People in the parks Spearhead Motez at Moe Joe’s

p.12 p.13 p.61

FREE
sweat & Beers

Digging
dirty gold
the

Whistler’s singletrack solitaire

24.30

July 27, 2017 | whistler’s weekly newsmagazine   | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

 this Week in pique
#103 -1390 Alpha Lake Rd., Function Junction,
Whistler, B.C. V0N 1B1.
Ph: (604) 938-0202 Fax: (604) 938-0201
www.piquenewsmagazine.com
8 Letters
Founding Publishers 11 News
Kathy & Bob Barnett
Publisher
42 Travel
Sarah strother - sarah@piquenewsmagazine.com
Editor
44 Sports
Clare ogilvie - edit@piquenewsmagazine.com
50 Food
Sales Manager
SUSAN HUTCHINSON - shutchinson@wplpmedia.com 54 Arts
Production Manager
Karl partington - kpartington@wplpmedia.com 61 Music
Art Director
Jon Parris - jparris@wplpmedia.com 66 PiqueCal
Advertising Representatives 69 Classifieds

32
KATE WHITLEY - kwhitley@wplpmedia.com
Amy Allen - aallen@wplpmedia.com
Tessa Sweeney - tsweeney@wplpmedia.com
Sales Coordinator
Digging the dirty gold
Cover story

Jen Treptow - traffic@piquenewsmagazine.com

Production
Claire Ryan - cryan@wplpmedia.com Unearthing the spirit of Whistler’s trailbuilding community - By tobias c. van Veen
Lou Stevens - lstevens@wplpmedia.com
victoria cacchioli - vcacchioli@wplpmedia.com
Luke Milsom - lmilsom@wplpmedia.com
production@piquenewsmagazine.com
Cover: Diggers descending from a WORCA Trail Night up the Powerline Climb. Over some eight weeks, I
shot this piece in the golden light of bug-bitten evenings, hauling heavy camera kit up trails and not-so-carefully
Arts and Entertainment Editor
careening down. Thanks to the Toonie organizers, Dan Raymond, Nina Cairns, Larry Falcon, and all the guides and
Cathryn Atkinson - arts@piquenewsmagazine.com
Sports Editor diggers for bearing with me - By tobias c. van Veen || instagram.com/fugitivephilo
Dan Falloon - sports@piquenewsmagazine.com
Features Editor
Brandon Barrett - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com
Reporters

12 PARKS FEELING THE STRAIN

braden dupuis - bdupuis@piquenewsmagazine.com
we ekl y fe a tures

Brandon Barrett - bbarrett@piquenewsmagazine.com Wilderness

Joel Barde - jbarde@piquenewsmagazine.com protection group calls for increased parks funding to deal
Classifieds and Reception with overcapacity issues
mail@piquenewsmagazine.com

44 PUMPING IRON
Circulation and Accounts
katie bechtel - kbechtel@wplpmedia.com Top female pros ready to take on
Subaru Ironman Canada course in possible final year
Office and Accounts Manager
heidi rode - hrode@wplpmedia.com
I.T. and Webmaster
Karl Partington
Contributors
G.D. Maxwell, Jack Christie, Coast Mountain
Photography, Glenda Bartosh, Michael Allen,
54 THE ART OF FESTIVALS Whistler’s The Guild
creates fantastical party sculptures, displays and stages for
Bass Coast and now the world
Feet Banks, Leslie Anthony, Lynn martel, Anthony
gismondi, Allen Best, Alison Taylor, tobias C. Van Veen
President, Whistler Publishing LP
Sarah strother - sstrother@wplpmedia.com
12 61 BACK FOR THE CRAZY Australian DJ Motez returns
to Moe Joe’s with a new song and a desire for more dancing
Vice-President,

piquecal
Whistler Publishing LP
Darren Roberts - droberts@wplpmedia.com
Pique Newsmagazine (a publication of Whistler Publishing Limited Partnership, a
division of Glacier Media) distributed to over 130 locations in Whistler and to over 200
locations from Vancouver to D’arcy.
The entire contents of Pique Newsmagazine are copyright 2017 by Pique Newsmagazine (a
66 Learn the art of macramé on Sunday at the
beautiful Alta Lake Station House. Or if comedy is more
your thing, check out the humorous stylings of stand-up
publication of WPLP, a division of Glacier Media). No portion may be reproduced in whole or Rob Bebenek on Wednesday at the Crystal Lounge
in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express written
permission of the Publisher.
In no event shall unsolicited material subject this publication to any claim or fees.
Copyright in letters and other (unsolicited) materials submitted and accepted for
publication remains with the author but the publisher and its licensees may freely
reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms.
Letters to the Editor must contain the author’s name, address and daytime telephone
number. Maximum length is 250 words. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject any
contribution. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer and not that of Pique Newsmagazine.
Pique Newsmagazine is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an
independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices
and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact
(edit@piquenewsmagazine.com). If you are not satisfied with the response and wish
to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-
877-1163 for additional information.
This organization replaces the BC Press council (and any mention of it).

ISSN #1206-2022
Subscriptions: $76.70/yr. within Canada, $136.60/yr.
courier within Canada. $605.80/yr. courier to USA. GST
included. GST Reg. #R139517908.

44 61
Canadian Publications Mail Product
Sales Agreement #40016549.

4 | July 27, 2017 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

 32 Feature
sto ry

Diggin
dirty g
the

Whistler’s singletrac
Unearthing the spirit of the resort’s trailb

32 | July 27, 2017 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

 Feature sto r y
Story and photos by
tobias c. van Veen

W
hat drives us into the wild, amidst
the solitude of rock and granite,
desperately seeking the solace of
singletrack? And what slingshots
us back, on our suspended wheels, thrashed and bug-
bitten, to the social evenings of beer and biking? What
lies at the core of this thing we call mountain biking —
before the bike park, before the industry took hold, far
away from the doldrums of the 9-to-5 rat race, during
that moment in which, suited up and committed, you
let the bike roll over the precipice, to descend into the
untracked unknown?
Questions of such a rhetorical nature should never
begin a photo feature this fragmented — but this is
why the lens is here, to capture some of the golden light
of Whistler’s mountain-bike culture, from its tightknit
communities of singletrack riders to those playing
solitaire in the woods, gambling alone on exploring new
trails in solitude, spending months, even years, crafting
the perfect line.
There are many names missing here — so
apologies to all those shaping the anarchic lines out
there, whose names will be marked in the circles that
matter. Likewise, with due respect to all builders, a tip
of the hat to anyone who has ever made a trail, and to
all the volunteers that keep them shipshape, from the
organized crews to the disorganized pirates who rebuild
and keep trails fresh that are now regularly tracked by
thousands of wheelie visitors a year.
For who knew in the mid-‘90s — when I recall
skidding my suspension-less hardtail down Blackcomb’s
ski runs — that a sport serving as little more than an

g
afterthought between ski seasons would become the
resort’s second economic engine? And who knew then
that the golden years were yet to come?

Dirty-Gold Diggers
I watch Tanis Shadley as she hauls a bucket of gold

old
— which is to say, finely dug dirt from the good earth
of Whistler. “Here’s a little more dirt, do we need it
anywhere?” she asks, speaking to a trio of assembled
Swiss visitors who, despite only being in town for two
weeks, were so impressed by the valley’s singletrack
trails that they decided to lend a hand themselves.
But before we get into the thick of the dirt, let
me rewind to when our evening began. Over a dozen
volunteers assembled under the late-evening sun on
a splendid night in June. The Whistler Off Road Cycling
Association (WORCA) Trail Night, held intermittently on
Tuesdays when things aren’t catching on fire — no
tools in the dirt during wildfire season, please, as sparks
can set alight the underbrush — have become a rite of
passage over the years.

k solitaire
But it wasn’t always this way.
Back in 1995, legendary trailbuilder Dan
Swanstrom — responsible for such inventive valley test
pieces as Section 102, A River Runs Through It, White

b uilding community
Knuckles, Shit Happens, Big Kahuna, No Girlie Mans,
Beaver Pass, and his namesake trail, Danimal — noted
to Pique that despite attempts to garner volunteer
support, only 11 people had shown up to his weekly trail
workshops over a two-year period.
Times have changed.

www.piquenewsmagazine.com | July 27, 2017 | 33

Feature st ory
Tonight, the crowd is more than big enough for the
evening’s project. “We’ve had 75 people out,” says Dan
Raymond, well more than he knew what to do with at
season’s start, and too many with tools in their hands.
“But it’s contagious,” Raymond adds. “Next time you
come back up, you’re not just carrying buckets, but
building a rock wall.”
Raymond is WORCA’s trailbuilding guru, having
turned to all things down and dirty after retiring from
a career of competing and coaching Olympic halfpipe
snowboarding in 2014. He’s responsible for his own trio
of trails: Rockwork Orange, Korova Milk Bar, and Wizard
Burial Ground and, working alongside “right-hand man”
Scott Veach and (at times) Tim Haggerty with the WORCA
trail crew, Raymond has collaborated on many additions
across the network, including the new, epic Lord of the
Squirrels, which descends from Mount Sproatt.
Some two decades later, with mountain biking
culture well established and represented in Whistler —
and drawing in huge tourist dollars — and the Tuesday
Trail Nights have become a well-attended extravaganza
of sweat and mosquitoes over the past four years. At
first cliquey, the nights eventually began to draw rogue
builders out of the woodwork, says Raymond, as bigger
projects were put on the table. Today, the sessions
attract those looking to give back to the mountain-bike
community and terrain they love, learning the technique
and style to build unauthorized trails of beautiful
anarchy that pop up like mushrooms after rain.
With diggers assembled, Raymond leads the
motley crew up and under the metal towers of the
Westside powerline climb. Peeling off the old logging
road, Raymond shows us where he’s laid out flags to
designate where the new climbing trail is to begin — a
well-thought out, looping affair through the forest,
reminiscent of the fine work completed on Piece of Cake
and A La Mode.
“We’re looking for mineral soil,” says Raymond.
“The best mix for building a trail compacts, resists
water once it cements, and has a bit of clay, but is
mostly this orange mineral stuff.” A digging line is
established, with one crazy guy digging out the gold,
while a few folks haul buckets and the remainder use
pickaxes, saws, and shovels to cut out the roots and dig
up the forest floor a few inches deep. A massive log is
rolled out of the way, and heavy rocks are hauled into
location for the armouring of dips and corners.

Have you got a spare room?

Tamwood International is looking for warm and welcoming
homestay families in Whistler to provide a nice room, 3 meals, and
positive experiences to our motivated students, aged 16+ from all
over the world. Host families are required the whole year round.
For more information, please contact homestay@tamwood.com or
call 1.866.533.0123

34 | July 27, 2017 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

 Feature sto r y
The labour is challenging and, at times,
backbreaking, but it’s replete with jokes and laughter
piercing through the nighttime calls of the forest, and
drops of wisdom delivered by Raymond, who coaches
the team like a master Olympian. Inevitably, the politics
of trailbuilding arises, and Raymond reveals that the
powerline road will be reclaimed by BC Hydro — thus
the climbing trail everyone is working on — though
with the added bonus that many of the Westside trails
will become legit once more.
Dark Side of the Moss
Raymond and WORCA trail director Nina Cairns meet up
with me in the Wedge parking lot for an afternoon climb
up North Secret Trail. I drop beers in the river for the
return, and we get out into the forest before stopping to
chat on a sunny plateau of granite and moss. We quickly
divulge how we got into mountain biking. Hailing from
Aylmer, Que., Raymond began biking in the late 1980s
in Gatineau Park, skidding out on hiking trails and
janking on centre-pull brakes.
“You don’t need much of a cool section of trail
to fall in love with it,” he says. Raymond has been
in Whistler since ’99, and attributes much of his
inspiration to former WORCA race director Tony Horn’s
epic runs “that make you see God.”
Around the turn of the millennium, recounts
ADVENTURES POWERED
1.800.330.HELI
blackcombhelicopters.com
BACKCOUNTRY SKI DROP-OFFS • TRANSFERS • SIGHTSEEING • HELI-BIKING • HELI-PICNICS • HELI-HIKING • WEDDINGS & PROPOSALS
www.piquenewsmagazine.com | July 27, 2017 | 35
Raymond, there were no trail maps nor much info
available on the internet, and so many of Whistler’s
classic trails were “outed” by Horn’s legendary events
tying in theme, party, and torturous course, including the
big reveal of North Secret Trail (a.k.a. Comfortably Numb)
at an infamous and grueling Samurai of Single Track
race. Horn’s masochistic affairs included multi-day epics
with upwards of 50 kilometres of technical riding, such
as the memorable Four Jacks and Four Kings series, and
continuing with Exile On Steel St., a one-day event three
years ago that saw riders destroying bits and brains over
70 kilometres of suffering on hardtail steel.
Raymond wants to showcase some of the new
bridgework he and Haggerty have built, with the aim
of respecting legendary builder Chris Markle’s quirky
style of technical challenges and rock rolls that gives
Comfortably Numb its namesake. So we head towards
the skinnies, where Cairns navigates a swarm of
mosquitoes to nail a few narrow bridges. Though not
dangerously elevated like test pieces in the North Shore,
the chokes keep us on our toes, and Raymond’s respect
for the OG of trailbuilding is evident.
Hailing from South Africa through London,
Cairns arrived in Whistler in 2010 shortly after the
Olympiad of parties and pigloos, and eventually
became a WORCA kids coach. After a stint at the
Whistler Nordics Ski Club, she vied for the job of
trails director in 2015 — but not before she had
to answer a skill-testing question from Raymond:
BY
Feature st ory
What’s your favourite trail in town? Her answer came
quick and showed off her singletrack savvy: Pure
Vida and Three Birds on the Westside, with Tunnel
Vision and Duncan’s or Business Time on the east.
Exiting Comfortably Numb, we push up to a
relatively new connector, Dark Side of the Moss. Built
by Raymond and Haggerty with the help of 15 Whistler
Waldorf School students two summers ago, it cycles up
through the forest, avoiding the nearby logging-road
mayhem. Raymond asks if it keeps to Markle’s style, but
Cairns quickly replies: Which style do you mean? Over a
trail as varied as Comfortably Numb, nearly everything
pops up under the suspension. The new trail has flow
and elegant curves, leading out on a rocky outcrop with
a fantastic view. It is as classic as the nearly 20-year-
old trail to which it connects.

Twenty Years of
Monday-Night Madness
The Beacon bartender delivers a third round of shots,
and the sweet chaser of banana liqueur masks the
fire within. Dusk sets over the old Citta’ patio, and
parades of bar-stars make their way across what
was once prime hacky-sack territory. The rides have
been good tonight, and the burgers delicious. Larry
Falcon is laughing as Tom Jackson spins another
yarn from the time he nearly died on a wet ride
through Gargamel’s. Tonight’s celebration of 20
years of Monday Night Rides is, as it should be, one
for the memories, in fine Whistler fashion.
Monday Night Rides founder and consummate
Whistlerite, Falcon has probably missed only some
dozen or so rides in the two decades he’s been
helming the local gathering of bikes and beers.
Though (forgivably) born in North Van, Falcon has
been in Whistler nearly all his life, skiing here as
a youngin’ since the ‘60s, and living here since the
mid-‘90s. In 1997, he launched the communal social
ride, with its occasional evenings of unspeakable
debauchery. Thanks to Falcon’s zealous newspaper
advertising and cross-radio promotion, that first
night was attended by an incredible 300 riders.
“Imagine trying to take 300 riders on the trails
with four guides,” says Falcon, with only hardtails and
a limited (by today’s standards) selection of trails from
which to choose from. First established at Wild Willies
— once located where the Nesters Market pharmacy
now stands — the Monday Night Ride now sets off
from the Bike Co. in Marketplace, and is a lively and
spirited event renewing old friendships and forging new
ones to this day.
According to longtime guide Hillary Davison, it’s
also one of the best places in Whistler to meet your
match — whether for a night or a lifetime. Going
over the handlebars some four times on her first ride
with Jackson through Emerald Forest, it took a year to
learn the tricks of the trade, Davison says, and today
her smooth skillset on steep rock shows. A mountain
biker now for 15 years, Davison is also a mentor for the
women who seek support in learning the tools of steep
granite, including Chelsea Sullivan, a pro-level skier
but intermediate-level mountain biker. By the evening’s
end, Sullivan locks her focus and sends the slippery
closing roll with style. Advanced level unlock achieved.
Repeat visitors hold down the fort. I’m introduced
to Guillermo Rodriguez, who has been travelling to

36 | July 27, 2017 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

Win 1 month of Free Parking
at Whistler’s Marketplace!
Sign up with the Passport Canada Parking App for the
Whistler’s Marketplace lot on or before August 15th, 2017
to enter to win free parking for 1 month!

Download Passport Canada with your smartphone

or visit passportca.com

www.piquenewsmagazine.com | July 27, 2017 | 37

Feature st ory
Whistler with his family from Mexico City for a little over
three decades — and riding the Monday Night Rides
for some 15 years after he followed a pack of riders
peddling past his home. Rodriguez praises the ride for
its affordability and the sense of community it nurtures
— it is one of “the best deals” in town, he says, not just
for the wallet, but for the spirit.
Hauling pounds of camera gear, I tag along with
Falcon and Jackson — who has been leading the groups
for 18 years — out to what is, by all accounts, the oldest
slice of singletrack in the valley: Cut Yer Bars. Cut Yer
Bars contains more terrain than most realize — including
scary and savage descents, such as Hand of Doom —
and the evening is a classic Monday-Night session on
ever-challenging rock rolls. Intermediate riders cut their
teeth with the guidance and encouragement of the senior
guides in the pack. As the sun sets over the valley, grins
set in on our dusty faces.
38 | July 27, 2017 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com
Tracking Out the Toonies
Tonight’s Toonie is a short one, hitting up the puking
gruntfest that is the Scotia Creek Climb before
launching down Danimal and through a winding figure
eight of trails that returns the pack to Alta Lake Road.
The top riders barely seem to break a sweat, jokingly
throwing gang signs up the climb and drifting the
downhill at Mach speed, while those along for the ride
slip and stumble and give each other the confidence
and encouragement to finish.
Though inflation left the Loonie Ride behind, the
Toonie is an institution, spawning imitators that could
never quite duplicate its charms. Tonight the kids have
it, killing the course with the kind of preternatural
abilities that can only be crafted by growing up with a
child’s love for the gold.
Feature st ory

summer connect
bobsleigh with the
legacy
One child (12-18) slides Fat Bike Rentals
FREE with an adult! Electric Assist
Adults: $99 + tax
Experience Biathlon
Additional children: $49.50 + tax Olympic Sightseeing
Operating daily Open daily 10:00 am – 4:30 pm

Above Whistler Village near Lot 8 In the Callaghan Valley

whistlerslidingcentre.com whistlerolympicpark.com
604-964-0040 604-964-0060

40 | July 27, 2017 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

 Feature sto r y

Horse Stroking Farm

Raymond said it would be a short push up to the Flank,
but the steep and decommissioned logging road is a
calf-burning, dry-heaving, caloric expenditure all its own.
From this point, I can’t tell you exactly where we’re going
— because Raymond is gifting me the honour of riding
and shooting his latest and unreleased project, which for
the purposes of this paper, we’ll call Horse Stroking Farm.
The trail is classic Raymond — shaped as only
a snowboarder or skier with an eye for the pure and
smooth line of gravity can, winding its way through
an untapped zone of sticky granite and moss, with
views out and across the great expanse of all that we
hold so close. And here my metaphors must work the
magic, because no giveaways will be listed here in
print, even if you’re all now pouring over the photos,
trying to figure out precisely where this follow-up to
the Rockwork Orange trilogy claims its start. This is
mountain biking at its finest. Raymond has done proper
work on the trail build, a master of his craft, armouring
the steep descents and drifting the flow while keeping
all the obstacles that push the trail to double-black:
mandatory sends, steep and technical rock garden
descents, and committed rolls. It’s a classic in the
making, and as the sun sets and I push my camera’s
ISO beyond safety limits to get the shot, I start to get a
handle on the spirit, if not soul, of this at times solitary
endeavour. For it’s not just about being alone in the
bush — it’s about gifting such solitude to others, and
seeing the community resonate with the vibe of a new
flow to be found.
For more images from this story, check out
@fugitivephilo on Instagram. n

SUMMER SALE Available exclusively

20% OFF. at Patina located in the

of Function Junction.

1072 Millar Creek Rd, Whistler

Sofas, sectionals, accent chairs, (604) 938-2988
ottomans & beds. Until August 13th.
www.piquenewsmagazine.com | July 27, 2017 | 41