Park Report: June 10, 2010
Hey Park riders, the season seems to picking up more momentum each week and I can't believe we are already nearing mid June. The riding has been fantastic this week with light rain barely penetrating the forest canopy. The trails are in really good shape as a result and the lineups have been virtually non existent. One of the perks of my job is that I get to decide, on the spur of the moment, to do things like tag along on clinics. This past weekend I decided to jump in for a day of riding with the Richie Schley Freeride Camp, a two day clinic taught by Richie and Wade Simmons. Wade has long been one of my favorite riders to watch and to get a chance to chase him down Ninja Cougar and copy his style is something I couldn't pass up. The day was great and I highly recommend one of these clinics to any rider in the Park, you will come out of it with better skills and with those comes better style.
The trail crew have been hitting it hard this week, working on improving the flow of Schleyer and adding some legit features to the skills center at Olympic Station. The team has installed a set of micro rock drops for newer riders as well as a few wheel up targets to get those skills tuned up. They also added an armored path for riders to practice low speed cornering and bike control. Try to ride the cobbles without a wheel coming off, it gets progressively harder. My favorite new feature is the addition of the natural obstacles. The team put in a set of stumps with roots and rocks to simulate what lies on trail up in Garbanzo as well as on trails like Ho Chi Min or Devil's Club. Later this week the first zone in A-Line will be getting a facelift to improve the "four pack" section. Also new on trails this week is a new warning sign. The new signs appear at the top of all of our jump trails and are intended to let riders know that stopping on the main trail is dangerous as riders behind can't see you when taking air. Hopefully this reminder will have people pull completely off the trail when stopping to scope something out so we can avoid the chance of a nasty collision.
The Garbanzo zone is the topic of much speculation these days and we have a team of operators in snowcats pushing snow 7 days a week. By next week the heavy machinery should be done and we can get the mini excavators digging out the trails. At this point we are still going for it up there with the hope of getting things ready for the end of the month.
Cowan is putting the finishing touches on the Boneyard Slopestyle course and has done the maiden session of the Hot Tub, looping the over-vert with no problems. Once he is all wrapped up we will be opening up a line through the course for public consumption so look for that in the next week or so.
The weather looks pretty good going forward so come check out all the new additions. See you in the lineup, B-ri.
The trail crew have been hitting it hard this week, working on improving the flow of Schleyer and adding some legit features to the skills center at Olympic Station. The team has installed a set of micro rock drops for newer riders as well as a few wheel up targets to get those skills tuned up. They also added an armored path for riders to practice low speed cornering and bike control. Try to ride the cobbles without a wheel coming off, it gets progressively harder. My favorite new feature is the addition of the natural obstacles. The team put in a set of stumps with roots and rocks to simulate what lies on trail up in Garbanzo as well as on trails like Ho Chi Min or Devil's Club. Later this week the first zone in A-Line will be getting a facelift to improve the "four pack" section. Also new on trails this week is a new warning sign. The new signs appear at the top of all of our jump trails and are intended to let riders know that stopping on the main trail is dangerous as riders behind can't see you when taking air. Hopefully this reminder will have people pull completely off the trail when stopping to scope something out so we can avoid the chance of a nasty collision.
The Garbanzo zone is the topic of much speculation these days and we have a team of operators in snowcats pushing snow 7 days a week. By next week the heavy machinery should be done and we can get the mini excavators digging out the trails. At this point we are still going for it up there with the hope of getting things ready for the end of the month.
Cowan is putting the finishing touches on the Boneyard Slopestyle course and has done the maiden session of the Hot Tub, looping the over-vert with no problems. Once he is all wrapped up we will be opening up a line through the course for public consumption so look for that in the next week or so.
New Skills Addition
New Warning Sign
The weather looks pretty good going forward so come check out all the new additions. See you in the lineup, B-ri.
Whistler Blackcomb - Whistler, BC Canada -
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