Whistler's Four Corners

If you search for the Four Corners of Whistler on Trailforks, you will find a 100km, 5000m elevation ride that hits the "four corners" of Whistler (north, south, east and west). The route includes a sample of the many amazing black and double black trails in the Whistler valley network; Lord of the Squirrels, Zanarchy/Gargamel, Dark Crystal and Ride Don't Slide. To do it properly, you need to pedal it all in a day, which would take some serious fitness! Good timing is also important as Lord of the Squirrels is only open for a short window every year based on snow and the trail builders ask that you do not ride Dark Crystal when it is wet.

Pedaling up Blackcomb to ride our 4th corner - Dark Crystal

While we did not attempt the pure Four Corners challenge on our trip, we did tick off each of the 4 trails during the week and had a blast exploring some of the amazing riding around Whistler. Doing one corner per day was a fun way to check out some trails that Kyle and I had never ridden, and re-ride some trails I hadn't been on in years.

Corner #1: Lord of the Squirrels

Distance: 32km

Elevation: 1300m

Time: 6hrs

Black/Blue

Into the Mystic takes us up into the mist

Our first corner took us up into the alpine on Mt. Sproatt to ride Lord of the Squirrels. It was Kyle's birthday and he had been talking about riding the trail for ages. Lucky for us the trail had just opened for the season the day before! We met David, Tyler and Tolen at Stonebridge and warmed up with the steep climb up to the Flank Trail. From there, the climbing continued up Into the Mystic to our high point on Mt. Sproatt.

Working our way up Into the Mystic

Despite it being mid-July, it was cold and damp up in the alpine. Into the Mystic and LOTS were snow-free however we were not able to ride any of the bonus trails up at the top (Happy Hour, Last Call, On the Rocks etc) as they were still very snow-covered. We had to keep moving to stay warm, and didn't get any views of the valley. Despite the weather, we had a great time and the trail was in excellent condition!

Quick snack break before continuing to climb

Evidence of snow remains but the trail was good to go

Where we would likely have excellent views, we just had clouds

Going up

Summer flowers add a touch of colour to the grey world

Happy 32nd birthday Kyle!

Finally, it was time to drop into the Lord of the Squirrels. It was a long descent! The trail crews had obviously been busy and the corners were minty. It was a blast. The fun didn't end at the bottom of LOTS either. We still had a long way to ride down to the car at Stonebridge. Feeling fatigued, we opted to ride Chipmunks Rebellion, the only blue descent off the Flank. It was nice to avoid riding wet roots and rocks after 5 cold hours on the bike, and we enjoyed a fast, swoopy single track all the way down.

Dropping below the clouds with a long descent back to the valley ahead

Corner #2: Ride Don't Slide

Ok, so we cheated this one. Ride Don't Slide is a double black descent that can be accessed off Whistler Mountain, but isn't part of the bike park. We had no intentions of pedaling up 1000m to the trailhead when we could use a perfectly good gondola and get a full day of bike park in as well. If we had been really on it we would have saved this corner for a Friday-Sunday when the Peak Chair is open for bikes, allowing you to ride Top of the World into Ride Don't Slide, a huge descent with no climbing whatsoever. However, we already had weekend plans and didn't want to ride Whistler with the the weekend crowds. This just meant we had to push our bikes a few hundred metres up Highway 86 (winter cat road) from the bike park to access the trail.

Top of the gondy - Whistler Bike Park

After a few warm up laps in the Bike Park with David, Kyle and I started up towards Ride Don't Slide. The trail has seen lots of upgrades since the last time I rode it back when I still rocked the hardtail. It was a EWS segment in 2014 and work has gone into the trail to improve erosion.

Red chair zone on Whistler looking gorgeous in the summer

Quick snack on Highway 86 before dropping into Ride Don't Slide

We ripped the trail down to Creekside and I managed to land a top 10 female time on strava (rare in Whistler!) It was steep and loose, with lots of roots that gave the trail an old school feel, but nothing super hard or scary (though would be very slippery in the wet!). It was fun to link back into the Creekside trails and shred some berms down to Dusty's for a late lunch on the patio.

Dusty's stop to refuel

Corner # 3: Zanarchy/Gargamel

Distance: 20km

Elevation: 915m

Time: 3h40

Double Black

Feeling good at the top of North Flank Lookout

Next up was the rowdiest and most remote of the four corners, Zanarchy and Gargamel. Starting at Alpine Meadows, we pedaled up Alpine Way and onto Ricks Roost and the Rainbow-Sproatt Flank. Riding up past Howler, we couldn't even stop for a break because the bugs were so horrible. I had my pads on all the way up to keep from getting bitten. We allowed ourselves a short snack at the lookout before dropping into Zanarchy. This trail was pretty cool and helped us get our heads in gear for the main event. Gargamel is a classic old-school Whistler double black that is steep, rough and a bit decrepit. It has some serious rock features and gnar that we managed to get through before a rain shower rolled in. This is not a trail I would want to ride in the wet!

Warming up on Zanarchy

Into the old-school jank of Gargamel

Cool rock features

Awesome views

Need to move quick to beat the rain!

Back down in the valley

Corner #4: Dark Crystal

Distance: 9.5km

Elevation: 600m

Time: 1h30m

Black

Up Blackcomb

The final corner of the week was Dark Crystal, a really cool trail on Blackcomb. This was a much shorter ride than the other 3, so we added on another lap up to hit Crazy Train (very steep!) and bring the total elevation for the day up to 980m. Dark Crystal was a phenomenal trail with creative trail building. There were lots of optional lines and rock features, and the whole thing flowed super well. 

Maybe it makes more sense if you have seen the movie?

Slabs!

Bonus lap!

Celebratory beer at Splitz 

So despite the fact that we didn't do the true Whistler Four Corners sufferfest, we had so much fun riding all the trails and probably enjoyed the riding way more. Maybe one day I will make an attempt on the Four Corners Challenge... lets just call this a recon mission.