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Bike Park preparing for early opening

Crews preparing runs for May 6 start

While the snow continues to fall in the alpine, warmer temperatures in the valley will likely mean an early opening for the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. The official opening date is Saturday, May 20, but the park should be open weekends starting on May 6.

"Our original soft target was April 29, but I don’t think we’re going to make that given how much snow we have down here," said Rob McSkimming, vice president of business development for Whistler-Blackcomb. "A lot is depending on the weather. I’m optimistic we will hit the May 6 date. We have our equipment coming in any day now, and pretty soon we’ll start moving snow out and maintaining, repairing any damage on the trails and hopefully getting them dried out."

Only the lower park off the Fitzsimmons Chair will be accessible until the Garbanzo Zone opens in June, and runs on the lower mountain will open only after they’ve been cleared of snow and passed inspection.

The Bike Park has posted double-digit growth in terms of rider numbers over the past six years, and is continuing to open and improve trails.

According to McSkimming, a major focus for 2006 is completing the Freight Train run on the Garbanzo Chair, as well as other spurs and connector trails between existing runs. Because construction also gets underway on the Olympic skiing runs, McSkimming says a new run will open parallel to the Garbanzo Chair.

"We will have some challenges with the Olympics, so we’re definitely going to be working around that," he said. "One way to do that is to move things over a little with a new run we’re looking at almost under the Garbanzo Chair."

Another focus is the completion of the Crank It Up trail on the Lower Mountain. Crank It Up is billed as an intermediate trail with some of the same features found on more advanced runs, including boxes, bridges, dirt jumps, wall rides and other features, but built smaller for riders who are still progressing.

"I think one of the things we’ve recognized is that we’re pretty good on the upper end for the advanced riders, and we’ve got the Magic Park and Easy Does It on the low end, so it was important to continue to add interest and variety for the middle end. I definitely think Crank It Up fits that need," said McSkimming.

The Magic Park will also be upgraded with more features for beginning riders. The goal is to keep riders in the area for a few more runs, building their progression, before they move on to the Whistler Park.

Other new additions planned for this year include a learning and practice area off the magic carpet lift at midstation, the new Kona Jump Farm at the top of the bikercross course, new features in the Boneyard, and additional features added to existing trails.

Also new this year, mountain bikers will be able to take the Whistler Gondola to the top without a guide, and a new connector trail will be built to the Chick Pea area and the start of the Garbanzo trails.

According to McSkimming that will be the only trail riders will be allowed to use from the top, and it will be enforced.

As well, the bike park will be extending hours of operation this year, offering Extended Play every night of the week.

"We definitely had people interested in that, especially the people who work five-day-a-week jobs and want to get up there to ride a little while it’s light out," said McSkimming. "We expect locals to be in the park a lot more, as well riders from Squamish and even Vancouver who want to fit a few laps in after work."

Progression is another focus for the park this year. One aspect of that is the new Air Dome at Base II, a training facility that will include a foam pit, resi ramp and a box jump. The Air Dome will only be open to camps at first, but McSkimming says they are looking at ways to offer it to other programs and to the public on a drop-in basis.

The mountain bike instructor party is also growing. McSkimming estimates that there were 50 individual guides working in the bike park last year, including camps and day programs offered to youth.

"It’s something we’re pretty keen on helping to develop," said McSkimming. "Programs like the Women’s Wednesdays will be back as well, and we’ll be experimenting with other programs to get more people up there and trying it out and to feel more comfortable doing it."

The first Bike Park event on the calendar is the fifth annual Crud to Mud Race on May 20. Last year’s event was cancelled because of the lack of snow, but this year it’s back on.

There are two parts of the Crud to Mud, a giant slalom on skis or snowboard to midstation, followed by a descent through the bike park. Competitors can either compete as solos or as part of a team of two, male, female or co-ed. There are also categories for juniors.

Registration is available at Whistler-Blackcomb Guest Relations. Life tickets are available to those who don’t have either a snow or bike park pass for $20, and upgrades of $10 are available to people who have either a bike park pass or ski and snowboard pass. No day of race registration is available.