Looks epic. I may try to do that on my own as the most of our crew will be on straight DH bikes. This is precisely why I have a FR bike that doubles as a DH rig
Whistler/Squamish heli-biking?
- Thread starter Electric_City
- Start date
Headed to whistler next week. Doing two days in the park, one with TOTW. Got one free day outside of the park and we were originally thinking riding in Squamish. But the heli drop and the other suggestions on this thread look dope.
With the one day, which ride would you guys recommend? We'll be on our trail/AM bikes. Not looking for anything xc'ish
With the one day, which ride would you guys recommend? We'll be on our trail/AM bikes. Not looking for anything xc'ish
Depends on how much money you wanna spend. You're already spending money for your park and TOTW passes. The Pemby heli drop would add about $200 USD per person. Riding Lord of the Squirrels or Squamish is free.
First, it hasn't rained worth anything in months, trails are dry, loose, "blown out" as the masses like to say, that being said, they could be a lot worse, little to no rain forecast for the next 2 weeks.
Rainbow helidrop is the place to go with dh bikes, alpine is awesome but you're back in treeline fast. Actually did Barbour yesterday. If you want downhill blasting, you'll be disappointed. It's definitely a longer day of appreciating where you are and walking bits and there's some overgrown portions in the burn. Alpine portion is amazing, great views, fun trail, traversey around tenquille, the main tenquille trail descent is loose and rocky with some partially overgrown bits, but it's a solid 40 minutes of descent for a decent rider. Disneyland in Britannia is also in adventure riding all day realm with hike a biking.
ITM/Squirrels loop, without Sproatt Summit add on (Happy Hour), is just shy of 30km with almost 1500m of climbing from my house in Bayshores, most average riders are budgeting 4-6 hours to do the loop, can be done a lot faster in smaller groups with less stopping, obviously. I've been involved with getting that planned/built for the past 5 years, so I'm a bit partial and biased, but it's fricken rad and beautiful views, and a fun ride back down.
Rainbow helidrop is the place to go with dh bikes, alpine is awesome but you're back in treeline fast. Actually did Barbour yesterday. If you want downhill blasting, you'll be disappointed. It's definitely a longer day of appreciating where you are and walking bits and there's some overgrown portions in the burn. Alpine portion is amazing, great views, fun trail, traversey around tenquille, the main tenquille trail descent is loose and rocky with some partially overgrown bits, but it's a solid 40 minutes of descent for a decent rider. Disneyland in Britannia is also in adventure riding all day realm with hike a biking.
ITM/Squirrels loop, without Sproatt Summit add on (Happy Hour), is just shy of 30km with almost 1500m of climbing from my house in Bayshores, most average riders are budgeting 4-6 hours to do the loop, can be done a lot faster in smaller groups with less stopping, obviously. I've been involved with getting that planned/built for the past 5 years, so I'm a bit partial and biased, but it's fricken rad and beautiful views, and a fun ride back down.
I liked the Disneyland heli drop a lot more than Rainbow. They are both a great experience though. How does the Pemby one compare?
Disneyland has had extensive logging below the main ridge, been pretty impacted over the past year and lots more logging planned. I prefer Barbour if I was going to do any of the 3, but as mentioned, it's a multi-hour adventure ride with a bit of hike a bike here and there, and not all purpose built bike trail.
Funny you posted this, we are doing the Pemby/Barbour heli drop a week from today...Anyone have any tips?
Bring an extra layer and a sandwich. It's cold at the top and it's a long day by the time you get to the launch zone, get the safety briefing, get to the top, fuck around taking photos, fuck around at the cabin halfway, and so on and so forth.
The views are stunning. Have fun.
yup, this....bring a sandwhich, a beer, enjoy hanging at Tenquille Lake for a bit.
Thanks guys, what did your mileage end up being on that bump? Just so I know what to tell the rest of the guys...Also is that route pretty easy to follow? I think the blackomb guys said they would give us a trailforks link prior.
I didn't track the ride, but one of our guys did. I'll ask him to send me the route when I see him later. No idea what the mileage was, but it was well over 6k feet in elevation drop. I think our actual riding time once we dropped off the top was somewhere around 2 hours. It took twice that long to get to the bottom on account of all the grab-assin around and such.
The route was pretty easy to follow. The Mt. Barbour trail off the top is the only trail up there. It's on TF, but it's private. They gave pretty good instructions for the rest of it - crossing a log jam to get around the right side of the lake to the cabin, then picking up the Tenquille descent from there, and I think it was staying to the right at the forks, but we did follow up that day with a bunch of beers, so just listen to the Blackcomb guys.
The route was pretty easy to follow. The Mt. Barbour trail off the top is the only trail up there. It's on TF, but it's private. They gave pretty good instructions for the rest of it - crossing a log jam to get around the right side of the lake to the cabin, then picking up the Tenquille descent from there, and I think it was staying to the right at the forks, but we did follow up that day with a bunch of beers, so just listen to the Blackcomb guys.
Here are the stats from a friends ride of it last week.
https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/1790269/
The Barbour alpine trail isn't in Trailforks but Tenquille is.
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/tenquille-lake-descent/
https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/1790269/
The Barbour alpine trail isn't in Trailforks but Tenquille is.
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/tenquille-lake-descent/
Awesome thanks guys.
Just got back from a super fun Whistler trip, this one more of a trail bike thing than full on DH as in the past. Into the Mystic/Lord of the Squirrels is a super fun ride. Some of my local buddies treat it as an after work blast but if you're on vacation, I'd say take your time. ITM is the new "climbing" trail but there are some steep pitches. (We passed lots of pushers.) Bring a sandwich to enjoy at one of the lakes up in the alpine zone (really gorgeous up there, check the pic), maybe take a swim. The descent takes some work so save your legs for the fun stuff. The end of Lord of the Squirrels is not quite at bottom and there are a few options to get down to town. We did Pura Vida which has some fun rock rolls and other stuff.
We also did Top of the World down to Kybers, Middle of Nowhere, etc. Super fun as always, like a cheap heli ride to the alpine.
Rainbow heli is pretty rad and easy to pull off as a half-day thing.
Basically what I'm saying is do all three!!
We also did Top of the World down to Kybers, Middle of Nowhere, etc. Super fun as always, like a cheap heli ride to the alpine.
Rainbow heli is pretty rad and easy to pull off as a half-day thing.
Basically what I'm saying is do all three!!
Attachments
Recommended route(s) down from Top of the World if you're on DH bikes? Don't mind pedaling back to the village.
How's Khyber? Any recommendations from Khyber, down the rest of the way?
Khyber > Middle of Nowhere > Kashmir > Kush then pedal back across to the bike park, ride BCs trail down to Dustys, consume beverages.
Headed back up to Whistler Sept. 24-30 with some buddies. I'll have my DH bike with me, so plan on renting something and going for the ITM/LOTS loop. If anyone is in the area and wants to join, let me know.
So far we're looking at 6-7 of us again for our trip this year. I contacted Blackcomb heli about the Barbour trip and they said we need to plan our own shuttle to the heli pad and back from Pemberton.
How did you guys pull this off?
How did you guys pull this off?
We got in the rental mini van and drove there. And then we drove back.
Hope this helps.