We visited five lift-accessed bike parks in 14 days and here are our takeaways.
Every year, my husband and I pack up our camper van and set our sights on the west coast of Canada for some epic mountain bike riding. This trip is undoubtedly the highlight of our summer. Every trip, we make it different from the last, depending on what we're craving to ride. And this time around, it was no pedalling and park laps. We checked out five bike parks: Silverstar, Sunpeaks and Big White for the first time, and returned to Fernie and Whistler.
Here are our thoughts and takeaways on the bike parks we checked out on this year's BC Bike Park Tour.
Fernie Alpine Resort Bike Park [1 Day of Riding]
Website Description: "Fernie's trails offer something for everyone. Featuring a mix of wide machine-made flowing trails for beginner and intermediate riders and challenging steep and technical single track trails for advanced and expert riders."
Things we liked about this bike park:
Trail ratings are accurate (i.e. a green is a green, blues a blue, etc.).
The staff was very friendly and helpful.
It is a small village, meaning no crowds.
Free parking.
There is no shortage of 'steep and deep' riding and dirt surfing.
Things we disliked about this bike park:
Short operating hours.
The chair lift is incredibly slow, making it difficult to feel like we got our money's worth.
A very challenging bike rack to load your bike onto (you hold your bike back wheel facing the sky and have to chase the chair and hook your rear wheel on a hook).
No skills parks or drop zones.
No real jump or drop progression.
Find out more info by clicking here.
Bike Big White [1 Day of Riding]
Website Description: "Bike Big White was built for riders by riders and features some of North America’s newest, and best lift-accessed mountain biking. The park hosts 19 world-class gravity-fed trails that range from rolling greens, flowy blues, technical and big air blacks - Bike Big White has something for every level of rider."
Things we liked about this bike park:
Easy to load bike racks.
Fast chairlift.
Long operating hours.
It is a small village, meaning no crowds.
Nice progression for flow-style trails.
Insane views.
Decent opportunity to work on jumping and drops, but at random on the trails.
Things we disliked about this bike park:
Parking was confusing and at random throughout the resort.
The general feel was that the berms were built far too tight for the intended trail speed, making it feel like you had to scrub all your speed before the corners. It made for awful braking bumps.
The tech gets really techy really quick with little progression.
No skills parks or drop zones.
Find out more info by clicking here.
Sunpeaks Resort Bike Park [1 Day of Riding]
Website Description: "The Sun Peaks Bike Park offers 2,000 feet of lift-access vertical on Tod Mountain and an additional 1,559 feet of lift-access vertical on Sundance Mountain! If that’s not enough, riders can pedal up Altitude on Tod to add an additional 500 feet of technical descent. With trails ranging from freeride machine-built cruisers to fully pinned DH singletrack, plus our carpet lift-access Progression Park, every level of rider will find their new favourite trail in Sun Peaks."
Things we liked about this bike park:
Camping, water and dump station on site for mobile visitors.
Long operating hours.
The resort has two main sections - one focused on tech and the other on flow.
Large and well built skills progression park.
Good flow and jump progression.
Two fast moving lifts close together at the bottom, so the line never really got busy.
Despite being lots of people around, it never felt busy or crowded.
It's a bigger village with more going on for those not participating on bikes.
Things we disliked about this bike park:
The tech gets really technical really quick.
It was epic dusty and made the steep trails very rutted.
It felt like plenty of riding one day - not much variety.
Whistler Mountain Bike Park [5 Days of Riding]
Whister is like the motherland or mecca for mountain bikers. No description is needed as it caters to every type of rider, from beginner to expert, flow to tech and progression.
Things we liked about this bike park:
It's a vibe. The village has something for everyone, even if you're not going to ride.
Although it's busy leaving the Whistler Village, typically at the start of the day, the resort spreads riders out once on the mountain.
Easy load bike racks and fast chairlift (when normal chairlift running - it's under construction for the entire 2023 season).
Multiple skills progression parks, some recreating specific drops and features found on the trail (i.e. the Aline rock drop simulator).
Wide variety of riding of tech and flow. A top-to-bottom run means you have multiple chances to switch from tech to flow.
Well marked and signed.
Long operating hours.
Things we disliked about this bike park:
It's always going to be busy.
Construction!! This year, the main chairlift was closed, and instead, they were cramming people and bikes into the gondola -- a fix for the time being, but it was awful. Last year, when we visited, all of Creekside was closed as it was under construction.
The brake bumps! 🤣
Paid parking gets expensive with multiple days of riding.
SilverStar Mountain Bike Park [1 Day of Riding]
Website description: "Since day one, progression has been the main focus of our Downhill trail program. Discover everything from beginner biking trails winding gently through wildflower meadows to expert runs filled with berms, jumps and adrenaline pumping features that challenge the hardcore rider. SilverStar is home to the second biggest bike park in BC, and we promise, you'll love it."
Things we liked about this bike park:
Camping on site for mobile visitors.
There are many trails with a wide variety of riding of tech and flow.
Good jump and tech flow progression.
Easy load bike rack and quick chairlift.
Things we disliked about this bike park:
Short operating hours.
It could be slow lift lines if it gets busy (it was quiet while we were there, thankfully).
No skills parks or drop zones.
Find out more info by clicking here.
Each one has a slightly different style and riding, but if we had to rate these bike parks in order, Whistler would always be our number one, Sunpeaks and Silverstar tied for second, followed by Big White and Fernie.
Have you visited another bike park that you'd suggest we check out next time, leave us a comment below!