Original Sin  

Notes:

According to the Whistler Bike Park trail progression chart Original Sin sits on the harder end of the black trail scale, so of course we chose Original Sin as our first black trail .. idiots.

As I’ve said in all the other Whistler Trail notes there are two important things to note about Whistler:  the first that if the Whistler Trail signage says its black its black - regardless of what you thought you saw on Youtube and the second is that we went at a time when the trails were extremely dry, covered in loose dust and full of massive bomb holes.

The first section not far from the top of the Garbanzo Chairlift looks a whole lot easier than it was.  Very thick dust big bomb hole and a trail that is steeper than it looks.  It’s rare for me to skid down a run and yet you can hear how much I’m sliding on a trail that otherwise looks flat.

The second section is probably my favourite bit, seriously rough, loose, narrow and rutted, rooty, rocky and full of bomb holes  … and then it gets steep!  This first (and only) run was definitely a sphincter tightener through the trees.  Neither of us came close to getting our gearing right in order to make the top of the big rock climb immediately following the long descent.  Despite having prepared ourselves for the climb the intensity of the descent leading into it meant we weren’t focused on this next phase.  After walking up the hill we came across the amazing vista, well worth stopping for and a highly recommended opportunity to regather yourself before it starts getting technical again.

The remainder of this short section was along the top rocky ridge before dropping down adjacent to Blue Velvet near the big tree house.  Nothing too technical but the open trail section was way more corrugated than any other video I've seen.  It was an arm burner!

The section after the tree house was probably the toughest of the lot.  The trail whooped its way over large rock outcrops before heading down some tricky shoots and onto the final challenge, a tricky rock slab.  While steep, of camber and featuring a change in direction before hitting a berm it wasn’t that outrageous except for the coating of dust making the rock SUPER slippery.  I chose to point the bike down the fall line (as much as a could) and get my arse right back - there were no style points earned!

The final section is back across a ski run with a couple of jump options up into the trees.  Be warned the one on the right is very much a step up - Jason showed us how not to do it.

Comparing Original Sin to other trails

Original Sin really isn’t like anything else I’ve ridden.  There are some similarities to Mt Narra on account of the amount of rock and rutty dusty chutes but it’s certainly bigger in all respects.  Potentially similar to some of the really crazy stuff at Sydney's Red Hill.  Maybe some similarities to B-Line at Stromlo.

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