It's hard to focus on the trail up here sometimes...
As a Brit, this was my first summer here in Canada. I've always wanted to come here to ride, and top of my list was some high alpine riding. Lord of the Squirrels was a name that got mentioned a lot around the shop and it quickly got to the top of my summer must-ride list. In August Phil and I managed to get out there for a mission and it didn't disappoint!
The day started out hot and only got hotter - we think about 35 celsius. What is usually a big climb became a really big climb thanks to the heat! The mosquitos and horseflies definitely didn't help either. Thankfully once we got into the alpine, we were rewarded with spectacular views, and considerably fewer insects.
Around two hours of straight climbing, plus an extra loop at the top of Rush Hour and Happy Hour topped the climb off nicely. It's safe to say that we were happy to turn around and start descending, and what a descent it is! Around 30-40 minutes of technical descent starting in the alpine and dropping into the trees, complete with rocks, roots, steep chutes and rock slabs had us grinning like idiots.
Once we got back to the start of the Into The Mystic climb, we then had to navigate our way to the very bottom on whistler's valley trails. By this point, the heat had us pretty exhausted and we opted for the shortest, steepest route down. We're not even sure what we rode, we were just glad to get to the bottom for a burger and a beer. Total elevation was around 1600m over roughly 35km, so it wasn't a small ride by any means. Here's to an epic day out!
Cheers!
