IntroductionIt's another one of the Whistler area's worst kept secrets that Whistler Blackcomb (WB) was working away at trails in the Creekside area. It's now been revealed that the trail work wasn't just for the bike park but also for expanded small-scale outside the park offerings. New for Fall 2015, the Peak to Creek 'backcountry' tour is a tour designed to offer customers more opportunity to explore trails. The angle seems to be to emphasize that WB is so much more about the marked trails and to showcase intangibles such as space, alpine and wildness
As a bit of background, WB has tenure over parcels of land. This means that WB rents land on Whistler and Blackcomb mountain from the BC provincial government and can do certain things with the land (build trails, put in gondolas/lifts, restaurants, water reservoirs etc.). Through the
Bike Park WB has built the bike park trails with which we're all familiar. However, within the WB tenure there are many trails built independently of WB. The Peak to Creek tours are meant to introduce customers to the 'other' trails of Whistler.
Peak to Creek tours will essentially be a guided group ride where WB guides/instructors will start you out on bikepark-specific trails then take you on trails in the WB tenure; allowing the customer to get a flavour not just of the bike park but also of Whistler's world-famous trail system. Locals will point out that there are lots of ways to get outside the park yourself (
TRAILFORKS,
WORCA trail maps and
Bikepirate's excellent guide for example) but there will be some (out-of-towners, the time-deprived, those who want familiarity with trails in a guided setting etc) who might want to be shown the way.
Obligatory Top of the World shot showing yet more gorgeous lift-served alpine vistas - Cheakamus Glacier in the background
The tour and the Target Market
We sampled the new Peak to Creek backcountry tour with Seb, a 5 year WB guide who, ironically, we towed around these trails when he moved to Whistler from the UK five years ago! The Peak to Creek tour intends to cater to advanced riders who can handle technical trails (think No Joke, Original Sin type of trails) with some possible climbing depending on what route is taken. Since the ride will essentially be a 1800m+ descent one should expect to have some uphill and downhill fitness.
The guided Peak to Creek rides will only be offered when Top Of The World is open. Since TOTW opens late in the year and since not too many riders will meet the stiff criteria WB set for who can actually do this ride, the backcountry tours aren't anticipated to be a huge revenue-generator for the mountain. On speaking to Rob McSkimming of WB the thinking behind the Peak to Creek tours concepts reflected a deliberate decision to keep the experience relatively wild (insofar as a ski hill can be "wild") and exclusive; a product offered for the "wow" factor.
Khyber Pass
The new Middle of Nowhere connector trail
The TrailsAnd speaking of "wow" factor the Peak to Creek starts with the classic Top of the World views. Even jaded locals like Sharon and I are always blown away by the glaciers, the mountains, the views and the trail construction despite having ridden the trail numerous times. From TOTW our ride then continued out of the WB Bike Park taking the
"Black Diamond Option" onto Khyber Pass - Middle of Nowhere (a new connector trail funded and built by WB staff) - Kashmir - Kush - Boyds.
Our ride involves using trail bikes as there are punchy little climbs in most of those trails. Another option (
"Double Black Diamond Option") is more appropriate for downhill bikes and would involve TOTW - Ride Don't Slide - Boyds. It's worth pointing out that RDS has been re-routed in some parts by WB taking out some fall-line chunder. However, there is still some bite to those trails so they shouldn't be taken lightly.
Kashmir
Kashmir
Miscellany and PricingThe maximum group size is 5 people. People must book the Peak to Creek tour a minimum of 48hrs in advance in order to ensure there's a guide available. Mid-ride food, water and appropriate bike tools must be carried by the riders; there is no support until you get to Creekside base. Because there is no bike patrol support and limited ways to extract injured/broken riders or bikes from the trails mid-ride WB is going to be fairly strict in assessing rider skill before even allowing people on the ride. The guide will do a warmup lap with the group in the park to assess skills.
The Peak to Creek backcountry tour is a full day tour and priced accordingly at $ 449 for the entire group. If you get the full 5 people that means $90 per person. Each person will need a bike park ticket. They can get a TOTW ticket for $33 per person which gets the rider to the Peak and down. Or the riders who want to do some Bike Park laps after the tour is over can get the full bike park ticket ($ 31 per person). With that kind of pricing I can't imagine why someone wouldn't get the Bike Park ticket for just in case post Peak to Creek laps.
Kush
Kush
The Business Case Because I'm a business and finance geek I thought it would be interesting to dive into why WB would even get into something like the Peak to Creek backcountry tours. Usually when a fairly big organization like WB makes these decisions there's an underlying business case. Typically, businesses assess economic impacts to help them make decisions (boring stats heavy detailed
article here covering North America and other areas of the world here).
In 2014, WB's
revenue was 254.5 million. Revenue for WB from this new Peak to Creek offering.will be less than a rounding error and not materially accretive to the bottom line. On the other hand expenses for the trail work on non-WB trails worked on to supplement this offering was fairly high As background WB spent over 150k in trail work from 2012 to 15 on trails NOT in the Bike Park but in their tenure; which trails were WB's responsibility but not built by WB.
This then begs the question - why did WB spend money on trails that they did not build? Why did they not simply close those trails down? The answer requires a bit more background. For the benefit of non-BC readers, land managers in BC have a fairly laissez-faire approach to trail work and trail building by private independent trailbuilders. This has given rise to a self-help trail building and trail work culture and something which arguably has led to BC having such a huge network of trails. Like many land managers, WB had an attitude of "don't ask don't tell" to these private trails even when built on WB's land. Just in the last little while usage of these trails became too high and the trails themselves were too blatantly apparent (internet chatter, Strava, riders going up access roads shared by heavy equipment) for WB to ignore.
Given that WB realized they couldn't plausibly deny knowledge of rogue trails built without their permission on WB tenure; WB realized that they had a duty to their landlord (the Province of BC) and a duty to insurers to supervise appropriate use of land. The decision was to either (i) decommission trails; or (ii) keep trails in certain shape. I was interested in why WB chose the latter course and spoke to Rob McSkimming about this. According to Rob, WB spoke to their landlords (the Province of BC),
WORCA the local trail organization, and the bike community and decided that the right thing to do as part of the community was to adopt these trails.
Is WB an
altruistic corporate citizen doing this purely out of the good of their heart? My opinion is that there a mix of altruism plus a mix of self-interest. WB is very sensitive to their image as the big elephant in a exceptionally recreationally-oriented town and thus sensitive to not just doing things right but also to be seen as doing things right. WB also derives significant unquantifiable intangible economic benefits by being adjacent to so much wilderness and user-created trails. Having said that and all cynicism apart, there is a certain genuineness in speaking to the Bike Park senior management and operations people. They love their bike park. They love biking. They want to spread the stoke of biking in Whistler's awesome trails - not just in the Bike Park but also outside the park. They genuinely did not want to close trails and where it was humanly possible they expended significant resources to ensure that the trails could be improved and then experienced by riders. Additionally it's well known that a fair number of the WB executives even at the higher levels bike so there is a certainly an element of sympathizing with wanting cool trails. It's impossible to escape the impression that the WB corporate decision was motivated by mountainbikers who love trails who happen to work for a big company simply wanting to do the right thing ie to keep cool trails.
In summary the
Peak to Creek backcountry tours complements Whistler's Peak Zone and Top of the World trails. These tours are a great way for a group of riders to be shown very cool trails accessed from the WB Bike Park in a tour group guided setting. The fact that these trails even exist and now have been improved by both WB and independent local trailbuilders shows how it is possible for industry and private citizens to work together for the common good of a healthy trail network.
Boyds aka BC's trail
Boyds aka BC's trail
Endnotes - Whistler Blackcomb contributions to Whistler trail systems outside the Whistler Bike Park and to WORCA - summary 2012 - 2015 (to date)Source - Whistler Blackcomb Total Invested on Blackcomb to date +$50,000
- Refurbished Hey Bud, Crazy Train and Microclimate on Blackcomb to bring them up to standard and make them sustainable
- Built new climbing trail to access Blackcomb trail network
- Reworked exit to Instant Gratification
Total invested on Whistler/Creekside trails to date +$100,000
- Built new entrance to Khyber, armored key sections, built new ride around the hike-a-bike section and perform annual maintenance
- Built new Middle of Nowhere trail connecting Khyber to Kashmir – provides sustainable alternative to Babylon
- Armoring and ongoing maintenance of Kashmir
- Rebuilt unsustainable upper sections of Ride Don’t Slide
- Rebuild/refurbishment of Boyd’s trail
Provided free bike park lift tickets for WORCA trail work days – 64 tickets last year, 45 so far for 2015
Provided free bike park lift tickets for WORCA volunteer appreciation day
- Crankworx provided WORCA with $10,000 over the last two years and has committed $5,000 for 2015
- Phat Wednesday race series requires WORCA membership and has driven overall member numbers
- Bike Park and other trails on WB Bike Park used for many Toonie races – WB pays for Patrol to be on site for many of these events
- Garibaldi Bike and Bean sponsors an annual Toonie race
WB stock price - disclosure is that I am a happy shareholder
Is inversely correlated to WB's terrain
Dusty's is packed - ie a positive indirect economic spinoff
MENTIONS: @WhistlerMountainBikePark /
@leelau
I was there last week, stayed in Creekside, but rode the park and the XC trails in the valley. Next time.
I read all your articles. Great daydream stuff for future trips - thanks!
All the new work makes for a great trail ride albeit more for a skilled rider with reasonable fitness level.
In my opinion Kush and Kasmir a step up in skill level from TOTW. I can see some people getting in over there heads. Again, my opinion, trails outside the park are more challenging than inside the park. i think it's smart to have a guide do a test run with the tourists. But will they really convince or say you can't pay to be guided when in truth you can do it for free?
Like the article says - WB don't make this product available because its a cash cow, they make it available because some people will embrace the idea of having a knowledgeable local lead them. I have worked as a guide both in Whistler and in the Alps and I think having a someone show you around is invaluable to getting the best out of a short trip.