I’ve made a handful of friends up here in Whistler leaning on my old BMX days. That’s fairly normal for me as I’m very rarely outgoing enough to actually meet anyone on my own. Fabes was working behind a bar and recognized me. He took me out on a couple local’s route rides when my bike still had a drivetrain (the gears all rattled off after a few weeks of bike park). Yesterday we did a Top of the World ride with his friend Joel. At Whistler the bulk of the trails I really like (jump trails) are above Whistler Village. With the main lift being replaced this year you take the gondola up to the mid station. That’s where you can pick up A Line, Dirt Merchant and Crank it Up. You can also stay on the gondola and go another 2 times higher on the mountain. There are amazing views up there and sometimes I ride up there just to take those in. I find the trails starting from that area to be kind of boring and tediously bumpy but you have to remember I’m riding a hardtail. There is also another lift that goes even higher than that! This one goes to the Top of the World which is the peak of Whistler mountain. Fully worth doing even without your bike. Walking the sketchy feeling bouncy suspension bridge they have up there is quite an experience. 

If you pay the extra fee for a Top of the World pass you can bring your bike. I’d heard different things from people about how hard or not hard the single trail was leading from Top of the World but everyone said it was something you needed to do. With Fabes leading we launched from the top of the mountain into the trail. My short review is that it isn’t at all difficult but there is a few narrow parts that are very rocky and you need to be cautious. The rocks seem to be extremely sharp near the top of the mountain and even a little tip over would be awful. Once through the first section of tight trail things open up and become relaxed enough that you can look around in wonder at where you are. I got mild vertigo at one point since we were riding above the tree line and my sense of up and down was confused by the overwhelming slopes of the mountain side. The trail winds around and then becomes almost a flow trail with berms and jumpable humps near where shrubs and small tress start to appear. Then the real fun began with a sneaky turn off onto a not-so-secret secret trail.

I don’t know how things work up there but it felt like we were going on to some out-of-bounds illegal trail as the trail turn off was not marked and seemed designed to not be seen. However, once we were down the turn off a ways there was indeed a trail marker. Maybe it is just designed to be slightly secret? 

The trail is a loam trail as the locals call it. I’ve heard this term from mountain bikers before but never really new what it meant. The mountain is a pretty rocky place and so a lot of the techy trails that trundle through the trees are nothing more than rocks, dust and roots. When they were originally designed the trails had actual dirt on them but over the years it gets stripped away from tires braking and turning. This semi-secret trail still has its top layer of dirt on it and carving through it on your bike is a completely different sensation than riding a hard rocky trail. The soft “loamy” dirt rounds off the edges of the rocks and roots below and your tires kind of float on the powdery layer of dirt. The traction is not exactly grippy but it is very predictable. I found myself enjoying some two wheel slides into corners within the first few turns and although that is a feeling that is normally comes with mild panic here it felt almost on purpose.

Beware of a Whistler local who tells you it’ll be an easy ride if you are from the midwest; I guarantee it will be the gnarliest thing you have ever ridden.

We bombed down this trail for a while and it wound its way down the mountain through the trees that we had finally reached. At some point we crossed a road and got on to a trail that Christina from Pinkbike and Sam had taken me on when it was raining. More loaminess and fun but now a fair bit steeper. I didn’t exactly remember the trail from my previous ride but I remembered that all the features that scared me weren’t really that bad and so headed into this trail with confidence. Also, before we had started our Top of the World adventure Joel had taken us on a warm up lap of all the steepest and sketchiest stuff I’ve ridden since I’ve been here. Beware of a Whistler local who tells you it’ll be an easy ride if you are from the midwest; I guarantee it will be the gnarliest thing you have ever ridden. Spending time up here my confidence has been catching up with my riding ability that I imagine is still tucked away somewhere in my muscle memory. Also, to Whistler’s credit the trails here pretty much just work no matter how steep and ridiculous they might look.

Rolling and bumping down the steep loamy trail I realized I wasn’t feeling beat up or worn out. I was breathing heavy of course (it does take a lot of bike maneuvering) but my arms felt strong and my forearms could handle all the extended braking stress without an issue. This “tech” trail riding thing is growing on me. It is still not my favorite type of riding but it can be a lot of fun. For me it seems like these trails are the most fun when riding with other people who are going through the same close calls as you. I did some runs on my dirt jumper bike the other day and I actually liked riding that bike more on the jump trails than my “real” mountain bike. A light easy to maneuver bike is a treat to have on dirt jumps and the trails are fine on it. However, for this kind of riding, this so-steep-it-looks-like-a-cliff, so-loose-your-brain-says-there-can’t-be-any-grip, and so-bumpy-you-can-barely-steer-where-you-want is where modern long and slack bikes come into their own. Rolling off some rock into a pile of rubble with my front brake locking up my front wheel feels almost controlled where as on a short bike like my DJ it would be an instant heels over head front flip. I’ll change the subject before I get into a whole diatribe about my thoughts on mountain bike designs!

We smashed down trails for a long while and finally ended up on a fire road. We got a little confused from here until we found some more well ridden trails, though still technical. To my delight we ended up catching the end of Dirt Merchant and then rode part of A Line down. I loved getting a bit of smooth and fast trail riding in after all those bumps. Floating through the air on A Line jumps is a chance for me to take a deep breath and stop holding on to the grips so tight… a second of calm and smoothness after an hour of bumping around. 

Joel and Fabes went off for some lunch and I was inspired to keep riding. The line for the gondola had died down and so I raced through a bunch of jump line laps in a row. I love those laps. Going from the top to bottom of Dirt Merchant into A Line is an ideal exertion for me and the lift ride back up is plenty of time to recover and want to do it again. I don’t do much more than the odd one footer or table on the trails but that seems fine. I don’t have that urge to do some trick that is right on the edge of my ability, I just enjoy those moments floating through the air or stringing one corner into the next at speed. Good fun! 

Thanks to Fabes and Joel for taking me on that epic ride! It is such a treat to see this beautiful place from the locals perspective.