Last time in an overview of Whistler Bike Park, we went into depth on a A Line, arguably
the most famous jump trail in the world.
For its endless tabletops, iconic features, and sheer length, A Line’s fame is well
deserved, but the chatter on Whistler’s lift line is about a different trail, and
its guarded by a large wooden sculpture.
This is Dirt Merchant.
He sells dirt, and dirt accessories.
While A Line is rated a single black diamond, Dirt Merchant is double black, and that’s
just the upper portion.
The lower section is all new, and rated scary red triangle—but that won’t stop non-pros
from riding this trail as teenagers, kids, toddlers, infants, and probably embryos have
already cleared this thing.
Just like everything else at Whistler, kids who grow up here will have no recollection
of it being anything but ordinary.
But to Alexander and I this trail is unlike anything we normally have access to.
But we did ride it, and in the process I learned some things about myself that I should have
realized a long time ago.
So today I’ll share those findings in the hopes that it may help someone else.
But this story starts last week before we ever touched dirt merchant.
I had already posted my video and basically had a free day to ride the park and have fun.
Since Alexander had never been to Whistler before, I got to show him all this stuff for
the first time.
Showing a friend around new trails can be almost as exciting as riding them for the
first time yourself.
Alex and I were feeding off each others’ excitement.
At some point we ended up at one of those scary red triangles, Dwanye Johnson.
I had ridden this trail last year, but obviously Alex had not.
So we walked it, sized everything up, and checked out each feature individually.
Then we went back up to link it all together.
Alex had ridden his first proline jump trail, and our weekend plans to make a video about
Dirt Merchant were looking really good.
But the following morning, the trail was closed.
Temporary closures are normal at any bike park, so we linked up with some friends and
ran warm up laps to wait it out.
But as the day wore on, Dirt Merchant remained closed and I started getting anxious.
Anxiety led to distraction, which led to bad riding.
That’s me, nose diving to flat on a jump I’ve ridden countless times.
Thankfully I pulled out of it and continued on, but it was a sign of things to come.
Dirt Merchant never opened back up that day and we lost an entire day of filming.
The following morning we went out feeling kind of pressed for time.
But warm ups are essential when riding a new trail, so we did some laps, warmed up thoroughly,
and then headed up to Dirt Merchant so Alex could have a look at it.
Even though I had ridden the old Dirt Merchant last year, I by no means felt confident on
it or had it committed to memory.
So we dropped in with some degree of caution, pulling off trail to eye up each feature.
This is called a pre-ride, and there are actually signs in the park recommending you do this,
followed be a re-ride, and then finally a freeride.
As we eyed up each feature, it was clear that our freeride would take some time to work
up to.
There were quite a few features on Dirt Merchant, that were—concerning.
We watched as very competent riders bottomed out, nose cased and botched this step up in
every way possible—we even saw one guy go OTB.
This was not encouraging, and I really started feeling the time crunch again.
So we decided to go back up and ride the trail again from the beginning, and that’s when
I made a careless mistake.
I’m not sure what my plan was when launching off the top of this hip, but it didn’t end
well.
Although I did chuck my bike and get away from it at the last second, I still hit the
ground pretty hard.
But priority number one was to get me and my bike the frig off that trail.
With various parts of my body throbbing, and some mechanical issues to attend to this was
not the time to move on to the next feature, and I’m doing this new thing where I call
it quits before getting hurt.
But I left the mountain that day with less confidence in my riding abilities, and a growing
fear that this week’s video would be doomed.
I also felt like I was holding Alex back, as he felt perfectly fine.
But we wanted to do this trail together, so we called it quits together.
The next morning, I woke up, but I was still asleep.
I replaced my derailleur hanger and tried to repair myself with ibuprofen and espresso,
but out on the mountain I felt like a passenger on my own bike—a terrified passenger.
And after a few laps, it didn’t get any better.
I was nose diving, tail diving, and even forgetting how to get around the park, all the while
feeling pressured to get my footage.
It seemed eerily similar to the time I made a video about breaking my collar bone.
So I called it for the day, again.
And that was all the time we had.
So this week, I made a video about when to call it quits.
For my own safety, to set a good example.
I know this isn’t the most exciting ending, but this week I learned perhaps the most important
lesson about myself: that I’m actually my own worst….
oh, oh yeah, we actually went back out after lunch and friggin’ smashed that drop.
I cased the step up on my first go, and Alexander nose cased it.
But we both went back up and hit it again.
And again.
And then the rest of this amazing trail.
We had finally linked up all of Dirt Merchant, and morale was quite high.
We even met these guys who were riding it on hardtails, so party laps ensured.
This was shaping up to be the best day ever, but the lift was about to close and we only
had time for one more lap.
Well, I’ve screwed up way smaller jumps than that.
At least I limped away with cuts and bruises.
Flynn, one of the hardtail guys, broke his ankle a few bikes ahead of me.
He heard the commotion, got distracted, and launched off a roller into the lip of the
next jump.
Flynn was in good spirits and in good hands, but it’ll be a few months before he’s
riding his hardtail again.
You can follow him and Zev to see what happens next.
So what can we learn from all this?
Well, despite taking precautions, warming up, and even calling it quits a couple times,
I still managed to make another preventable mistake on a big jump.
Why this keeps happening comes down to lack of practice.
I probably didn’t belong on that trail and could have used a few more days on easier
jumps before attempting it.
Every summer I try to cram all my jump progression into a few short bike park visits, and I forget
that skill is only for rent.
You can’t just pick up where you left off the following June.
In any case, I’ve got another week to work on my jumping skills.
Maybe that’ll be a video.
Thanks for riding with me today and I’ll see you next time.