- Oh my Gosh!
First lift, single line.
Obviously, cause I have no mates.
Oh well!
This should be fun day.
I can't wait! There's a new A line bit,
They 've been fixing everything.
Ooooh!
Nice!
Ticket-time!
(denied ticket sound)
What?
Ticket inva...
Oi, what's going on?
- Oi, you there!
You've tried ten times, can you get out of here already?
- Ah, come on, let me in man!
- No, get out of here mate.
- Where am I gonna ride?
Ah!
I know!
It's a hell of a ride though, it's a big pedal up.
I know where to go.
Follow me!
This is my epic ride!
Whistler, Blackcomb.
(upbeat music)
Sure, my pass's ran out for the mountain
but
the day is not over.
It's not even a hiccup.
I know some cool trails up in Blackcomb.
I am gonna ride Dark Crystal.
I 've heard about it, I 've heard it's amazing,
so I'm gonna ride that but it is a hell of a pedal,
all the way to the top of this
mountain.
The weird thing is, you know you can catch a lift
to the top of the mountain, you don't even have to work
your ass off.
Get your fix of downhill.
But this, I'm gonna have to work for it.
That's why it's gonna be epic.
Because I'm gonna have to do an hour's climb
to the top
of Blackcomb
and then drop into Dark Crystal.
I kicked off my climbing from the bottom of
Blackcomb village.
It was a 6km climb to the top of Dark Crystal,
climbing 668m
to the peak height of 1282m
above sea level.
The descent was 2.8km of low-me goodness!
First climb
from the village,
Blackcomb village,
all the way up the ski loam.
I'm gonna be using this amigo,
that's for sure.
Cause it gets steeper.
I'm feeling tired now,
nah, I'm not!
(upbeat music)
Oh, wow!
It's a warm day.
(blows raspberries)
I'm not even half way
but
this section here,
is really steep,
right at the beginning of the climb, on this fire road.
It's steep.
It just traverses through, goes up there, above me.
And then from there,
it just climbs through the woods.
You go pass Crazy Train,
Hay Bud,
carry all the way through
Out Of The Dust trail,
I think Haybud and Crazy Train are half way to
Dark Crystal.
I'm gonna carry on climb it.
(jazzy music)
Ah!
This
That was
It's gonna flaten down, I'm gonna go into the open now,
going to the ski slopes,
there's a sign here that says:
Home Run
Does that mean
I'm nearly there or does that mean
I'm not even half way?
Oh man!
Oooh!
It's so much fun!
This is an epic ride in itself!
(laughs)
Nearly there!
One little bit
Out of the dust!
I made it!
Look!
Out of the dust
warnings
Do not enter
Do not enter, danger
Okay, I won't go in there.
It's telling me not to go in there.
This is the Wood bin now.
Just climb up the fire road,
an hour's single track,
climb up to
Crazy Train
and
Hay Bud
which I'm gonna stop for a little break.
Let's carry on through the woods.
This looks sick!
Better than fire road, that's for sure.
Fire road is so boring!
Alright!
Let's go!
(uplifting music)
(music stops)
Oooh!
Alright!
The T junction.
You got Crazy Train,
you got Hay Bud.
I rode Crazy Train yesterday,
on a hard tail.
Now, that was something!
That was an experience.
But
Dark Crystal is (inaudible)
I got told that this point
is halfway point.
Okay?
As long as this is single track like this and not fire road
it will be more exciting, cause fire roads are boring.
And I continue up here,
to the top of the trail,
Dark Crystal.
I'll see you at the top!
We are at a cool
river crossing
Might have a drink of water
Fresh, mountain water!
Nice!
You know I said there wasn't gonna be more fire road,
well,
there's more fire road!
Might even fill up my camel back,
with water actually.
Just replenish my water,
cause that,
so far has been
52 minutes of climbing,
a bit of stopping,
obviously,
to fill my few bits
Look at this!
Go wet feet!
Coming back, so filled up,
now to continue climbing
all the way
to the trail end
of Dark Crystal.
That water is fresh!
I fell in
I got a shoe full of water
I'll just carry up this fire road
and we are there.
What a climb!
Crystal chair.
Bike tracks
this way.
I think I'm close!
Ah!
There it is!
Dark Crystal!
Before I drop in,
I'm gonna have lunch,
cause that was an epic climb
to an epic descent.
Right!
All fueled up
and ready to rock'n'roll.
Little history about this trail,
is that it was an illegal trail
a few years ago,
and it's just recently that's been opened to the public
and the mountain,
as in the Whistler mountain,
have been taken charge of maintaining the trail.
So back in the day,
pirate trail
would have to cycle up this fire road
and this fire road is a working road.
And you are not allowed to cycle on these roads
cause it's super dangerous.
Massive trucks come down it and stuff.
So,
if you were cool riding on that fire road, you would,
potentially,
get your lift pass taken away from you and banned.
So,
hence why it's a pirate trail,
they didn't really wanna make it an official one
but everyone started riding it.
And it was a pretty epic trail.
So they opened it
to the public,
not so long ago,
for us dudes, to shred and have fun.
But hardly gets ridden.
Because it's an epic, epic climb.
Alright, I'm ready.
GoPro is on,
fueled,
I'm ready to drop in.
I'll see you down there.
(uplifting music)
I keep saying to Jack,
the cameraman,
"man, let's film this section, man, let's film this,
let's film that." Every five...
You keep going down the trail,
and it just gets better and better and better.
If you are in Whistler, 100%,
pedal up that big-ass hill,
and drop in to Dark Crystal.
Look at this loam!
Look at it!
Wow!
Amazing!
I've been hearing a river,
it's getting closer and closer,
this river,
and there is a waterfall at the end of this trail.
I can't wait to get there!
That's gonna look epic!
Alright.
Some north shore here,
just there,
drop down all the way through that zig zag and
all the way down through this valley.
And then down
to that river.
I'll splash my face with that water
cause I am
patched,
literally,
soaked.
Wow, this is...
It goes from rocky
all the way into like loam,
to rock,
to loam.
Ah!
Amazing!
Ah! Here's the waterfall!
Ah! Look at this!
Look at this!
Nice!
Goes all the way up there.
Wow! Look at this,
alpine river!
Man, this is what makes an epic ride,
way more epic.
You got alpine river,
you are in the alpines,
you got some rocky terrain, you got routes,
you got
north shore, big rock rollers, loam,
loose dirt,
dust.
This,
my friends,
is what an epic ride is all about.
And I'm telling you,
it's probably one of the most favorite trails
I've ever ridden,
in my life.
And I'm not even done yet, we still follow this river
all the way down, I can see the trail,
zigs zags this way through, snaking through the woods.
Ooooh!
I'm not gonna forget this!
I'm never gonna forget this!
Alright!
Let's carry on!
(upbeat pop music)
No way! Is that here?
That
is the end
of Dark Crystal.
Oh no.
I've ran out of water.
I would love to do it again but
I ain't hell riding up that hill again, dude.
You can keep that mountain
for another day.
So, there you go, my epic ride down Dark Crystal,
and has every single type of terrain you could want for
from a trail.
Now I'm heading back to Whistler village,
along the fire road.
Hey, it's that river we've been following down!
Wow!
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Wow! Look at that trail!
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