Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Honestly, if you're comparing Whistler bike park with the whole PdS region it doesn't come close. It's tiny by comparison and there's only 3 lifts that service the whole park, so it gets very congested. There's only 1 lift out of whistler village itself (might be 2 in peak season, but right now only 1) and apart from the first 2 runs each day, the queues and waiting times were ridiculous.

I learnt quite quickly to stay up the mountain on the Garbanzo chair and also dropped into the newer and quieter trails on the Creekside gondola just to make sure I got maximum riding time for my limited time there.

Creekside only opened in 2018 and is quite a refreshing change to the main park. More technical, less jump, jump, berm, berm, repeat than the rest of the park. I think they're trying to replicate the more natural trails you'd find elsewhere in BC. There's still tonnes of big man made swooping berms and trails, but less tables and no high consequence gaps and drops.

My own money would go on an alpine trip all day long, but I do feel privileged to have had the chance to ride so many of the trails I've always dreamed of riding, and I think with friends and with more time to explore beyond the park it would be a trip of a lifetime.

I had to rein it in a bit; the thought of spannering my whole trip and my company's plans to be at this exhibition if I had a serious crash was in the back of my mind, as well as riding solo, but it was still a proper "pinch yourself" moment when I rode A line and Freight Train for the first time. I particularly enjoyed FT as it had a really variety of features, drops, step ups, gaps, techy rock sections, fast flowy jump lines. Just everything that makes mtb great. But my fave trail was undoubtedly Crank It Up. The features weren't a big, but it's just so much fun and you can break off onto Joy Ride which includes some progressively bigger drops before joining back up with the rest of Crank It Up.

But in all honestly in terms of size, variety and "holiday feels" it doesn't even come close to PdS.