Whistler XC trails - is a guided tour a good plan

M

ming

Likes Bikes
I am going to Whistler with my family for three days. We have booked XC bikes, and plan to spend as much time as possible riding. I can't decide whether to get a guided tour first though.
Does anyone have any experience or recommendations?
If it was just me, I would get a guide for a few hours, but for the four of us it is a lot of money.
I can read a map, will I get value from a guide?

Thanks
Ming
 
mtb101

mtb101

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I've only skied there and it's a huge place - you have 2 mountains whistler/blackcomb and some extreme terrain, if on a budget I'd do some research on gps maps to upload into garmin beyond that a guide will fasttrack you into the best trails.
 
Knuckles

Knuckles

Lives under a bridge
ming said:
I am going to Whistler with my family for three days. We have booked XC bikes, and plan to spend as much time as possible riding. I can't decide whether to get a guided tour first though.
Does anyone have any experience or recommendations?
If it was just me, I would get a guide for a few hours, but for the four of us it is a lot of money.
I can read a map, will I get value from a guide?

Thanks
Ming
Click to expand...
Hit up sedifus, he's there at the moment. Looks like he's hitting the DH trails by his videos, but may be able to give you some advice on how easy/difficult it is to navigate there.
 
Z

zoidberg

Hooraaay, I'm helping!
I am going to Whistler with my family for three days. We have booked XC bikes, and plan to spend as much time as possible riding. I can't decide whether to get a guided tour first though.
Does anyone have any experience or recommendations?
If it was just me, I would get a guide for a few hours, but for the four of us it is a lot of money.
I can read a map, will I get value from a guide?

Thanks
Ming

It all depends on the riding ability of you and your family. The "xc" trails in Whistler in part are waaaay more difficult and intimidating than a lot of the stuff you will find in the park. Factor in isolation as far as rescues (if shit turns shit) and you can be in a bad way. There is a guidebook available that has pretty much every trail in the valley area, you should be able to buy it most places in the village.

I guess a guided tour could be good? But no idea who runs one in the valley? Three days isn't a very long time to explore the trails though, so if you can find a guide and explain your level of ability etc, then you may end up riding the best stuff you can.

Lost Lake trails or Cut yer bars trails are both easily accesible and a very short pedal from the village, whomever you hire the bikes from will be more than able to describe how to find them. If you struggle on some of the harder trails in and around cut yer bars, then most of the other trails apart from lost lake won't really be for you.

Amazing trails, just amazing. Very jealous, hope you have fun!
 
M

ming

Likes Bikes
Thanks everyone.
We are all quite competent riders, so should be able to find trails to suit. Looks like we should talk to the bike hire place about trails and maybe make a last minute decision on a guide.
Can't wait to see the place!
Ming
 
G

Genius Josh

Likes Dirt
I spent a Summer there 7 years ago... sigh.... there are a lot of trails good maps available from bike shops and reasonable signage in some places. Asking at a bike shop was a good start for most places in bc there are trails everywhere. So awesome. You will have a blast.
 
G

Genius Josh

Likes Dirt
ming said:
Thanks everyone.
We are all quite competent riders, so should be able to find trails to suit. Looks like we should talk to the bike hire place about trails and maybe make a last minute decision on a guide.
Can't wait to see the place!
Ming
Click to expand...
Resort cabs in whistler do some shuttling from what I heard (I drove for them in winter) they may also be able to point you towards some longer descents or rides with a generally downhill trend.
 
A

austy

Likes Bikes
I rode there last year, there is heaps of great single track in the 'lost lake' area of whistler on the blackcomb side. there is a local trail map to but which is great. the epic ride 'comfortably numb' is pretty gnarly technical, only about 25km but really hard, took me a few hours. There are trails in squamish about 30mins down the road but you need a car to get there. Pemberton has some good trails but never rode there, pretty technical I heard they have a 3hr climb or something but you might need a local for that. There are trails everywhere, a lot of them are fire road up, technical downs, but the lost lake trails have a bit of everything. Chekamus lake has some nice trails, so too the alice lake are which holds a big race each year. its great fun, just watch out for the bears
:)
 
M

ming

Likes Bikes
Well that was a fantastic holiday, and the Whistler mountain biking is exceptional. Huge quantity of trail, well maintained, great variety...
We spent three days riding, and wouldn't have ridden 20% of the trails.

In the end we didn't get a guide. The trail maps are good, and the bike shop staff gave good advice (we went to Arbutus Routes). GPS was useful.

Highlight would have to be 'Comfortably Numb'. Map showed it as 25km, so I planned on 2 hours max; rode to the trail head and there is a nice sign: "Experienced riders expected time 4 to 7 hours". And it was right - took me 4 hours (with some wrong turns). Steep, tight, rooty, rocky... I have a new appreciation of what can be ridden down without crashing horribly. There was no section of the track I could ride fast; it was either twisty, steep up, or steep rocky down - and we are talking bum behind the saddle steep. I have not ridden anything like it in Australia. Fun, fun, fun.

And for the final day, hire a Glory and hit the downhill park. How much fun is that !!

Anyway, a highly recommended trip.

Ming
 
B

bpow

Likes Dirt
Sounds awesome, I visited Whistler in winter and loved it but i am sure it would be beautiful any time of year.
Got any pics?
 
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