Dear WORCA members,

2024 was the 35th anniversary for WORCA and we celebrated it with a big virtual ride as well as giving away lots of 35th anniversary merchandise at various in-person WORCA events.

One of the big tasks that we achieved on the administrative side was creating a new 4-year strategic plan. We used feedback from member surveys to guide this work and we are already working on some of the key deliverables.

The highlight of the year for our trails operations was completing the Far Out and Flashback trails and having the official opening in July. This was a multi-year project that involved thousands of hours of volunteer work as well as paid trail crew time and it has resulted in 10km of blue singletrack that is now being enjoyed by mountain bikers of all ability levels. Most sections of the new trails are suitable for adaptive mountain biking (aMTB) but we are working on plans to make Farside-Far Out-Flashback a complete aMTB loop over the next year or two.

We spent a lot more on our trails operations this year ($364K compared with $310K last year) due to a $13K increase in RMOW Fee for Service funding to $282K, a Whistler Blackcomb Foundation grant of $27K for e-bikes, and spending more on new trail construction to finish the work on Flashback.

For our Dirt Camps, we had 100% return staff and continued to receive very positive feedback from the kids that participated and their parents. Unfortunately, our total registration numbers fell heavily from 242 last year to 154 this year, and many other camp operators experienced a similar decrease in business. We will still run our youth camps next year, but we will also consider other types of youth programs for the local community. You can provide feedback about this in our youth program survey (open until 31 Dec 2024) or by sending an email to camps@worca.com.

The Back Forty was a great success again and sold out early even after we increased the maximum capacity from 250 to 300 racers. We donated $2,875 from this event to the Líl’wat Ka-xléq-a (Líl’wat Rolling) Youth Mountain Bike Program. We have already sold a lot of 2025 registrations, so sign up soon if you want to participate in this event in 2025!

The Witsend ran for a second year and had slightly lower registration numbers than last year, partly due to wet weather. It was still a big success, and we donated $1,043 from this event to Whistler Search and Rescue. We will run this event again in September 2025.

We ran 16 in-person Toonie rides, 18 virtual Toonie rides and 15 volunteer Trail Days/Nights. The success of these community events would not be possible without the support of our many sponsors.

Our membership numbers fell from 2,016 last year to 1,895 this year. This was partly due to the decrease in youth camp registrations and partly due to Whistler Blackcomb no longer making it mandatory for Phat Wednesday racers to have a WORCA membership, although it was still required to win draw prizes at those events which lessened the effect. We will be looking at new ways to encourage trail users to purchase a WORCA membership and our 2025 memberships are available now if you have not already bought one.

Thanks for your continued support and stay tuned to our channels to hear more as we announce details about our 2025 operations.

Sincerely,

Trevor Ferrao

WORCA Executive Director

Executive Director's 2024 Summary and Infographic