Sun Peaks Bike Park Update: DH Race Track Completed
The Sun Peaks Bike Park has seen some huge improvements over the past month or so, with significant machine time spent reworking corners on the majority of the network’s flow trails; Smooth Smoothie, Route 66, Steam Shovel, Biker Cross, and Home Run are all boasting buff new berms, and hits, and riding better than ever!
Dylan Sherrard’s Shred Hard Bike Camp participants have been revelling in the goods this past week, with thirty young shredders breaking in the new trail while dodging puddles and maneuvering through muddy stretches, between bouts of tack and airtime.
In addition to massive amounts of flow trail upgrades, the Trail Crew has just completed Sticky One, the last remaining piece of this year’s new race track for the 2016 Canadian Downhill Championships, coming to Sun Peaks next weekend! The new course will start right from the deck of the Sunburst Lodge, so if you aren’t racing you can catch all the action complete with expansive views, and of course cold beer.
The course starts on Sun Peaks’ classic Insanity One, which has hosted racers of a different era of downhill weapons many years ago, before being displaced by DH. This singletrack double-black features a number of rock faces and plenty of roots and drops, with hand built singletrack linking it all together.
Hanging right around the notorious ‘Twisted Sister’s Sister’ on the lower reaches of Insanity One, Sticky One takes you out of the woods across Sting ski run and back into a coastal feeling forest loaded with fresh trail and loamy corners, ripe for the picking.
Sticky One is a relatively tame interval between the technical demands of both Insanity One and its latter connection with Honey Drop, with both the exception to that rule and defining feature waiting right above Lower Shortcut... A fresh, mossy rock face with catch berm below for the bold, and a considerably slower ride around route for the rest.
Sticky One meets Honey Drop roughly half way down its vertical footprint, right above a giant boulder that will either force you over to the right or squeeze you around to the left.
Sticky One, with the exception of the rock face, rides a lot like the recently opened Resurrection which was featured in last week’s update with mostly fresh, rough, loamy singletrack, and a few strategically placed berms to maintain speed.
Honey Drop is an entirely different beast, however, featuring some of the most difficult terrain on the mountain. When you’re out of the woods on this trail you can breathe once again, with the uncompromising tech turning to tight, flowing single track right into Resurrection.
With Sticky One complete and open to ride, Sun Peaks’ new top-to-bottom race course is now officially ready for next weekend’s Canadian DH Championships! This is the third year running here at Sun Peaks and this year’s course promises to be a game-changer.
Not only does a whole new course offer a fresh challenge for racers, but the new course is much more self-contained than its predecessor and allows the majority of the park trails to stay open while racing ensues. In addition to Insanity One, Honey Drop, Resurrection and Sticky One which make up the track; Wagon Wheel, 4 Road and Lower Shortcut are the only other trails affected and closed by the event. And with chairlift hours running from 10am to 7pm each day, you can ride well into the evening hours!
Enjoy the trails and we'll see you next weekend for the Canadian DH Championships!
- Sun Peaks Bike Park Team
Watch for more updates on SunPeaksResort.com.
MENTIONS: @SunPeaksResort
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
more people should move there.
lol.
It may sound crazy, but one of my (very minor) complaints is that Sun Peaks is maybe too good of a secret and there aren't enough people riding there. It means lots of the village is closed and I like to do a run of Sugar every once in a while, but if I'm riding by myself I'm afraid I might biff it and it will be days before anyone finds me... If you ride mid-week you're generally rolling from the trail onto the next chair and you *will* run out of steam before daylight...