The NoVA/DC/MD segment of Ridemonkey was well represented last week at Whistler. There were no less than 11 of us, seven in our NoVA group and four others from MD. DBR and Mobius' story will be filled in later when they return from their epic cross country MTB road trip but they served as the vanguard of our group, arriving in Whistler around July 8 after picking up SarahMaria in Seattle.
SDH, Mobius, AC Rider 1, and DBR chilling on the condo deck...
For me, the most anticipated aspect of this year's Whistler trip was checking out the new trails coming down from the greatly hyped Garbanzo expansion. Based on the little snippets of Garbanzo that I had seen from various media teasers I couldn't wait to get up there. The ride up the Garbanzo lift itself is almost worth the price of admission. The views span the surrounding mountain ranges and back down across the entire valley...
This is the spectacular landscape you see if you look toward your left on the way up the Garbanzo lift...
Looking back at the village from the Garbanzo lift...
My first run down from Garbanzo was on No Joke. It had rained in the previous days so the trail was pretty greasy and slick. Think Snowshoe. Things dried up more and more as one descended but not until hitting the entrance to a trail called Duffman. To be honest, I was somewhat ambivalent about Garbanzo after the first run and I was afraid that the hype would be somewhat hollow. However, the next day I went back up and hit Original Sin to Goat's Gully to In Deep to Duffman when the trails had dried up considerably and I couldn't be happier. The promise of Garbanzo had come to fruition. That has become my favorite run on the mountain. In one run you get steep, rooty singletrack, several steep rock roll downs, a few step-ups and hip jumps, and a wall ride for good measure. Throw in the fact that at the bottom of Duffman you connect to the bottom of Dirt Merchant where one can connect to lower A-Line and you've got a wicked killer run.
View from Original Sin on Garbanzo, looking back down into the valley (Click thumbnail for larger image)
From L to R: DamienC, Kirstin, AC Rider 1 on Original Sin...
It seemed like there was a daily bear sighting during this year's trip.
A few times we even saw a mama bear and her two cubs munching down on berries just above where Heart of Darkness cuts under the lift.
SDH hitting the Joyride drop park...
SDH, Mobius, AC Rider 1, and DBR chilling on the condo deck...
For me, the most anticipated aspect of this year's Whistler trip was checking out the new trails coming down from the greatly hyped Garbanzo expansion. Based on the little snippets of Garbanzo that I had seen from various media teasers I couldn't wait to get up there. The ride up the Garbanzo lift itself is almost worth the price of admission. The views span the surrounding mountain ranges and back down across the entire valley...
This is the spectacular landscape you see if you look toward your left on the way up the Garbanzo lift...
Looking back at the village from the Garbanzo lift...
My first run down from Garbanzo was on No Joke. It had rained in the previous days so the trail was pretty greasy and slick. Think Snowshoe. Things dried up more and more as one descended but not until hitting the entrance to a trail called Duffman. To be honest, I was somewhat ambivalent about Garbanzo after the first run and I was afraid that the hype would be somewhat hollow. However, the next day I went back up and hit Original Sin to Goat's Gully to In Deep to Duffman when the trails had dried up considerably and I couldn't be happier. The promise of Garbanzo had come to fruition. That has become my favorite run on the mountain. In one run you get steep, rooty singletrack, several steep rock roll downs, a few step-ups and hip jumps, and a wall ride for good measure. Throw in the fact that at the bottom of Duffman you connect to the bottom of Dirt Merchant where one can connect to lower A-Line and you've got a wicked killer run.
View from Original Sin on Garbanzo, looking back down into the valley (Click thumbnail for larger image)
From L to R: DamienC, Kirstin, AC Rider 1 on Original Sin...
It seemed like there was a daily bear sighting during this year's trip.
A few times we even saw a mama bear and her two cubs munching down on berries just above where Heart of Darkness cuts under the lift.
SDH hitting the Joyride drop park...
...the next day we climbed up Fromme to do a run from Upper Oilcan to Oilcan.
It would be awesome to have some of that kind of stuff near here. 
(it's totalled) "when it rains it poors"
. Mark also got a bunch of great pics but hasn't posted any yet 