BIKE Mag - Bible of bike tests
EAT, SLEEP, RIDE—BEAR BACK BIKING COVERS ALL THE ESSENTIALS
The Bike Magazine team came out for the entire moth of October to assemble 100 new bikes for 2010 with the intention of giving them all the Whistler shakedown and running them through the grinder.
We were on hand to facilitate the product test, scoping trail, sorting the logistics and providing our usual hearty home cooked food to keep their bellys full and spirits high.
Unusually damp weather made it interesting, but how better to test a bike than by riding it in all conditions!
Whistler's extended labyrinth of trails can be overwhelming to first timers and locals alike, and riders looking to tap into the wealth of trails outside the bike park often spend as much time staring at maps as they do shredding singletrack. And given the technical nature of many of Whistler’s trails with steep rock rollers, wooden stunts and blind drops it can be a daunting place for newcomers.
Even for the ruggedly independent rider, having a guide can enhance a trip to Whistler, eliminating logistical hassles and leaving valuable time for riding trails and riding them fast, free from concern over unforeseen obstacles. And when your guide is as excited to be on the trail as you are - enthusiastically explaining the terrain before showing you how to tackle it - riding Whistler is all the more rewarding, enabling you to raise your skill level in a matter of days.
Riders often spend much of their days off the bikes, surveying up coming sections carefully before committing to them.Enter Bear Back Biking, a rider-owned company specializing in mountain biking holidays designed to help riders get the most out of their Whistler trail time.
The company’s vacation packages cover the gamut of Whistler’s mountain bike experiences - cross country excursions, romps through the bike park, downhill shuttles and even heli-biking, offered in conjunction with Whistler-based West Coast Freeride Guides.
But Bear Back’s services don’t stop where the trails end. In fact, the outfit’s most unique component is the lodging and meal deal that is the centerpiece of its vacation package.
BearBack offers seven nights’ lodging in an 11-bedroom chalet located less than a mile from Whistler Village.
The chalet has a stocked bike shop and hot tub and sits just an easy ride from the Lost Lake and Emerald Forest trails.
In addition to lodging, the package includes breakfast and home-cooked dinners with delicious desserts, as well as airport transfers and five full mornings of riding with the company’s experienced guides - all for about $900 per person. The deal is intended to offer an all-inclusive holiday for the same amount one would spend for a week’s stay in a Whistler hotel or townhouse.
Bear Back is now in its fifth year of business and is the only guide service with tenure to operate on Crown Land.
This tight-knit crew of UK and Irish expats, led by owners Mark Knight and Jonny Lloyd, has become a fixture of the local riding scene and they’ve got the placewired. From the bike park to technical cross country trails throughout the valley to Pemberton and Squamish, these guides know it all like the backs of their hands.
In addition to the considerable cost savings and convenience offered by Bear Back’s packages,there is another aspect that should not be overlooked: coaching. All of the guides are flat-out pinners, and a morning on the trails with them can turn into a mini skills clinic for riders open to suggestions for improving their riding.“One of the secrets to us is the coaching that wecan do in a subtle way,” says Seb Kemp, one of theguides. “While coaching has come to be expectedwith guided ski holidays, a lot of mountain bikers haven’t seemed to have caught onto the fact that they can get coaching from a good guide.”
—BRICE MINNIGH
Bear Back Biking was the gracious host to Bike magazine during our month-long stay in Whistler.We not only trashed the company’s shuttle van and garage but we also relied heavily on its guides to map out suitable test loops and to lend a valuable hand to our product testing.
