A couple of us rode Mammoth this weekend and I thought I'd post general impressions and that other would as well. I spoke with most of the bike park guys and they all seem to want to make the bike park better, so maybe some constructive critiques would help. I'm going to comment on the trails as I rode them, as I have not ridden Mammoth since they added all the new trails so everything is new to me.
First-- Kamikaze to Shock Therapy. These trails were really fun once I got used to the pumice, a big front tire with decent air pressure seems to work the best. Our first run was down Kamikaze to Shock Therapy. what can I say, kamikaze is crazy fast and Shock Treatment was fun but could use a little work to keep it flowing better, most of the techy sections were blown out by day 2. Also, the crew could stand to rebuild the small doubles at the bottom, and make them bigger too. I thought this was a great way to warm up.
Second--Velocity. Velocity had really nice flow after a couple runs of learning lines. Nothing too hard, nothing too easy, just nice flow.
Third-- ChainSmoke. I thought this trail had the best tech riding once I learned the good lines. A little more techy than Velocity, but just as flowy. Probably my favorite trail on the main lodge side. I really had to go slow on the first run because there are so many lines thru the techy stuff that I had to look at everything so I knew where I was going, which is kind of frustrating but temporary.
Fourth-- SkidMarks to Bullet. I really like this run, it's long and has a little of everything. Bullet also had the hardest section (i thought) thru the upper rock garden. I probably rode this 4 times and only made it thru once without dabbing. I need to ride this trail a lot more which will be easy because it's a classic.
Fifth-- PipeLine, Flow and Shotgun. Only rode these trails once each due to limited time and access. Flow was fun, the drop was good. PipeLine is fun, needs more and bigger jumps, I'm sure their intent is to fashion it into a DirtMerchant/A-line style trail, I hope they hurry and get it done this summer!
All in all, I thought the trails were really fun but had lots of room for improvement. It sounds like Mammoth has really dedicated themselves to making a great bike park, and by the number of people I saw I think they have a strong future. Also, apparently there are big plans to continually improve the trail networks and add additional trails so I'm really looking forward to going again in a couple weeks.
Anybody else have some comments?
First-- Kamikaze to Shock Therapy. These trails were really fun once I got used to the pumice, a big front tire with decent air pressure seems to work the best. Our first run was down Kamikaze to Shock Therapy. what can I say, kamikaze is crazy fast and Shock Treatment was fun but could use a little work to keep it flowing better, most of the techy sections were blown out by day 2. Also, the crew could stand to rebuild the small doubles at the bottom, and make them bigger too. I thought this was a great way to warm up.
Second--Velocity. Velocity had really nice flow after a couple runs of learning lines. Nothing too hard, nothing too easy, just nice flow.
Third-- ChainSmoke. I thought this trail had the best tech riding once I learned the good lines. A little more techy than Velocity, but just as flowy. Probably my favorite trail on the main lodge side. I really had to go slow on the first run because there are so many lines thru the techy stuff that I had to look at everything so I knew where I was going, which is kind of frustrating but temporary.
Fourth-- SkidMarks to Bullet. I really like this run, it's long and has a little of everything. Bullet also had the hardest section (i thought) thru the upper rock garden. I probably rode this 4 times and only made it thru once without dabbing. I need to ride this trail a lot more which will be easy because it's a classic.
Fifth-- PipeLine, Flow and Shotgun. Only rode these trails once each due to limited time and access. Flow was fun, the drop was good. PipeLine is fun, needs more and bigger jumps, I'm sure their intent is to fashion it into a DirtMerchant/A-line style trail, I hope they hurry and get it done this summer!
All in all, I thought the trails were really fun but had lots of room for improvement. It sounds like Mammoth has really dedicated themselves to making a great bike park, and by the number of people I saw I think they have a strong future. Also, apparently there are big plans to continually improve the trail networks and add additional trails so I'm really looking forward to going again in a couple weeks.
Anybody else have some comments?