Cam's Blog: The Joy of Building

22 May 2013

There are very few things in this world I enjoy more than riding my bike. Luckily for us, some of the mountain bikers that call Silver Star Bike Park home care as much about trail building as riding their bikes. If you know anyone who knows me they can attest to this. I am not sure if it’s the physical aspects, being outdoors, seeing the fruits of your labour, the challenge of building a fun trail or the fact that I get to ride the handy work. The bottom line is building trail is fun and I am happy I can make a living from it.

The challenge of opening this Bike Park can be daunting sometimes but again it is rewarding. I would love for nothing more than to be riding my DH bike in the Park June 1. But the truth is it will never happen. :( This is the blessing and the curse of having the Bike Park on a "ski" hill. There is just too much snow! I consider us pretty lucky here in the Okanagan, we get the heat that hits us early in the spring, most the trails are the proper aspect to melt snow and we have the commitment from management to get the park open as early as possible. I feel for the crew on the Island and Mt. Washington. They end up with a snow pack that can crush a house by the time they close. I could not imagine having to dig out their park to get it ready. I understand why they have choosen not to move forward with their Bike Park but focus on their winter product with all that snow!

These photos were taken May 17th digging out the "other" aspect of the park. If you look at the web cams you can see there are some areas that are really close. The problem is all the trails come off the top, where these photos were taken and head to Hub 1, where most the trails branch out. So no early opening for the Silver Star Bike Park again this year, with us digging out it will be ready to go for the Bonus weekend June 22. In the meantime get your XC on or hit up the Whistler Bike Park to you have your legs ready for Silver Star!

ThanksCam

ABOUT CAM SORENSEN: Cam has been heading up the trail crew at Silver Star since 2005 and has designed the master plan for the bike park trail network that you enjoy today with the help of some of his closest friends and colleagues on trail crew. There is no one that knows this park better because he's built every berm, designed every jump and dreamed up every new trail.