This weekend will be my first time in Wentworth!! I will be climbing as the chair is not open yet. I am not sure how many laps one can muster.
I am a seasoned rider and spent years riding at MacRun, but also in Vancouver and Whistler.
I want to maximize with hitting the best trails. I would not mind hitting the same trail more than once to get some trail knowledge and therefore speed on the go. I dont mind (love) tech and steeps and enjoy machine built flow trials, but find them a bit boring as I am not a good (terrible) jumper.
A good warm up lap is Kitchen Party (note there are two entrances, one at the top of the climb trail, but the full trail starts further up the road – worth the trek up to get the whole thing). It’s a slightly wider than singletrack flow trail without any real jumps, but some unreal corners. It’s fast and a ton of fun, and it spits you out 1/4 of the way up the hill so you don’t need to do the full climb.
Then for tech, you have Love Shacks and No Name, which are on the way to the top of Kitchen Party, both are loamy and technical with some great corners, compressions. No Name has a few nice tables, but they can be rolled.
There’s a new trail called Paradigm that I haven’t ridden yet, but it’s on the back side of the hill and has some steeps, man made features, tech and flow. It’s a black diamond run in comparison to the rest. Can’t wait to try it.
Lastly, there’s Hakuna Matata, which is a proper blue flow trail, and a great way to finish the day. If you can pull off five climbs, you’ll get a chance to do them all. That’s about an 800m day, which is definitely a big day out for most, but certainly doable.
Soo, I went and had a blast. Thanks for the advice!
I was fired up, so I did the climb without delay and hit Paradigm first. I was thinking Wentworth is a baby hill but Paradigm delivered! The rock face and jumps were legit.
Love Shacks was a one-timer. Not so much love for that.
Kitchen Party was a blast. Hit that twice, and then back to Paradigm. I was tired and the arm pump was too much so that was more of a check-it-out again ride, not hitting the features. Then HK for a fun lap and out.
WW is legit. I went in bragodicous and was humbled. SO MUCH FUN.
I will be back.
My 120 mm trail bike did feel a bit sketch at times. I am already looking at big bikes for WW park days.
BUT I may rent a big bike for the Chair. Does anyone know what the “Enduro” bikes they are renting will be?
My first day up this season i saw what looked like devinci Marshall’s or troys for rent. 140/130 or 150/140 range travel. Previously mentjined were chainsaws. Not sure if they had those in yet when i was there very well could be now or are in the works
That’s only $25 more than Sugarloaf NB (which is largely subsidized by the NB gov’t because the park wouldn’t survive without it) and $60 less than bike rentals in BC and $100 less than rentals at MSA, for example. It would be nice if our sport was cheaper, but there are real costs associated with maintaining a fleet of rental bikes.
Oh 100%, and I think renting gets expensive fast for a trip that’s more than a few days long. When I went to BC a couple weeks ago for eight days of riding, it cost me $100 to bring my bike with me, but would have been at least $1,000 to rent for the duration of the trip.
But if you’re looking to see if DH riding is for you, or looking to join friends who already have the right kind of bikes, I think it’s a reasonable price to pay if the bikes are well-maintained and up to the task of riding those types of trails. Think about the damage you’ve probably done to your own bike in a crash – every time one leaves their shop, that’s a risk and an expense.
I had a blast visiting on my 120mm trail bike last year and felt no desire for more on the fast flowtech trails. Of course outer limits was closed that day so maybe if that was in the mix you could use more. Id imagine as the park matures and presumably more lift focused runs come in itll push the travel desire up!
