Whistler Bike Park: Garbanzo and Creekside Opening - Park Report

"One of these things is not like the others”

You know that popular phrase from Sesame Street? Is Sesame Street still a thing? Do kids still wake up Saturday morning (or whenever it’s on), pour a big bowl of cereal and watch / learn important life lessons? If you are not familiar with this vignette, it was a preschool game of yell at the television which kid on the show was doing his own thing and not following the crowd. My guess is that kid not doing what the kids in the other eight squares were doing grew up to be a trail builder. Trail builders don’t care what everyone else is doing and they even sacrifice much of their own fun time to spend leisurely hours working on trails so others can enjoy them. Another example of “one of these things is not like the others”, is the weather in June so far. The past two Junes have been warm dry affairs but this June is doing its own thing, heck I just saw a post this morning of Mike Douglas skiing DOA in perfect mid-winter powder conditions – this week.

Massive vert and minuscule lines - Creekside is where its at.
Photo by: Laurence Crossman-Emms

This return to Juneuary is more typical of Whistler weather but does come as a bit of a shock after warm, dry, sunny April and May. The positive side of this weather doing its own thing and not following the trend set by its neighboring months, is that we have moisture in the forests which has kept the Wildfire Hazard in the “Low” zone. This typically also means good conditions for building trail however more drying and setup time is required before we can open said trails.

This weekend heralds the opening of both the Creekside Gondola and Garbanzo Express lifts, effectively more than doubling the trails we have open. The trail crew boys have been up there doing their own thing, dealing with some heavy rain and snow while getting the trails into ride-able condition. Expect some chilly riding up there and a few sections of closed trail as we keep people off fresh rebuilds that are too soft for tires. Creekside Gondola access to the Park is for expert riders only as there are only black level trails to return you to the base area and connect to the Fitz Zone. Upper Expressway (Blue) is currently closed requiring riders to take Freight Train / No Joke routes (Black Diamond). The “Whitesnake” and “Bearpaw” sections of Blue Velvet will also remain closed so expect some bypass riding to route around several closures. Access to the Garbanzo Zone will be via Garbo Express only with no riding from the top of the Whistler Village Gondola.

Team riders James, Tristan and Pete laying it over on Dusty's DH.
Photo by: Laurence Crossman-Emms

C-More should remain open for the weekend if conditions allow, but expect a soft-ish riding surface in some spots. We will also be cracking the GoPro Family Cross track through the Joyride course. If you have ridden over it on Fitz for the past few weeks you know this year’s version looks amazing!

Please respect all closures and slow down for all road crossings, there are major construction projects occurring on the mountain and loaded trucks should be given the right of way.

Hope you can make it up to get in some laps, “now it’s time to play our game."
– see you on the trails, BF


Team Riders: Tristan Merrick, James McSkimming, Peter Matthews.
Video by: Goldstein Productions

PLANNING ON RIDING MORE THAN 5 DAYS THIS SUMMER?
There is a pass for you! A 5 Day Pass is $295, which works out to just $59 a day, so get out there and have a sleepless summer. If you want to ride more than that, we have 10 Day, Unlimited and other passes that should work just fine.
Get yours here.

#RideNowSleepLater / @WhistlerMountainBikePark