Whistler is an amazing place and rightly a biking Mecca, it is like the Scottish 7 Stanes and Alps all rolled into one. Whistler is named after the whistling marmots which frequent the hills. Sadly we heard no whistling in Whistler, Ralph says they are probably too out of breath from cycling to whistle. There are also loads of black bears there, we even saw one on the road up! As you will see from the pictures we had fun trying some daring feats on our weeks guided mountain biking. We both loved the cross country routes but our day in the bike park was a bit hectic!
In preparation for our week of hardcore cycling we had a rigorous regime of eating lots and sitting on our bums, sorry ass's. This preparation did not go to waste, the end of the second days cross country ride made us both feel as if we had ridden a double marathon!
Everyone else where we were staying was addicted to the bike park so we thought we'd better see what they were raving about. The bike park is the summer version of the ski area. You put on lots of body armour so your hearing, vision and movement are restricted, then you line up and prepare to lift your 40lb downhill bike onto a moving bike rack as it swings past and try to make sure its in securely as its worth $2000, and then you have to get on the tiny seat and try and not drop any of your gloves helmets or self on the way up in case you land on a black bear grazing on the hill below. Then once you're at the top it starts to get stressful.....As well as having to go fast down scary trails there's the added excitement of hoards of armoured super fast riders whizzing past annoyed that someone slow is in their way then the trails merge and you have to be extra vigilant to check the sign for skull and cross bones before you set off down a double diamond black super extreme trail as myself and Jane very nearly did instead of a more gentle blue.
From another perspective, Ralph's, the bike park was really good, the down hill bikes with 8" of travel can pretty much fly over anything. The pedals on the downhill bike were for some reason smaller and less grippy meaning it was hard to keep your feet on the pedals. Ralph hit a jump at speed and managed to come off and land on his back, having earlier refused to pay the extra 10 dollars for a back protector - oh the irony! When Ralph limped back to the shop at lunchtime they offered the back protector for free - bargain.
A bike built for a giraffe?
Fettling at 'Alta Vista' our home for the week
Paul coaches Fiona though a difficult rocky section
the one that got away - ralph tried this 4ft high double teeter totter (see saw to you and me) but had to jump off half way across.
I tried the door but for some unknown reason i couldn't get in
Back protector, best worn before falling on your back
American football anyone?
We also used our day pass from the bike park to take the cable car across the valley.
The cable car system is the longest in the world apparently
Those black blobs in the background are bears - honest! The black blob in the foreground is Fiona in disguise!!
For my fellow bike geeks out there if you want to look them up on you tube here are the runs we did:
cross country:
big timber
tunnel vision
a river runs through it
bobs rebob
danimal
get over it
Bike park:
B line
Ho chi min
Devils club (best one)
heart of darkness
karate monkey
Something or other pizza cat
After Whistler we returned to Vancouver to hire a car and head for the rockies............
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