Mind The Gap | Hitting The Whistler Train Gap
Our Graphic Designer, Dom, has been off travelling the world and is currently situated in Whistler for the rest of the summer season putting his DH Privateer wheels through some abuse. He is coming back to the much less gnarly UK soon but whilst being in the Mountain Bike Mecca, there are a lot of things that he wanted to do with one of those being the iconic Whistler Train Gap. Here is his account of pulling up.
"After arriving in Whistler in April, on top of the list was the train gap. I had seen photos of it for years and years wishing that was me! With me not due back in the UK until September, the sensible thing to do, like most, is wait until the end of the season to hit the infamous gap, a gap that’s considered one of the sickest features to send in Whistler, if you have the balls...
But I couldn’t wait, the way I saw it was I could wait to the end of the season, and run the risk of getting injured a thousand other ways and miss out hitting the gap all together. So I made a promise to myself to ride the park once it opened for a few weeks, get used to riding the downhill bike again and hitting big gaps and after that I set a date for the 14th of June.
The plan was to hit the gap with the train underneath, however there’s no schedule available that I could find to figure out when the trains came through from Pemberton to Whistler, so after a 4 hour waiting game we decided to just shoot the gap without the train. Promising myself to come back at the end of the season and try again.
The gap was one of the sickest moments I've had on a bike, this jump is not to be underestimated - to some it's considered easy, if you know what your doing… But so many things can go wrong if you slip up outside your comfort zone. To put it into perspective, a week after I hit the gap, someone broke both their femur, collarbone and face attempting the gap. I’m glad to have ticked this one off, but I still consider it not an achievement until I've gapped it over a moving train…"
Check Out Dom's Wheels