the recommendations fall short of protecting the current riding experience and hint at changing the challenging technical trails that we all know and love at Cypress.

The double diamond and black trails we know and love could become easier blue trails (think glorified gravel paths).

photo

SGS on Cypress


Mountain bikers can let the District know what they think of the recommendations at the Parks Master Plan Open House on:

Date: March 6
Time: 5 – 8 p.m.
Place: West Vancouver Community Centre, 2121 Marine Drive

Please fill out the comment form and email it to parks@westvancouver.ca by March 16th. Let them know that you love riding the trails of Cypress in West Vancouver and that you'd like to keep them challenging.

ALL COMMENTS FROM EVERYONE WELCOME (whether or not you live in Vancouver). I have heard that District of West Vancouver are particularly surprised and pleased to hear that people from all over the world come to West Vancouver to ride and enjoy these wonderful trails

photo

The Reaper entry log ride was chainsawed in 1999. Mountain biker action in some part helped stave off further trail decommissioning. Let's keep the Cypress trails spirits alive



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32 Comments
  • 15 0
 It gets my support. This mountain and its trails are part of what made make MTB'ing what it is today. It would be nothing short of criminal to take this away from the more technical riders amongst us. Please help this cause, wherever you are in the world.
  • 6 0
 The trails are getting destroyed, and need some love and attention, if the city wants to put some resources in to that, then I think it's great - but they need to know what appeals to the kind of riders that travel the world for this stuff, and plan around that. Every time I'm there I seem to be chatting to someone from who came from out of town to ride what made cypress famous. They certainly aren't traveling for gravel paths. Tech trails attract real riders, and can be made and maintained in a much more sustainable way.That needs to be the focus of the message mountain bikers put across.
  • 1 0
 Let them know that by filling out the comment form and email it to parks@westvancouver.ca by March 16th.
  • 5 0
 Every time someone builds a feature, anywhere in the world, they use the term NorthShore to label it, being it "à lá NorthShore" or "NorthShore Style", these trails are the definition of freeride for most of the community world wide. These are the trails that inspire every single mountain biker that get`s up early, packs his tools, and heads into the bush. In the back of their minds there are always images of footage or photos taken on the NorthShore.

The NorthShore sets the benchmark, and then we dream.
  • 3 0
 Interesting that West Vancouver is "surprised that people from all over the world ride their trials". Do they know what North Van went thru to get to were they are today with everyone happy on Fromme? Thanks to NSMBA! Why re-invent the wheel just adopt what works next door. Oh ya they are West Vancouver. If you look at the map the land at stake are very small parcels compared to what British Properties owns and are in the process of selling off and developing at an alarming rate. Most of the historic gnar trails lie in British Properties. They are the ones we should lobby.
  • 3 0
 FYI District of West Van is leading this public process but BPP (British Pacific Properties) is also participating. I think BPP gets that we'd really like the trails stay the way they are but we've got to make a good effort to tell them. Good observation though
  • 3 0
 The master plan for West Vancouver Parks does not include anything above Hollyburn Ridge. Most of the land at the top is Provincial Parks that has a strict agreement with Cypress Ski Resort [publicly traded USA company] Cypress Resorts invested money in a bike park 3 years ago on Black mtn. Just as the bike park got under way [hard work by Digger]Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Olympics. At the same time Cypress Resorts had a agreement with Parks to expand the downhill area on mtn Stratton. That got traded off for more vert and less logging on Black mtn. So the bike park was logged for ski runs only after 1 year. Cypress ski resort would LOVE to rebuild and have a mountain bike park again, especially since they have build a muliti million dollar facillity that is empty in the summer. The resort is looking for investers because the public board won't pass that expense. If you have deep pockets you could own rights to a bike park 15min from downtown Van.
  • 2 0
 Good luck with this North Shore. In our experience (Cariboo, Williams Lake) support for mountain biking trails was heavily influenced by our ability to demonstrate the economic benefits of existing MTB infrastructure. The Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association conducted some economic impact studies of the Sea-to-Sky area in 2006 which would have some very useful stuff to bring up at a public forum (See: www.mbta.ca/assets/pdfs/S2S_E_I_Study.pdf). Secondly, was demonstrating our ability to maintain the trail network. I would think that NSMBC would be able to get behind this and demonstrate their capacity to manage trails.
  • 2 0
 I'm from UK, and will almost probably never get to ride those trails, even if I came to Vancouver. Way too technical, but trails like these and riders like you have inspired me to push my riding in directions I could never have dreamed of when I started out mtbing 20 mtb years ago. Although after jcinkits comment who knows. 68 and riding North Shore!!! Anyway I sent an email to say keep it gnarly. Hope it helps.
  • 2 0
 We need a good show since many concepts from the Parks department are not getting through to the planning department such as

"Strategy for guiding management, conservation and use of the Old Growth Conservancy in the context of a proposed mountain bike park south of the area;"

"District has 19 kilometres of mountain bike trails, this is a very high value recreational resource, the trails are not sanctioned and there is no organized maintenance; some trails are on District land, others on private land; Best practice: North Van has an excellent management model for mountain bike trails"

"Include in the Terms of Reference for the Upper Lands Study the need to find permanent locations for mountain bike trails. "

Now is our opportunity to protect the trails and keep development lower on the mountain.
  • 2 0
 If we wanted to ride white bread trails we can all go to UBC trails - nice for a picnic, but no thanks on Cypress - i have ripped Cypress BDs and they are classics and anything i couldn't do i rode around or 'carefully 'picked' my way down, no problem; and if i can do them anyone can [ i'm 68 and last rode there when i was two years ago ] But better yet, i wish the brainfarts [ owners / operators ] running the Ski lifts would bring back the Bike Park that they destroyed for the Olympics; it will never replace Whistler but would be an awesome destination when you can't afford the time and $$$ to do Whistler...really, no vision OR business savvy not realizing the North Shore is world renown with bikers and a bike park with lifts RIGHT HERE IN VANCOUVER is a no brainer money maker !
  • 1 0
 That would be incredible, making Vancouver even more awesome... it should just be a matter of time until this happens.
  • 1 0
 yep. i have a friend who works at Cypress and he said two guys [ ???] are trying to raise money to put lifts in for DH trails somewhere there...we'll see, but it doesn't sound soon enough for me...
  • 1 0
 Besides the above mentioned issues, did I take this out of context or does this raise red flags for others as well?:

"Recommendations....Identify potential revenue generation uses, e.g.....charges for use of mountain bike trails"
P.24 DWV PARKS MASTER PLAN: DRAFT
www.westvancouver.ca/uploadedFiles/Projects_and_Initiatives/Parks_and_Environment/PMP%20Final%20Draft%20Text%20Feb%2024%202012.pdf

"Other unmanaged commercial activities are also taking place, e.g., boot camps, dive schools, and ecotourism. These latter
activities provide no financial benefit to the District, they can have negative effects on park resources and other park users, and they raise concerns related to risk management and insurance."
P.23

Good luck Vancouver!
  • 1 0
 Nope - there's more than a few red flags there. Good catch dosojos
  • 4 0
 The Cypress trails are technical and unbelievably cool. I'll be there to show some support. If you can make it, please do.
  • 1 0
 Bike Park Bike Park Bike Park...that is where the energy and support needs to go; Cypress old school Dh trails are awesome but who would not prefer a mini - Whistler type destination closer [ in ] Vancouver. Wish i had the time to start something [ letter writing soliciting input and petitions from Riders etc etc etc - anyone out there ? ]
  • 1 0
 Go for it jc. It's all yours!
  • 2 0
 I say build some trails so all sorts of riders can enjoy Cyps and that way the hidden trails will be left pristine with less traffic I suppose...
  • 3 0
 we've all got to show up/submit the form, Shore bikers unite!
  • 1 1
 OK EVERYONE HOLD THE f*ck UP. WTF HAPPENED TO THE CYPRESS BIKE PARK THAT WAS SUPPOSEDLY GOING TO OPEN IN 2010 BUT THEY PUT IT OFF BECAUSE OFF THE OLYMPICS SO NOW WHAT?????!
  • 1 0
 Ask Cypress Bowl. They've got no interest. The Bike park has nothing to do with these trails so WHY THE HECK ARE YOU SHOUTING?
  • 1 0
 i hit caps not shift sorry but im still wondering if anyone knew anything on what they are planning to do up there.
  • 1 0
 No worries. I don't think anything's changed - it's just not something they're interested in running.
  • 1 0
 thats too bad i heard that digger had started stuff
  • 1 0
 How can it be supported by someone not living in there?
  • 1 0
 "ALL COMMENTS FROM EVERYONE WELCOME (whether or not you live in Vancouver). I have heard that District of West Vancouver are particularly surprised and pleased to hear that people from all over the world come to West Vancouver to ride and enjoy these wonderful trails".

I'm unsure how to explain it better
  • 1 0
 Well, my vote is to leave it the way it is. I don't want to see it destroyed. I also haven't had the chance to ride Cypress yet, so it needs to be how it is so I can experience it.
  • 1 0
 I wonder if IMBA is behind this.
  • 1 0
 I'm on it!
  • 1 0
 Open the bike park!







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