Whistler - winter approaching

With only two weeks left before the bike park closes for the season, we weren't going to miss an opportunity to ride there.

Rich and I headed up for the day - praying for good weather. It was raining all the way up the Sea to Sky highway but thankfully it stopped just as we pulled in :)

Of course, when it rains in the valley, it snows in the hills!




After a couple warm up runs on the lower mountain we jumped in the gondola and headed to the top

Only advanced and expert riders up here...









It was a wee bit cold at the top













and, as predicted - snow. Here's Rich at The Roundhouse with the Peak Chair in the background.










Not too much snow so not too bad on the trails. Kinda cool riding at Whistler (the land of snow) on a bike in the snow :)











They've been busy re-opening "No Joke" - one of the best trails on the mountain which was closed so they could build an under-pass under one of the Olympic ski runs (left) - this week they added some woodwork inside the tunnel to make it into a series of wall rides. It was soaking wet but still fun fun fun :)







This feature has been the subject of a lot of discussion. Its a wooden rolly thing that requires just the right speed to complete. Unfortunately a lot of people are going in with too little speed and falling back into the middle - it didn't get us though today :)









Lots of bears out today. I think they're stocking up for the winter hibernation which must be real soon. We passed right in front of one - only 7 or 8ft beside us but we were going so fast we didn't have time to stop!

This bear was just hanging out on the side of Dirt Mirchant watching the bikes ride past!

T'was a thoroughly good day though and on her first park day, Peppermint Patty was fantastic. Great on the jumpy trails, great in the singletrack. Flipping awsome.

RAD.