Video: Fatbiking the North Shore with Wade Simmons & Ken Maude
While Whistler and the North Shore ski hills usually get buried under plenty of snow most years, winter tends not to stick around in town and on the mountain bike trails of the Shore. This year, it hit hard and stayed long, leaving riders scratching their heads trying to find things to do in the newly blanketed landscape.
But the Godfather of Freeride wouldn't let Old Man Winter stop him from getting out for a shred - Simmons grabs some Rocky Mountain fat bikes and convinces Ken Maude, iconic rider and owner of Lynn Valley Bikes, to have a snow day of shredding the Shore.
 | To this day, the riding never gets boring. The reason I'm so stoked on the Shore is the convenience to access unbelievable natural places - these rare old-growth temperate rain forests leading into sub-alpine lakes and snowy mountains that are juxtaposed against Canada'a third largest city. |
Wade Simmons and Ken Maude have been riding the shore since the early 90's
| What an experience to be in my backyard in this crazy winter wonderland! To ride in these conditions in the white west coast rain forest was an incredible opportunity. |
Snow-style mobbin'.
| Sometimes, the best even gets better. A time when conditions line up perfectly to step outside our normal riding routines; we don't ride fat-bikes often, but when Mother Nature shakes it up for us, we do. And we love it! |
The best grilled cheese is the one you make yourself outside.
Wade and Ken staying warm and dry with the help of the RF Conspiracy jacket and Agent pants.
| It is crazy to think that after living here my whole life we still have so much to explore and I couldn’t have done it with anybody else but Wade! |
SNOW DAY!!!
Riders: Wade Simmons, Ken Maude
Video: Connor Macleod
Photos: Nick Kupiak
Rocky Mountain Bicycles
Lynn Valley Bikes
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1) they are not on the top of the line bike. Those are Blizzard -20's you can get them for ~$1500 CAD, picked one up (in the same colour) at the start of the season, it's an awesome bike.
2) shows how awkward it is to ride on unpacked or ungroomed trails. Here in Whitehorse we have had a great season with our two drag sleds... there is nothing like a nice bit of groomed single track for fat biking. We also get a lot of help out from snowshoers, regular walkers, and snow machines, so hey multi-use trails aren't all doom and gloom.
All our local trails (in Idaho) have 3+ feet of snow on them, but luckily our local MTB association has been killing it with grooming all winter. They use a ~18" wide track, so even when you're on a fire-road, everything outside of the groomed track is powder that'll send you over the bars in a hurry. It makes it feel like you're on singletrack the whole way.
I was trying to force myself to ride a trainer through the first part of the winter, and going crazy. I finally started borrowing friend's fatbikes, and it's been a blast.
Is it the same as mountain biking on dirt? No, not by a long shot. Is it way the hell better than sitting in your ass or a trainer all winter? Absolutely.
Also a pretty good case for getting a 29" frame that's wide enough to handle a set of 3.0 27.5+ tires (I know, another thing that PB hates). On our mountain, it wouldn't let you ride all year, but you could get out there about half the days in the winter.
The only thing holding me back from grabbing one now is that I'm confident if I buy one, we'll have like 3-years with zero snow accumulation while it sits in my garage.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVIrHGTFyVM
This video needs - for once - to be speeded up :-)
Best winter tracks are where the tree harvesters have been. That's in Finland Winter of course.
Now if you're talking about some remote logging trail, nobody is riding and you want to bomb down it on an enduro bike sliding around, that's cool. Just on our trails you will get slapped for that.
Don't have groomed tracks except for Skiing and you get throttled riding those.
With a combo of thaw and freeze, also what one can find can be reasonable in holding you up as there is a good solid base to carry weight. If really bored, there are also lakes to pedal on as well.