Description

If you ask the locals where they ride when they aren’t in the bike park, almost unanimously they will answer “Blackcomb,” referring to the network of singletrack trails on Blackcomb Mountain.

While the ski resort is technically Whistler-Blackcomb, the entirety of the downhill bike park is located on Whistler mountain, meaning that you’ll have to pedal (and push) your way to the top of these trails on Blackcomb Mountain.

But once there, you'll reap a sweet reward! Microclimate is one of the favorite trails on the Blackcomb Side.

Receiving just a single black diamond rating (nearby Hey Bud and Crazy Train are both double blacks, and Dark Crystal a bit further up the mountain is also a single black), Microclimate is one of the more moderate trails on Blackcomb Mountain. Ah, who am I kidding? If you aren’t from Whistler—and ESPECIALLY if you aren’t from BC—and you've never ridden here before, Microclimate is balls-to-the-wall intense.

Imagine what the other trails in the area are like?! After being brutalized on the steep climb to the top, Microclimate plummets down a steep, loamy fall line singletrack chock full of roots, rocks, drops, steep slabs, and all manner of chunder.

As the trail continues to wear, bomb holes are forming between the roots, making this trail more and more technical with each passing season.

Most of the ride down consists of pointing your front tire down root webs with wheel-sucking pot holes, airing off of root drops, and then braking hard into a tight catch berm… and then doing it all over again.

At a few points, the trail does contour across the hillside, but this contouring only serves to drop you into a different small valley, with even more steep tech gnar descending ahead. If you can screech to a halt and look around you, you may be amazed at the massive trees found on the flanks of Blackcomb Mountain.

This forest is a true beauty, even compared to other areas surrounding Whistler. If you can’t bring yourself to break the flow, after a mile of fast-and-furious descending you’ll pop out onto a bike path, hang a right, and then a quick left for a little bit more singletrack before the paved pedal back to your car. Congratulations—you’ve survived one of Whistler’s new favorite trail rides!