I’m a nerd for the history and tales behind trails probably as much, if not more, than I am for riding them. So when Alison Taylor (the editor of Crank’d Magazine) asked me to write a story about the history of trail building in Whistler I jumped at the chance. This opportunity allowed me to track down some of the folk heroes behind many of Whistler’s best or most famous trails, people like Dan Swanstrom and Vincent “Binty” Massey. I attempted to trace the history of building, the various cultural circumstances that forged the style of building at different times in the past thirty years and also to elucidate the motivations for someone to spend hundreds and thousands of hours in the forest building trails when they could be doing any number of other things, most of all riding their bike.

Crank’d is completely free and is published once a summer. This, the second issue, is stacked full of really great content and almost all of it based around the riding and community of bikers here in Whistler. It’s incredible that one little town of mountain bikers can support it’s very own magazine. Find a copy in most good sitting down spots (cafes), bike shops and the tourist information office in Whistler. Or go online to find out more.