Freeborn/Mythic rider Gareth Jones has just spent 2 months in Whistler riding on his Mythic Scythe - alright for some! Anyone who’s been to Whistler knows just how amazing the place is. Anyone who hasn’t been should go, it really is that simple. The bike park offers a dedicated bike chairlift all the way to the top of the mountain and once there gives riders access to a large number of trails for all skill levels. The trails are nicely mixed too with everything from super fast rocky/rooty DH options to steep and slow techy trails plus everything in between. There’s a fair few unique trails too such as the famous A-Line trail - 4 minutes of berms and tabletops that snakes its way down to the bottom of the mountain where you can finish off by joining the dual track or flying off the GLC drops. Then there’s the skills areas where you can practice drops, north shore obstacles and tabletops, it really is a place which guarantees progression and caters for all styles of rider.
Gareth’s Whistler Report:
Whistler has long lived as the Mecca of mountain biking. This year I went for round two. I have just got back from a 2 month trip in Whistler, where progression and good times were key. The trip turned out to be amazing with what I thought was pretty much ideal weather, rainy for a few days followed by a few days of sunshine, maintaining the trails to be nice and tacky as well as allowing the trail crew to keep the trails buff.
My bike (Mythic Scythe with single crown Totem) was ideal for the bike park, allowing me to shred all of the jumps as well as go fast on the downhill. With riding everyday and the amount of laps capable of achieving, progression comes hand in hand with Whistler. To begin with, the bottom half of the mountain was open, offering plenty to keep me entertained, however half way through, Garbanzo opened, which if you have been to Whistler completely revolutionises your riding as there is plenty of gnarly downhill to be done, including Goats Gully, Original sin, Shale master, renegade, In-deep and Duffman to name a few. To add to this, when it was first opened the tracks were super wet, making extremely root’y trails such as In-deep very challenging but heap’s of fun at the same time.
Coming near the end of my trip to Whistler I got nervous at the start of each day as I was apprehensive of what happened at the end the previous year in Whistler (2 broken wrists and being knocked out for almost 6 minutes), however this apprehension did not prevail when I was on the mountain, because as soon as anyone gets there and gets onto that lift, all you ever want to do is go faster and higher than you did either the previous day or run. Overall the trip was a huge success with the bike matching everything I could throw at it, hopefully the progression will be portrayed in future race results. I have also made an edit of my trip to Whistler which I have attached the link below.
I hope you enjoy
