The Manager Speaks Again An update from Tom Prochazka

WHISTLER, BC, Sept 11th, 2006

Just like last time, I spent most of the day in meetings, but this time I did not get time to ride after. Bummer, but that is life. At least the meetings were about cool stuff like next year's plans and the Air Dome.

I did ride in the park last week before the rain and it was dusty and loose. The good news is that rain fell Saturday morning and the word is that the conditions this weekend were really good. The Boneyard and the Biker-X are in great shape as they get daily loving and watering from "Frantic" Matt Francis and Jason Joselin. They spend their days raking and watering and they deserve a huge thanks.

Up in the Garbanzo zone you'll find a new section of trail after Goat's Gully as you head to In Deep. It is our quest to find a suitable route around Bear Cub and Goat's Gully, and this is a small piece of it. There is still a lot of VANOC work being done in this area, so we will open this new trail as the opportunity arises. Garbo zone is still my favorite riding in the park.

This week is a busy one for us as we are hosting the world of bike park operators here in Whistler. Part of this meeting is to build some new stuff as part of a learning experience. We are hoping that at the end of this exercise, you the riders will be stoked by what has been accomplished. Keep your eyes open when you are riding this week.

The Boneyard will have some big features open to satisfy the crowd that maintains that we never open any big stuff that is open for Crankworx. So, due to popular demand, the Mavic Box and the Cowan Road Gap to Step Up Gap just below the M-Box will be open. These features will be open as Pro-Line and should be attempted by expert riders only. I know that I will be only spectating on this one. We still have the Cowan Jump Farm gaps open and we have added a nice gap floater/step down at the end of the Bike-X where the Gapotron was during Crankworx. The patrons of GLC seem to appreciate this one.

A good plan at this time of year might be to ride in the morning, hit he beach right after lunch to wash the dust off and then come back for last two hours to kill the park. And after that, of course, wash the dust down with some Kokanee at the GLC.

That is my plan. See you up here.

Tom "Pro" Prochazka
Whistler Mountain Bike Park
Manager

Neil Meier getting hippy on D1.  Photo ~ Malcolm McLaws