By the time Thanksgiving rolls around every year, I recognize there are some competing priorities. The teasing dust of snow all of a sudden has people reaching into their ski and board closets to check whether their planks will survive another season. If not, it’s a great time to get some upgrades. And the only thing that gets people nearly as excited as witnessing the first dump of snow in the valley? Fresh gear.
The annual Black Friday Sale for ski bums—otherwise known as the Turkey Sale—rolled through town last week, and the number of smiling faces in town carrying a new set of skis on their shoulder or box of new boots under their arm made it feel like opening day was right around the corner.
Five weeks really can feel like an eternity when you’re jonesing for some turns. And while plenty of retail stores managed to burn through last year’s stock of winter goods, hats off to AWARE (the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment) for organizing another bumper Fall Community Garage Sale and reducing the demand for newly manufactured goods. I walked through the Creekside Parkade on Sunday morning, Oct. 6, with a friend and had never seen so many stalls. There was plenty of the typical garage sale junk lying around, but there were some awesome deals on well-loved ski and snowboard gear and lots of satisfied buyers.
Winter is indeed coming. But before we call our frosty banners, this weekend gives us one last kick at the can in the Whistler Bike Park. With every other bike park in B.C. now closed, Thanksgiving weekend triggers a massive pilgrimage of dirt-seekers to Whistler, for good reason. The trails are running at their best with nary a patch of dust in sight. Rail some berms, launch some jumps and smash through some rock gardens this weekend. The conditions don’t get much better.
The Whistler Bike Park really returned to form this year with the Fitzsimmons Chair upgrade in 2023 paying dividends. With a carrying capacity of five bikes and five humans per chair and a mostly self-service bike-carrying system, the efficiency of the Whistler Bike Park’s main artery meant there were far fewer lines this year. On pretty much every evening (and some weekends), I would arrive at the base of the Fitz for a few quick laps, roll straight through the singles line corral and right onto the lift. Yes, there was a bit of a teething period while everyone complained about their mud fenders not fitting in the rack system, but no one will remember that about the 2024 bike season. You know what I’ll remember? Not waiting in long lines. (A disclaimer here that this weekend will inevitably have longer lines with the aforementioned closing weekend pilgrimage and only one of the three bike park lifts still open.)
While I love my trail riding and big days of pedalling, there’s a few reasons I keep coming back to the bike park, season after season.
The park just keeps getting better. Faster lifts, more trails, longer hours of operation, more interesting ways to descend from the peak to the valley. After taking 2023 off due to injury, since 2022 I was finding all kinds of new trails in the bike park, some that were still getting broken in. It amazes me how the trail building teams keep finding new lines in the woods that make use of natural features. I’ll always welcome new ways of linking up my favourite trails.
It’s the only place I’ll ride big jumps. Some riders have a knack for hitting massive jumps they haven’t really ridden or even seen before. Not me. When I inspect gap jumps and big step down features in the wild, I’ll rarely end up riding them. But in my home bike park, I’ve done enough laps to know the speed and how to adjust my body position in the air when I mess up the takeoff. The Whistler Bike Park is the only place I have that big-jump confidence.
It keeps my trail riding sharp. Whistler is blessed with some of the most amazing trails in the world, most of them making use of the steep valley walls that make for some borderline terrifying descents. Without the mileage and endurance I get from riding the double blacks in the bike park on my downhill bike, I honestly don’t know if I’d still be riding as aggressively in the valley or on biking road trips.
The park has its own mini-seasons. I’ll be first to admit that hot and dry spells of midsummer don’t make for the best riding conditions in the Whistler Bike Park. Braking bumps grow, potholes accumulate and chutes become a sketchy, dusty mess. When there’s zero moisture in the ground, the trail crews don’t really have a lot to work with. But the spring and fall always deliver. And there’s nothing like dropping into A-Line after a fresh rebuild.
The Whistler Bike Park isn’t for everyone. But if you live here and you ride a mountain bike, why the hell wouldn’t you ride the best bike park in the world?
Vince Shuley had a stellar 2024 bike park season. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider, email [email protected] or Instagram @whis_vince.
