The Kona Groove-Approved Bike Park of Crans Montana is located in the Valais region of Switzerland. With panoramic views of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, and of the Matterhorn, this park delivers in majestic vistas and in rad terrrain for mountain biking. There are only two tracks, but both are long and demanding. One is a machine-built berm fest, and the other is a World Cup ready DH course. Both are exciting and action packed, and are very worthy of Kona’s Groove-Approved label.
When one thinks of a bubble-like environment, images of sterility, utter boredom, and isolation spring to mind. Most bubbles I would not want to inhabit, mostly because it probably would mean that I had something the rest of the world wanted no part of (ie supervirus) or the world had something I wanted no part of (ie supervirus). Either way, not something I want to deal with.
I just spent three weeks in a bubble that I have come to really enjoy. This bubble has nothing to do with apocalyptic plagues or immune-deficiency issues. The Whistler Bubble is much more enjoyable, and the only disease I have heard to be lurking around this particular bubble is the occasional STD, which seemingly goes hand in hand with the lifestyle of resort towns.
The Whistler Bubble is anything but sterile, thriving on all outdoor (and some indoor) activities which inherently involve getting down and dirty. Boredom is a vague concept, as there are more than enough fun things to do, even for the most ADHD-afflicted youth, many of which come to the Summer Gravity Camps, where I was coaching for the three weeks. Like a translucent sphere, the rest of the world does seem distant, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Why keep up on current world events when the local newspaper reserves the majority of its pages to local issues, toonie race results and farmer’s market schedules? Read More→
Our intrepid all mountain, do-it-aller, Regular Joe Schwartz just spent the better part of a month teaching Summer Gravity Camp kids in Whistler. Sunny days and dusty berms, here’s some GoPro helmet cam footage of another beauty July in paradise.
The Joe Schwartz Bike Camp takes place each year at the Kona Groove-Approved Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. This small mountain has made the most of it’s vertical, and there are numerous fun trails to rip. I had a stoked group of groms for a week of riding, we had a good time!
Each year I have the privilege of travelling to Calgary to run a bike camp at the Canada Olympic Park (COP). This Kona Groove-Approved Bike Park lies just outside the booming city of Cowtown, on the site of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games. This mountain is not much by my lofty British Columbia standards, but what it lacks in dramatic relief it makes up for in quality of the bike park.
The Gravity Logic boys had their way with this park a few years ago, and their efforts are still noticed in the swoopy berms and fun jump lines. It is a great place to coach, as there is a bit of everything, from jump trails to a dh course, even a pretty extensive skills area. The week was great, I had a full group of very excited youngsters. We had great weather all week, and the kids had a fun time (I include myself as one of the kids). Everyone had some breakthrough moments during the week, which as a coach is always very satisfying for me to see. Aside from the camp, a highlight for me was finally making it out to Moose Mountain to check out the local downhill area. I had heard about this spot for years, and never found the time to go rip it. I am glad it finally worked out, it was a sick evening. The trails are well maintained, with tons of variety. My favourite moments were ones that included some badass rock gardens, and other sections with super-booters into nice smooth transitions. It was very enjoyable to go fast down some new trails, and get some lofty air under the wheels of my Stinky. I didn’t shoot any video or photos that evening, so you will just have to take my word for it, and check out Moose next time you are in the Calgary area.
As a result of my amazing trip to Iceland last year I gained a new appreciation for the crazy world of magma and gnarl that makes up the majority of the core of our planet. The fact that it spews out onto the Earth’s surface in the form of volcanoes is a very cool fact, in my opinion.
Another cool fact is that one mustn’t venture to the far corners of the planet to seek out volcanoes. If you live in the Pacific Northwest they are literally in your backyard, and laced with sweet singletrack. I made the trek down to Mt St Helens to meet up with photographer Colin Meagher to check out some of the buff singletrack in the 110,000 acre Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument. Not all of the trails in this area are open to mountain cyclists, but there are a few nugs that make it well worth the trip.
The area itself is worth visiting, bikes or no. The mountain is spectacular, covered in glaciers, with old growth forests and mountain lakes on its flanks, as well as stark landscapes that hint at the devastation caused in 1980 by the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. This eruption killed 57 people, destroyed over 200 homes and kilometers of highways and railroad. The top of St Helens literally blew off, knocking over 400m vertical off the summit of the mountain, leaving behind a crater 3km wide and 800m deep. This explosion sent ash into the stratosphere, and caused the biggest debris avalanche in recorded history, the remnants of which are still very apparent today.
Good trail flow is hard to find. It is the result of the magic combination of terrain, dirt, and the vision of the trailbuilders. This necessary mix of ingredients comes together for the trails of the Burns Lake Bike Park. Good dirt is plentiful, the flanks of Boer Mountain playfully roll down towards the valley, and the masterminds from Whistler’s Gravity Logic outdid themselves yet again with the stellar trail design.
Charlotte’s Web, a singletrack that winds its way down Boer, is a great example of everything coming together to create the perfect trail flow. Doubling up rock gardens and pumping through groves of poplar, this trail maintains a high level of exuberance for the entirety of its epic six kilometers of good times. Everywhere you need it there are perfectly placed rollers to pump, or sinuous berms to blast out of, making for an effortless, yet demanding rip down the mountain.
Gravity Logic also left their mark with a long and equally fun jump trail called “When Pigs Fly”. One can’t help but compare the big berms and floaty tabletops to Whistler Bike Park trails. The comparisons end when you realize you haven’t seen another person on the trails for the last two days, there is not a braking bump in sight, and there are cold beers waiting down below at the trucks parked next to a tranquil lake with loons calling and fish jumping.
Check out this brand new bike park in Northern BC! Join Regular Joe and friends as we travel into the wilds of British Columbia to battle with airplane sized mosquitos and even bigger grizzly bears while riding epic trails! No, just kidding about the bears….. really fun riding though!
Sometimes instead of hopping on a plane and jetting off to some exotic locale it can be more of an adventure to explore my own backyard. When this backyard happens to be the grand province of British Columbia, there are limitless options for exploration.
Burns Lake is located a few hours northwest of Vanderhoof, the “Geographical Centre of BC” and an almost 1000km drive north of my home in Vancouver. The size of BC, and Canada for that matter, is not done justice until you drive the lonely roads that crisscross this amazing expanse of land. Central and Northern BC is characterized by rolling forested (and many used-to-be-forested) mountains, clean lakes, remote towns, and people that live in “the North” for a reason: to truly get away from it all.
There are bustling mountain bike scenes in many unlikely corners of the world, and Burns Lake is no exception. A few years ago, with great co-operation and support from the Ministry of Forests, the local bike club secured funding to establish a bike park on Boer Mountain, situated just outside town. Thanks to many individual’s efforts there is now a very established bike park to enjoy, complete with a skills park, 4-cross track, long singletrack descents from the Boer Summit, and a fresh Gravity Logic designed jump trail that snakes over five kilometers down the mountain. Read More→
He’s been riding Kona for over a decade. From the first New World Disorder to the fresh new ride of today.
My Cadabra
I have been looking forward to getting back on a Cadabra ever since I tested an early run model of the G2 Magic Link in Switzerland and Iceland last year. I got to ride some pretty amazing terrain over there, but I truly feel the best place to take any bike through its paces is the North Shore of Vancouver. The demanding climbs and aggressive downhills of the Shore quickly expose any inadequacies of an “all-mountain” bicycle. I am in the middle of studying for my final exams of my first year of business school, and probably should be holed up in a library somewhere cramming. Beautiful spring weather and a shiny new Cadabra staring me in the face was all it took to convince me to shelve the textbooks and rip some prime Sea to Sky singletrack. I don’t like my bikes to stay new for too long, so I did my darndest to inflict some damage to the Cadabra over the course of a few days on the Shore and an epic day in Squamish. I am so happy with the new bike. The light Scandium frame makes for an agile ascender, while the plush Magic Link delivers the goods on the way down. The POV video was shot on one of my rides on the Shore. It is cool to see how the link engages on the short, steep climbs, all but eliminating pedal feedback. Then, on the way down the Link is supple and active. I am pretty pumped on the potential of the Go-Pro camera too, so look for more videos of my summer adventures.
