Comox Valley Mountain Biking Forums and Trail News

After spending Sunday afternoon riding the hill I have decided not to purchase a seasons pass this year. The Eagle is in terrible shape, s&s closed, monster mile very rough, and the top is in the worst shape ever. The hawk is pretty good, but the trails remain very rough and full of pot holes. Nice new drop on Evil Eye, but why put what looks like a roll off ramp wih a ridge of dirt at the bottom of it? A rider could endo when hitting the ridge of dirt and....It would be nice if management would get serious and spend some money on trail maintenace, then maybe a seasons pass would be worth it.

Really, I agree with most of your points but to encourage debate, I will attempt to take the position of bike park management:

-------------
Dear Twofish,

We are disappointed to hear that you will not a be a season's pass holder this season. We still feel that all our passes provide good value to our bike park customers based on a total per run cost basis.

Concerning trail conditions and maintenance; we disagree with you regarding Monster Mile. It has been raced on this year and is currently in average condition. We agree that Scratch N Sniff should have been open for some time now. All trails off the Eagle are longer than the Hawk trails and as a result they take more time to prepare.

Like the Eagle, most of the Hawk trails are built in very rocky ground which makes it very difficult to keep these trails smooth. The large Evil-Eye wood drop is for experts only. We expect these riders to carry adequate speed off the drop and land on the dirt transition, avoiding the wood altogether.

The annual Bearclaw Slopestyle event is this weekend, we hope you can join us for that.

Regards,

Mount Washington Bike Park
---------------

Cotty 

 As for my personal opinion as a season pass holder:

Attn: Bike Park Management

Get off your asses and get Scratch N Sniff open, LIKE LAST WEEK!

Virtually all Hawk trails need new dirt(no boulders) trucked in and used to make all berms smoother and most berms larger. PLEASE DO THIS TWO WEEKS AGO.

I don't really know how you should handle the Evil Eye drop situation. Anyone trying to roll the big one will have about a 50/50 chance of being able to walk again. But on the other hand, any rider who has enough speed and confidence to hit the step up should land on the tranny and avoid the wood when they drop off. It should probably have a large drop sign at the start then again I have never seen a step-up to roll-off stunt.. For most riders it is probably more important to spend time on the smaller drop to make sure it is rider-friendly.

Cotty
 

cotty9:

 As for my personal opinion as a season pass holder:

Attn: Bike Park Management

Get off your asses and get Scratch N Sniff open, LIKE LAST WEEK!

Virtually all Hawk trails need new dirt(no boulders) trucked in and used to make all berms smoother and most berms larger. PLEASE DO THIS TWO WEEKS AGO.

I don't really know how you should handle the Evil Eye drop situation. Anyone trying to roll the big one will have about a 50/50 chance of being able to walk again. But on the other hand, any rider who has enough speed and confidence to hit the step up should land on the tranny and avoid the wood when they drop off. It should probably have a large drop sign at the start then again I have never seen a step-up to roll-off stunt.. For most riders it is probably more important to spend time on the smaller drop to make sure it is rider-friendly.

Cotty
 

 

Why don't you pick up a shovel and volunteer? I'm 90% sure that the reason the berms aren't as buffed and the stunts haven't been updated is due to a shortage of man power on the hill, not motivation. How many hours a day do you work? How many days a week? You've written so many lengthly 'reviews' of the trails on the mountain lately, If you stopped complaining about it and put in some time on the hill (Which they would pay you for I'm sure) things may improve, or at least you may gain some insight into why things are the way they are. Instead of saying "Get off your asses and get Scratch N Sniff open, LIKE LAST WEEK!" Why don't you get off your own ass and do something about it. We're lucky to have great lift accessed riding here, I highly doubt Mt.Washington needs the summer income, When you have people posting *** like this in a  public forum it will only serve to deter the mountain from any kind of summer program at all.
 

 Volunteer?  You must be joking.  As someone who volunteers hours on local trails that is one thing Mt Washboard will never get out of me.  Hell, the last time I lived here before moving to AB I tried to get on the trail crew.  Seemed I had the wrong genitalia even though I had a portfolio prepared and everything.  They hired someone else.

 Mt Washington only get by because they have no competition.
 

Well I got two bits worth. I bought a pass this year and have been up five times so far. The last weekend was the best conditions yet. I have accepted the fact that it is not a buff aline type hill. Berms and jumps wise. I don't care, I am on a mountain bike and ride the blue chair stuff 75% of the time anyway. Acouple things that are making me question my purchase though. One, I see they started work on time warp, at least what I can see. Is this going to be evil eye syndrome where they open up a new trail at the end of the year? Two, Yeah the S&S trail. Why is it not open yet? At least is wasn't as of last sunday even thought the site said it was to be open on the 28th. I love the top of big brother, what the trail crew have done up there is amazing! In general I think maintenance is up 500% this year as opposed to the last five years. My Third point is one of concern. How long can the mountain get by with adding one trail a year? An attitude that seems to be ahhh... give em this and they will settle for it. I think the mountain has to seriously look at how they are running the biking operation. I will support the mountain however I can, but I want to see a little more for them. To be honest I would like to know the direction they are marketing in and where they intend to go in the next five years I volunteer on my local trails as well and know what it is like to put trail in. In riding that I am doing shuttling, maintenance and so forth. Volunteer? What the hell am I paying the money for the pass for. I want to be able to go up and ride for a day or two and not have to worry about me having to sludge it out on a rake and shovel. Did I hear this right several months back that Forbidden had changed hands and was being looked at by the new owners for year round recreational use? anyone? I could be way off on that. Competition is good for all If I lived in the valley this wouldn't bother me as much but I live in Victoria so money and planning goes into every visit uo to the hill. And I do support every aspect of the hill. The tread shed, the retaurant, everything... What else can I do? Unless there are some serious changes I will not be purchasing a pass next year.

I agree we are fortunate to have lift access riding in the valley, and may end up getting a seasons pass after all. But I will feel like I have, to some degree, been taken advantage of once again. That they (Mt Washboard) just need to open the hill and we will come. That they (Mt Washboard) hire just enough crew to get downhill/slopestyle ready and maybe build one trail, but not enough to do routine maintenance, fill pot holes, etc. That if they (Mt Washboard) kinda build it we will come anyway. As for the drop (the smaller of the two) on evil eye, why put the ramp there at all? What is the purpose if it cannot serve as a safety valve to a bad drop? Other than that, a very nice drop and thanks to the crew for it. Volunteer?!?!. You must be joking. Who has time? Would they even allow it? I would gladly pay $300 if they would just get serious about running a bike park like say...Panorama. Forget monster mile, fix the top of the eagle! Thanks again to the trail crew, you are doing a great job, there is just not enough of you. Volunteer?!

Sorry for dropping the "V" bomb there guys :) No one should have to volunteer for "the man", and there are guys here (Universe) that already do waaay more than their fare share. I was merely trying to say that instead of being obnoxious and continuously posting page long complaints about the mountain on a public forum ( Cotty! ) Do something about it. Instead of just posting here and arguing amongst ourselves why don't we put our heads together and come up with a list of things that could be done, Which it looks like we have done here, and submit it somehow or approach the mountain's administration for consideration. I was just trying to say that there are a better ways of getting your point across than posting rude comments in all caps. It only reflects negatively on the community.

 J, I wrote a lengthy and very politically correct letter to Mt Washington regarding their trails.  It was ignored.  I did what I could to address all the things being talked about here.   I gave up long ago on any input into the mountain.  They have the potential to be one of the best lift access hills with the resources that are available to them, but figure being the only mountain is good enough.  Been there done that.

Johnny, for you I will switch from full-on whine mode to constructive criticism mode:

It seems to me that the biggest problem is the huge communication gap between the trail crew and the customers. I feel the best way to solve this would be to schedule some sort of role-reversal day. We bring our bikes up and trade the trail crew for shovels and walkie talkies. Now they get to be expert riders(because they are riding sweet bikes not to mention that they build perfect trails so they should have them dialled) and we get to be expert builders(because we are good at critiquing trail maintenance issues on public forums). Then we pick a trail and align ourselves about 50m apart down the first section of the trail.  The guy at the top should then send the first rider down. We get to watch the run and see how our trail crew friend handles the tiny berms, bad lips, large rocks, and pot holes. While the first rider is being interviewed by the trail crew then second rider will be sent down and so on and so on.

I figure the interviews would go something like this:

"What did you think about that section of the trail"
"Well it would be nice if it was a bit smoother but it was ok I guess"
"Why did you hammer on the brakes on that second berm instead of riding it out?"
"I was scared I was going to fly over the berm"
"So the berm should be higher then..."
"Oh ya for sure"
"Okay we will get right on that. Please send your excavator friend with a full scoop of that dirt from the slopestyle course over to the berm right away. We will be ready with our shovels"

OR

"What happened there when you went down"
"Oh I dropped off the end of that wood bridge and my front tire landed RIGHT IN A BIG HOLE! I couldn't believe it, I flew right over the bars when the fork compressed."
"Oh that is really dangerous, we will fill that hole in right away"

What are the chances the rider committee could contact the Mountain and make something like this happen?

Cotty 

I was up there one day and happend to catch the last lift up with the trail crew and they were on the new rentals, doing a last run sweep, now they do actually ride the trails but this was the first time for some of the trailbuilders to acctually ride the trails, and also first time doing any kind of riding of that type. Just think that as part of a dh trail building crew you should at least have experience in riding so you know what quality is.