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Mid-Atlantic does Whistler

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
For the third year running now a bunch of Mid-Atlantic heads descended upon Whistler for a week of riding and mayhem. The cast of characters: Steve (Stiff), Steve (SDH), Julio (jmvar, FES, Coolio), Mark Eggers (Ol' Grand Dad), Kirstin, Andy Goglia, Farris, SJ, Burner, and myself.

This year's trip for Mark, Kirstin, SDH, and I started in Seattle. Before Whistler, I usually like to spend some time there in my old stomping grounds. Sunday night the bikes were built with the aid of a case of Fat Tire and dinner was had on Alki at Duke's Chowderhouse. Early Monday morning we fueled up at Beth's Cafe near Greenlake (nobody stepped up for the 12 egg omelette :eek: ) and started our way north to Whistler. We met up with the rest of the crew at the bottom of the Fitzsimmons Lift and we were up on the mountain by 11am.

Mark enjoying a Fat Tire on the deck of my friends' house in West Seattle...


SDH and Mark building bikes...


Fra-gee-lay...Frontier Airlines aimed well for the Fragile sticker on the box containing our bike rack...
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
On the left side of this panoramic shot you can see the dirt jumps they were crafting for the Red Bull Elevation dirt jump comp...(click thumbnail for bigger picture)


Conditions were dry and dusty through the Boneyard and mountain-x course. The dude with the hose could have really lit up the folks riding up on the lift :D ...




Redbull Eurocopter EC-120...
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
As usual I didn't get very many pictures of actual riding. Hopefully Julio will post some of the ones he took. This year my favorite run was probably No Joke/Freight Train down to Dirt Merchant to Lower A-Line. That run offered a bit of everything...old school DH, jumps, steep roll-ins (Drop In Clinic - steep roll-in to step up jump :thumb: ). A close second would have to be the Original Sin-Goats Gully-In Deep to Fatcrobat to D1 or Too Tight to the lower half of the mountain...old school DH, steeps, tight twisty singletrack, and a really long log ride/skinnies section (Fatcrobat). The lion's share of my runs this year started from Garbanzo and curiously enough I never did a full top to bottom run down A-Line.

Stiff, SDH, jmvar, and Mark about half way down No Joke


Blurry snapshot of Kirstin coming down No Joke...


One of my favorite lines - Farris coming off the big rock drop on Dirt Merchant...


...to the step up immediately following.


Andy on the same drop...




Andy on one of the hip jumps in the Boneyard...




Farris on the same hip...
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
10 people + 1 2-bd condo = Mayhem



Barbasol!...


Things got a little lit up...




10 people, 16 bikes...


More chaos...


 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
Chilling out on the GLC patio watching the Red Bull Elevation qualifying...




Riding Whistler all day, watching a DJ comp, beer, poutine, and cute chicks all around - good times :thumb:


After Whistler we drove down to Vancouver and shuttled Seymour for an afternoon before driving back to Seattle. Mark and Julio took the lion's share of the pictures on the North Shore so hopefully they'll post those up soon.

Six days in a row of DH riding with upwards of 20,000 ft. of total vert each day at Whistler. I'm already looking forward to going back next year. :) :thumb:
 

corey_rideDC

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
1,368
0
DCmetro
wow, looks like a great time as usual... and this year was s'posed to be my first :( maybe if i start planning NOW for next year there'll be a chance... can't wait to hear the stories!
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
corey_dcstreet said:
wow, looks like a great time as usual... and this year was s'posed to be my first :( maybe if i start planning NOW for next year there'll be a chance... can't wait to hear the stories!
ditto!
 

jmvar

Monkey
Aug 16, 2002
414
0
"It was a funny angle!"
I am slowly uploading pics so expect this thread to be edited with more.

I flew into Vancouver on Sat. Morning, changed into my riding gear in the bathroom at the airport, and Stiff, aka weird Steve picked me up in the pimp rental pick-up truck. I checked into the hostel we were staying at in Vancouver, put my bike together and went riding in the North Shore.

Here is a pic of how to travel in style, with bike-in-a-bag:



This is a pic of the view from either Cypress or Seymor Mtn. of downtown Vancouver (can't remeber which mountain):



Yes, Vancouverians are the luckiest mother effers on earth, they have incredible mountains at the foot of their city, hot chicks everywhere, great food, and Whistler 2 hours away. On top of that, we were told by locals that there are so many other places to ride like Squamish, Whistler Valley and tons more.

Moving on, Sat. and Sun. was spent riding/shuttling the North Shore. Sat. we were in Seymour and Sunday we went to Cypress. The Cypress Bike Park was not all that impressive. Short vert with limited trails made Stiff and I move on to the lower half of the mountain by mid day. In the lower half I rode one trail and then my shoulder started to burn as if it were on fire. Turns out I had worn the same shirt as the day before and invented a new skin disease called 'salty shoulder'. I had to face the cashier at the local supermarket with a bottle of diaper rash cream and aloe, she was very proffessional and didn't request a price check. Stiff did a couple more runs and then we called it a day. We drove to Squamish where we stayed at a hostel.



Squamish has incredible mountains and I could only imagine the trails there are at this place. From what we heard it was all natural, classic, steep as balls DH.

Mon. morining we met up with DamienC and crew and rode all day. I think we did 5-6 runs top to bottom, the most vert I will probably do in my life unless I jump out of a plane clipped in. Rode Whistler Mon. and Tues. Took Wed. off and rode a trail in Whistler valley, and then continued pounding Whistler Thurs. and Fri.

Here are some pics.

This is on the trial in Whistler Valley



Ride a nice trail, then take a dip in the lake:



I think you can see the lake from the previous pic in this one, this is not even half way down the mountain from the top of Garbanzo:



Stiffy showing the Freight Train drop who is boss:



Steve II, Papa Bear following suit:



DamienC getting sloppy thirds on the Freight Train drop:



Stiffy showing off the coin slot on the Fatcrobat skinnies:







Stiffy going down one of the many steeps he sought out on the trip. Stiff was the man with the steeps, everything he came across he went down. At one point he tried to ride down the side of the hostel we were staying at but I managed to talk him out of it with empty promises of Korean food and pun-tang :D J/K :D



Mark E. on a log ride:



The entrance to our condo.......oh yes.......our condo, that could be a whole other thread. 10 people, 16 bikes, and one very nice condo that was not so nice by the end of the week.



Fri. night we drove back to Vancouver and stayed in the North Shore. Sat. we rode Seymour. Here is the pimp ranger beign put to good use during shuttling:



And 3 more shots of DamienC and Stiff on the beautiful bridges in Seymour:







All in all, like I said, those BC guys are some lucky MF's. Vancouver itself is a very cool city, and to have all those trials right there is just unbeleivable. Now I see why people always say that if you go to Whistler you should also check out other local riding spots. The riding there is so diverse that it is worth checking it all out.
 
Aug 30, 2005
154
0
San Diego
damn, looks like insane fun. those whistler trails are sooooo sick. to bad i'm broke as SH**. Just gonna have to stick w/Mammoth and N* untill next summer :(
 

jmvar

Monkey
Aug 16, 2002
414
0
"It was a funny angle!"
BTW, these pictures do no justice to the amount and quality of the trails we rode in Vancouver and Whistler. This is like going to the playboy mansion and looking through the gate.
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
The Professor said:
Whats the ballpark cost for a week out there?
Rough order of magnitude estimate...maybe $1k but could be done for much less or much more depending.

In US$...

~$35/day for lift tickets. You can buy multiple day passes which makes it cheaper overall per day. If you plan on riding for more than about 10 days there you might as well buy a seasons pass.
$350-500 airfare into Seattle or Vancouver
Bike shipping - $80-100 in shipping there and back via FedEx or take on the plane with you which is probably more expensive.
Ground transportation - big variable here. Either rent a vehicle or take shuttle bus from Vancouver Airport to Whistler.
Condo/hotel - another big variable. Go in on something with enough people or do the Shoestring Lodge and it's probably anywhere between $15-30/night.
Food - $20-30/day is possible but not probable. Hitting up the half-price bar menu at the Brewhouse Monday-Friday definitely helps the food budget.
 
Jun 4, 2002
93
0
Berryville, VA
DamienC said:
Rough order of magnitude estimate...maybe $1k but could be done for much less or much more depending.

In US$...

~$35/day for lift tickets. You can buy multiple day passes which makes it cheaper overall per day. If you plan on riding for more than about 10 days there you might as well buy a seasons pass.
$350-500 airfare into Seattle or Vancouver
Bike shipping - $80-100 in shipping there and back via FedEx or take on the plane with you which is probably more expensive.
Ground transportation - big variable here. Either rent a vehicle or take shuttle bus from Vancouver Airport to Whistler.
Condo/hotel - another big variable. Go in on something with enough people or do the Shoestring Lodge and it's probably anywhere between $15-30/night.
Food - $20-30/day is possible but not probable. Hitting up the half-price bar menu at the Brewhouse Monday-Friday definitely helps the food budget.
Wow, that's not bad at all.
Thanks for the info, could I get it in a spreadsheet format next time? :D
But really, thanks man.
 

Simon-ITIH

Chimp
Apr 7, 2005
9
0
...and I tought I was on top of (my little personal puny Italian) riding world when we were at the Open in may...

If you are going back next year I'll SERIOUSLY consider coming.
The only thing that makes it better is that it was really impossible for me to come since my girlfriend was here from Italy.

Other than that, is full on jealousy.

Great pics, even better reports.
I'll miss Team XXL back at home!

Simon
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
Simon-ITIH said:
If you are going back next year I'll SERIOUSLY consider coming.
It's not a question of IF, it's a question of WHEN. :)

Next year's trip should happen in the late-July to mid-August time frame.
 

mobius

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
2,158
0
Around DC
Lucky bastards. THat dirt mirchant drop where did that come from? I definetly will try to make it out there with you guys next year.
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
mobius said:
Lucky bastards. THat dirt mirchant drop where did that come from? I definetly will try to make it out there with you guys next year.
It looked like sections of Dirt Merchant were totally reworked since last season. The bigger of the two rock drops on Dirt Merchant (shown in the pics above) came right after the wooden bridge and steep rock roll down if you can remember that section. There were actually three lines off that big rock - the drop shown, a small but really fun kicker to the rider's right that send you down just as far as the big drop, and a ride around line to the far right. All three fed into a really fun step-up hip jump.

The smaller and more familiar rock drop on Dirt Merchant further down towards the end of the trail is now totally exposed and almost part of the main line whereas before it was an optional line.
 

AlmostHeaven

Turbo Monkey
Jun 8, 2005
1,164
0
VIRGINIA
mobius said:
Lucky bastards. I definetly will try to make it out there with you guys next year.
:stupid:

ggrrr....i would LOVE to make that trip next year.

Whistler or Amsterdam...hhhm....that is a DAMN hard decision!
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
Freight Train drop sequence...


An easy drop but a fun one to air out. It sends you into that big berm followed by a step-up.

rider: me
photo: jmvar
cheerleader: SDH

Steve (SDH) hitting it...


and the other Steve (Stiff)
 

Roasted

Turbo Monkey
Jul 4, 2002
1,488
0
Whistler, BC
Holy crap those are some good pics. Great job. I love that stunt on river (the one through the tree) I just wish I fit through it. Small people made it for medium people :)...

Nice pics...makes me jones for a ride. Oh and anyone coming out from now on, BRING RAIN GEAR. Rain season officially started this morning.
 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,860
4,154
Copenhagen, Denmark
Nice pictures - the new suff on Dirt Merchant and Freight Train looks nice. Again I wish I had gone later in the season with dry trails and all these nice improvements.
 

Stiff

Monkey
Sep 24, 2001
346
0
Miss Washington DC
Money saving tips:

Shoestring Lodge is a C$19/night hostel, bikes in rooms, and is also a strip joint half the week and has punk rock shows on Sunday. NOFX played two Sundays ago. HI hostel is right on Alta lake, 5km from town by bike, 9km by car. It's more tranquil than Shoestring, on valley trails (next to River Runs Through It), and is C$24 for non-members - a stunning setting with very cool laid back people from all over. The Squamish hostel, C$25, is another option. You would enjoy being able to walk to big mtn rock faces there if you're a rock climber. Also riding distance to local trails. The cool thing about hostels is that there are other independent travelers looking to hook up, very few from the US.

No problems for me with the bike on the airplane. Just pack each half of your frame in a big touristy suitcase, and wrap everything in camping mats. There are some other tricks to make this option a success. Free.

Cook your own food at the hostels or condos - they all have kitchens.

Once in Whistler you don't need a car. But if you do rent a car (US$32/day minimum) then you can access some sweet camp spots like the St Agnes hotsprings outside Pemberton, 90 minutes from Whistler and well worth the trek. Or other spots just outside Whistler, like Lake Cheakamus.

The Vancouver-Pemberton corridor definitely lives up to the hype. The trail quality, level of riding, setting, and laidbackedness, are light years beyond Mid-Atlantica. Example just outside Whistler bikepark: imagine Snowshoe's Hareball trail and Diablo's BMW trail - the steep parts - rolled into a continuous 55-minute slow-steep-twisty descent over nearly a vertical mile. Five stars.

:stupid:



DamienC said:
Rough order of magnitude estimate...maybe $1k but could be done for much less or much more depending.


In US$...

~$35/day for lift tickets. You can buy multiple day passes which makes it cheaper overall per day. If you plan on riding for more than about 10 days there you might as well buy a seasons pass.
$350-500 airfare into Seattle or Vancouver
Bike shipping - $80-100 in shipping there and back via FedEx or take on the plane with you which is probably more expensive.
Ground transportation - big variable here. Either rent a vehicle or take shuttle bus from Vancouver Airport to Whistler.
Condo/hotel - another big variable. Go in on something with enough people or do the Shoestring Lodge and it's probably anywhere between $15-30/night.
Food - $20-30/day is possible but not probable. Hitting up the half-price bar menu at the Brewhouse Monday-Friday definitely helps the food budget.
 

Stiff

Monkey
Sep 24, 2001
346
0
Miss Washington DC
You'd think that with everyone around me having a digital camera that we'd have a shot of the crack, but we were constantly distracted by the physical world. Very little equipment talk - just riding and chilling.

Anyway, a 1cm crack appeared the first day of my 17-day trip. Seat tube and top tube junction, inside the triangle. By the end of the trip it was 2cm. When the crack appeared the (new) bike had had only two weekends in Diablo in it plus two runs in the Shed. Steed Cycles, a Santa Cruz dealer in North Vancouver, were supercool about the crack and are sending the front triangle to Santa Cruz for warranty. They confirm that it is a mfg defect and that my seatpost is very long; it was always slammed down into the tube since I was just doing DH (new VPfrees have a sticker that 4" of post must be inserted into the tube or warranty is voided). So we'll see how Santa Cruz handles it. Steed expected no problems. Not sure if I can race at SS next week. Maybe hardtail.

rpk1988 said:
Those look sweet. So I heard Stiff broke his VP Free. Any pictures of that?
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
damien,

i just realized how much the title of this thread sounds like a great name for a mountain bike porn flick (not that I want to see it), but "Mid-Atlantic does Whistler" starring the big D, stiff, the latin lover FES, and tokyo girl. oh, and how could i forget the barbasol?

:D
 

DamienC

Turbo Monkey
Jun 6, 2002
1,165
0
DC
whale said:
i just realized how much the title of this thread sounds like a great name for a mountain bike porn flick
yeah, it would be part of the Mt. Seymour Butts series :D

Forgot one...