Kicking Horse Bike Park - Trail Crew Update #1 - 2011

The straight goods on Kicking Horse Bike Park, straight from the trail crew's fingertips.

STOP THE PRESSES AND HOLD YOUR HORSES. KHBP WILL NOT OPEN JUNE 17 due to a bear and rain. We still want to tell you what is happening up here, but we are all as disappointed as you that the best bike park in the Kootenays has to delay opening yet again.

Wow, did La Nina ever dump a lot of snow on our bike park last winter. This has meant three things: one, the melt out has been very slow this year; two, the sheer amount has played havoc with sections of trail; and three, wasn't that some kind of ski season? Yes, it was, but now it is summer and we claim Kicking Horse for the Bike Park!


The snow has been reluctant to leave this beautiful valley this year. So far that means only the trails below Catamount chair have been worked on. Once we do open, bikers can, and probably should at least once, still ride the gondola and descend from the top - where the views alone make the ascent worthwhile - but you will be confined to the 10 Road until reaching the top of Catamount - or, depending on when we actually open, the top of Blaster.


What has been done? We got off to a late start with trail maintenance due to the snow, but we have been busy, and will remain so as the snow retreats.

Claim Jumper and Wild Rose:
The first is a favourite of the old-school, black single-track crowd, and the second is the bottom of the Western Open race course. The bottom of CJ was the first trail we tackled. And we immediately had to shovel the white stuff. So Pioneer above may be closed, but these two runs will be as good as any time all season.


Lower Kranky Pants:
The snow snapped one bridge at the bottom which will need replacing, and made a gooey mess of a couple of sections. As for all the wet problems on our trails, we have added new drainage and the trails should be mostly dry by Friday (unless the rain has other plans). Also we rerouted one of last year's reroutes back to it original route. Not every fix is for the better.


Easy Rider:
Destroyed bridges and muck. We had a few challenges with this green run, but they are sorted now. We still have plans to further greenify this run. But we seem to have misplaced the time. Please share if you find some.


Dirt Jumps:
Sweeeet. Barely had to dress these at all, just had to style their hair a bit.


Buffalo Jump:
The last bridge on the mountain still decked with the crappy old end cuts snapped this winter. It will be replaced right quick.


Chain Reaction:
The super-old half of the stunt park will be closed again this year while we hope to replace it. The not-so-super-old half got a bit of a touch up.


Superberm:
The very bottom of this run will most likely get a complete rebuild this year due to winter slope grading, so it will be closed until that happens. The upper sections got a lot of water damage and left Hobo shaking his head in dismay. But we're slowly putting it back together, while whimsical dreams of magical machinery money floated around our heads. Or were those mosquitoes? Or ursus-tracking helicopters?


LYM:
La Nina sat her big fat butt down hard on a couple of bridges which left this trail unrideable. We went gangbusters on it last week and it is patched up and ready for rolling.


What else, what else? There is the Western Open coming in August which should be a pretty big deal. Go here for info: western-open.com/. Extended Play until 7:45 on Fridays begins June 24 (as long as we are open!). For all that sort of info go here: kickinghorseresort.com/mountain/activities/index-summer.aspx

As I don't have any fresh video for you yet this season, I'll throw in this li'l viddy from last fall's final big bike park crew ride:



Welcome back to you and welcome back to us. Hope to see you up here. Ride on.

-Crowe