Snow Summit Bike Park Opening May 26, 2017
The one-week countdown is on: The Snow Summit Bike Park will open for the year next Friday, May 26, kicking off SoCal’s lift accessed mountain biking season.
Following a record-setting winter of snowfall the dirt is primed and ready for what should be a huge year in the park:
• Last year saw the completion of two major trail additions to the Snow Summit system, moving the park significantly closer to completion of the Gravity Logic-designed master plan. With something for riders of all abilities, the park now offers a clear arc of progression. And as a result rider traffic on the hill has spread out significantly.
• This year will also see the return of the pump track and skill builder park in the base area following permitting issues that kept the areas from opening last year.
• The wrenches in the shop have been busy building up a brand spanking new fleet of Trek demo bikes that includes the Session 88 and Fuel EX 7.
• The trail crew has also taken over maintenance on several trails accessible from Chair 1 that aren’t on the property. With access to over 60 miles of single track from the top of Chair 1 via the skyline trail, much of it now in pristine condition, pass holders won’t lack world-class trail options this summer.
• Speaking of, Bike Park Passes are now on sale, purchase before June 5, before prices go up.
• Also new this year, a newly enhanced Meadow area at the base of Chair 1 is now the perfect spot to grab a beer and some grub post-ride. With new seating and stage for live music, it’ll be going off all summer.
• And finally, Crafts and Cranks is back and set for July 22-23. Now part of the California Enduro Series, racers will compete for the biggest prize purse on the west coast, or just drink delicious beer, or both!
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What Snow Summit desperately lacks is an intermediate jump trail.
A little skill builder/pump track area is great and all, but it's not the same as an intermediate (i.e. 4-6 table tops and doubles) jump line.
They've definitely made huge advancements in giving the less experienced riders safer options while simultaneously reducing traffic on the more advanced trails.
But without an INTERMEDIATE JUMP LINE, there is no real "arc of progression".
If you stop thinking about it from an aggressive bro mentality, and think about it objectively, it's in everyone's best interest for parks to be well rounded and truly accessible to all skill levels.
I can clear about a third of the jumps up there, but it takes a pretty sizable commitment to get there. With intermediate sized jumps (relative to the MTB community at large) progressing to 10ft tall table tops is much more realistic. It will mean less people getting hurt attempting jumps that are too big. Which will mean less liability for Snow Summit, which will means more trails in the long run.
Everybody wins.
I wouldn't argue that joeys hurting themselves is a SS problem, though. It's the same thing in the winter: proximity to LA means you get every bro with an ego trying to ride beyond their skill set, then wind up hurting themselves. People should really take responsibility for their own shit - don't try to send the whole table if you're not comfortable off the lippy lips. Sure, it kills flow to land on top, but at least you've got another chance to get a rebate another few seconds ahead.
That said, SS could really help us out with an intermediate line, like Mammoth has. It'll get more slow guys off of PW and Westy, and over time increase their customer base. Yep, everybody wins.
Head. In. Sand.
Let me ask you this:
How does having another trail (one tragically below your awe-inspiring skill set) that the less experienced rider can learn on, detract from your experience? Does it mean that Snow Summit will have less resources to expend helping you get even more radder bro?
Or does the notion of helping people less courageous (or is it reckless?) than you somehow offend your notion of how people should learn to tackle relatively huge jumps?
Again, they're not huge for you because you are clearly too rad even for Snow Summit.
Turtle Trail isn't an intermediate DH run. It's brake-dragging double track with flat turns.
To scvkurt03's point, there is no good reason why Snow Summit can't build a side by side jump line trail. It's evident in how they build that some riders with a bit too much rad-a-bility, like our friend motoXXXer: Return of Zander Cage, have too much influence over what gets built up there.
Perhaps in time whoever is directing the shovels will pull their head out of the sand?
hoping the jump lines are a bit more dialed this year...
oh well, beggars can't be choosers I suppose
That hill needs MORE beginner and intermediate trails. Particularly intermediate jump & feature lines.
I totally understand that you're bored with those giant table tops, and of course I agree that they should continue adding more technical trails. But I've never seen as many injured newbs as I have at Snow Summit.
But they need permission from the forest service to build new trails, and that's a lengthy, drawn out, expensive process, so don't hold your breath for new trail building anytime soon. It'll prob be a couple years before they even get permission.
The jumps are about as beginner/intermediate friendly as they come, albeit maybe slightly larger than someone would want if they had literally never hit a jump before.
Maybe I'm jaded...that said, I do agree I've seen a lot complete beginners at summit, which is strange as I would have never even considered going to a bike park back when I first started. We are blessed to have pretty legit trail networks in socal...not sure why they aren't taking advantage elsewhere...Summit isn't exactly a convenient location for most of the population base anyways.
They flock from SoCal because:
A.) it's a destination
B.) there's no pedaling or climbing
C.) it has an aura of inherent "safety"
Again, I've got to disagree. I have a different idea of what "beginner friendly is", and Snow Summit is decidedly not that.
Most of the jumps at Summit are at least 7 foot tall 10 foot long table tops. That's not intermediate. That's black diamond.
You're abilities and the way you learned might be quite different from how the majority of riders progress.
Have you ridden other parks?
I don't know, I guess i consider tables to be pretty beginner/intermediate friendly. The trails aren't steep at summit and if you aren't clearing the jumps and flowing the trails properly you'll lose a considerable amount of speed (I.e. Beginner/intermediate friendly)
Needs a rythmn line with gravity...jumps out of turns to the next with rollers for speed and scrubs.
Funny thing is, the skills park from a few years ago actually had a fun gap jump line with a decent ramp kicker at the end...was more fun to lap that than the main jump line.
That's why they've only managed to build two new trails in the last four years. It's not a money thing. It's a "forest service is going to take their time reviewing ecological impact etc. etc. before they allow to build anymore trails" thing.
In other words don't hold your breath.
Def aint ez doing biz in California/us et al.