2010 Whistler Crankworx Part 1

     The last two summers, I have had the privilege of going to Whistler. This year, the experience was enhanced by the fact that I got to to race in Crankworx.  Crankworx is to mountain biking what the pipe masters is to surfing. 

     Whistler village alone is impressive, blocks and blocks of eateries, and stores, with apartments above them. Walkways in betwen the multi-use buildings, where flocks of tourists wander.  Becoming familiar with the village is useful, but not very easy. All the buildings look very similar, so it was useful for me to learn a few land marks within the village. Our condo was located about a 2 minute bike ride and a 10 minute walk from the Fitzsimmons lift. So..... I did not have a choice whether or not I was going to learn how to get from point A to Point B.   Getting lost wasn't as much of a goat rope as expected, because, if you got lost then most times you would find something really cool.

     The trails at Whistler are 2nd to none,  and like the village, they are easy to get lost in. Getting lost on Whistler mountain was awesome, and no matter where I found myself, there was a sweet trail, right in front of me.   My favorite trail, that I have found, is A line. A line created the word flow, it was not like a lot of trails back home which are 2 dimensional,  the Whistler trails are 3d. Up, down, right, left, and everything in between.

     We were in Whistler for almost two weeks, five days of which were involved in Crankworx.   Lots of people back home say "I don't want to go to Whistler during Crankworx, because of the crowds." If your not there for Crankworx, then you are missing a lot of Whistler.   If you want to avoid crowds, then just hop on Garbanzo, where there is never any line at all.   It is cold up there, so we just wear more clothes.  Here is a shot of Blue Velvet, one of the easy trails up on Garbanzo.

 

     You can meet some interesting people riding up the chairlift.  My dad rode up the chairlift with Brian Lopes and didn't have any idea who he was. One of the best experiences of my life has been riding with Brendan Fairclough, Clay Porter, and Joseph Smith.    I met Brendan on the long chairlift ride up to the top of Garbanzo.   He was going to a photo shoot, wearing a thin T-shirt and skinny jeans.  I could see in his eyes that he was colder than ice.  Brendan, another young gun and I were the only people on the lift, and we got some good talk going.  Another time I got to ride up the lift with Troy Brosnan, he was an interesting fellow.  We talked about the Canadian Open DH course, and all the sweet trails. Troy is a ripper, he did a sweet job at all the Crankworx races.  He also happened to win the junior world cup and world champ title later in the summer.