Escaping Disney Land
Whistler is the Mecca of mountain bikes, a Disney land of scrubs and whips and flips, the hub of all gravity-fed bicycle sports. They all come together in the ultimate 24-hour, 9-day non-stop FOMO-filled week of activities that is Crankworx.
This year was the year. I nearly puked with excitement and nerves in the toilet before my flight. I think I was the only one on the long haul flight from London to Vancouver genuinely stoked to be sitting there for 9 hours with a lady in front of me trying her hardest to break my laptop screen and a really sniffly old man behind me.
I committed to going for 3 weeks. I wanted to completely Whistler myself out, and see more of Beautiful British Columbia. Crankworx is a pretty hectic week and after back-to-back days of laps, riding into the evening at the pump track challenge and seeing more Slopestyle competitions and beer funnels than I had ever seen in my life I was pretty keen for some Instagram cliche style Canadian outback with stars lakes and peace and quiet.
Tomโs friends are full-time Whistler residents so we borrowed a 4×4 and some camping kit and headed north up to Pemberton so we could get a real taste of Canadian mountains and single track. It was the best part of the trip.
We headed an hour north of Whistler to Pemberton and set up at Lillooet lake for the night. We drank beers and watched the shooting stars then woke up next to a fresh lake.
Waking up next to Lillooet Lake for a morning swim in the turquoise crystals was like a dream. The colour comes from the rock flour that sits at the surface of the lake and reflects off the sunlight.
Weย started our day with an hour and a half climb to the top of PHD – a long flowing unforgiving single track which so far epitomises all that is good about mountain bikes for me. Rock rollers, fast flat turns and oh so much loam!
The rock rollers were pretty gnarly at first but once you learn to just go with them and get ready for the compression they become fun, it was just a matter of taking a deep breath and holding on!
I’ve only seen a night sky this clear in the Himalayas … We counted 6 shooting stars and had meaningful conversations about giant ants and different hot chocolate making methods before completely destroying Rory and Kailen’s sauce pan by putting it straight in to the fire. Sorry guys!
Riding out in these vast forests had me with a permanent smile on my face, the natural features were endless, the only thing that was scary was the “warning cougar in area” signs we saw. I’m not sure if I can out-ride a cougar!
Thanks to Monet for telling her story and massive thanks also to Tom for the photos and video – cheers guys, you rule!
You can read more from Monet here on Wideopen or follow her on Instagram to keep up with her adventures.
