Trails Update: May 27, 2022
Still in the valley…
The snow’s been sticking around on the west side, making keeners’ feet cold trying to get to the goods off of the Flank trail. So, we figured it’s best to finish what we started last week. Once the crew was deep into building the re-route at the top of High Side, Camie and I went up See Colours and Puke to deal with the large deadfall reported on Trailforks. Hiking up the relentless pitches of this machine-built trail, we soon realised we had bigger problems to contend with: two culverts that failed were now sending their creeks down the trail. Repairing the badly eroded tread (and getting the stream off of the trail) moved up to top priority for the rest of the week. Scott led the charge on those repairs and the crew managed to fix the trail up to the current snowline (950-ish metres). They even managed to work the tools back down High Side for some buffing before moving on to Business Time. Andreas has rejoined the crew now that the Blackcomb lifts have stopped spinning. For his first assignment, he joined Ben and Liam on Have a Cigar for a bridge upgrade.
Uh, where’s Have a Cigar?” is what you’re probably thinking
The short trail has been there a while (pre-Trailforks!). It was added to the popular mapping app misnamed by a user not associated with building the trail (...drama!) . I’ve since met the (annoyed) builder. He said:
”Well, At least they stuck to the Pink Floyd theme. It’s called “Reach the Sky” because of the viewpoint and how it ends at the Sea to Sky trail.”
That’s an apt name if you ask me.
Well, It’s been on the maps for 4 years now and in the interest of public safety, the trail crew upgraded a bridge and mellowed out the abrupt exit.
More trail school
Another session of the Whistler Adventure School Sustainable Trail Building program got going this week and our classrooms were scattered in the lower Sproatt zone. The Students learned (and practised), route selection, water management, bench-cutting, rockwork, using specialty tools and signage. You’ll find some of their homework at the bottom of Industrial Waste… Can you spot the changes?
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
