Project 529

Another Weekend @ Whistler

Bailed on Willamette Pass DH #2 this weekend. The lure of Whistler and getting some runs in on the Crankworx courses was simply too much. With the weekend complete, I have no regrets!

The riding was insane, the partying epic.

First, the riding…

Rode with Andrew and J on Saturday in the early afternoon. We did a few runs on the lower mountain and then headed up to Garbanzo. At some point, we ran into some germans that were enjoying their 1st day at Whistler on brand new bikes, Sasha and Matthias. While J, Andrew, Sasha, and Matthias continued riding in the afternoon, I hooked up with Tuttle, Matt, and Ian for some race pace runs, especially up on Garbo. We ran Original Sin to Goat’s Gully to In Deep to Freight Train. We were pushing it, big time, and I’m pretty sure that’s the fastest I’ve run most of those trails. I finally nailed the bridge double on In Deep too (it was basic, I was wussin’ before).

Sunday I spent the day running the Canadian Open DH course, at least the rumored to be CODH course. It’s pretty gnarly for a race run. Well, at least the freshly cut section by Joyride that’s virtually straight down. It’s gonna get insane after folks tear it up during practice. The topper for the weekend was the last run, A-line. After pushing it on more technical trails all weekend, the run felt absolutely amazing. In particular, I felt like it’d got my corner speed up which had been missing all season. All in all, good times on the hill!

Alas, the partying…

J was in rare antagonist form. In an effort to keep me at the Longhorn post-riding, he ‘stole’ my bike. I panicked for about 30 seconds till I noticed the entire Longhorn patio laughing at me. It was on… a bit of dinner combined with 19 total tequila/red bull shots, many pitchers of brew, etc. lead to a $400 tab… and it was only 11 p.m. We went back to the condo, showered, and all met back up at the Amsterdam.

We’d been teaching the germans the concept of a wingman. This led to some trials and tribulations throughout the evening. Given Sasha wasn’t able to make it out for the later part of the evening, we’re hoping Matthias passes on the knowledge. Oh yeah, J also convinced a scottish dude to buy 10 shots for our group; our scottish friend was a bit disappointed with the bill, but we enjoyed the shots. At some point, J introduced me to Dana. Come to find out, Dana had seen the whole ‘stolen bike’ skit at the Longhorn and was having a good laugh at my expense. Funny, haha!

The night was capped with the group of scottish guys serenading a bride-to-be out in front of Savage Beagle, J piggybacking some random girl who’d cut her toe to the infirmary, and Matthias climbing on the roof of a couple girls condo. Epic!