RR: Snow Summit-wow!

[SIK SD]

I just got back from a weekend at Snow Summit and thought I would share a little trail insight:

Conditions are good but lots of deep powder on the trails, hot during the day, cool at night.

As far as bike set up i would recommend running the lowest tire pressure you can get away with, also if you are running an air set up in your fork and shock reset your sags on the top of the mountain as the altitude will make a huge difference.

Trails:

There are MANY hidden single track trails there and some are super gnarly, these are not listed on the map.

Because of the afternoon heat I would suggest starting with Pineknot in the morning as this is an easy warm up trail that has flowy singletrack, fast sections, but some climbing at first, and it lets you out on the street where you then need to ride the road for a couple miles to get back to the lift.

Once back at the lift, go back up and explore the Single track on either side of the lift. I suggest upper to lower Falline as the second run because it is really the only bomb trail on that side of the lift and it is fun as hell. Technical, fast, probabaly up several notches on the difficulty scale compared to Pineknot.

EDIT-My directions to the good stuff were deleted by the mods because they felt those trails were unauthorized which i completely understand so no beef with the mods. I was not aware that these trails were off limits.

[surlygal]

Thanks for the trails update!

I hope you don't mind but I linked the STR BBQ to this thread..For 1st hand trail conditions.

[art23rockpile]

Thanks for the useful information.

I'm assuming that this is nearby where the STR picnic/ride/bbq will be taking place?

[SIK SD]

Originally Posted by surlygal

Thanks for the trails update!

I hope you don't mind but I linked the STR BBQ to this thread..For 1st hand trail conditions.

I don't mind at all, in fact let me know if anyone has any ?'s. I rode 3 days and had a blast. I did go OTB once also at about 20mph! pictures to come later.

As far as bikes go we had:

Blur xc- 4 inch F/R-he probably suffered the most on the gnarly stuff but we dropped his air pressure way down on his tires and lowered his fork pressure and ran it at full squish with fast rebound-let's just say his skill saved him many times because the bike was a little over matched on the gnarly stuff.
Enduro SL- 6 inch F/R- perfect travel for most trails-lowered tire pressure to 30 psi, and dropped fork pressure by 8 pounds, full squish with fast rebound- ideal
Coiler-6 inch rear coil shock, 5.5 spring up front-probably the best suited (no air) in its element, perfect bike for this mountain (not much riding up hill )

as far as the "bike limits" there- they do glance at the bikes but i saw dh rigs, Stinky's, big hits, and everything in between, they didn't seem to care much but not sure if that will change?

Also- If you are looking for a mountain- this is a mountain-you can ride all day on easy stuff, and every skill level and have fun but if you crave a little BC style holy sh*t riding it is there, i was HUGELY impressed by what is not on the map and scratched my helmet a few times wondering "how the hell am i going to get down that" I can't wait to go back!!

Last thing- Bring an extra lizard skin for your non drive side chain stay- depending on who loads your bike on the chair sometimes it bangs and rubs the chair all the way up i received a few new scratches from this on my bike, just FYI

oh yeah-Village Pizza is awesome!

[denmother]

FYI,

This has been mentioned on many previous threads discussing Snow Summit.

"They only crack down is when the owner is around. He sometimes frequents the mountain to see what's going on and then they have to enforce the rules (until he leaves)."

That's why it's a crap shoot.....

[Rossage]

Last time we went up there, my bro wanted to get his XC on so we rode 2N10 to plantation , down, back up, and over to the lifts 2N08? and still had time for three shuttle runs from the top

[Bryguy17]

Big bear is very fun right now. I will say that a good thunder storm, or even some rain of any kind would make it soooooo much fun. I was also up there this weekend (as well as a few other STR bubs) and hand a great time.

My hard tail (hardrock, 66SL, DH wheels) was extremely fun going down fall line, and I had fun keeping up with the guy on a bighit with a boxxer. You could drift all of the loose turns and rail out of them. great times.

I will say, though, that I would invest in some good goggles if you plan on riding up there. The dust is just bad, especially if you're bringing up the rear of a 6 man group

[ghixon]

I'm still trying to clean the rock drop/face on Two B!tches. Honestly, you don't need a DH bike or anything with a longer travel than maybe 5".

I'm not sure if you made it over to Dick's Trail, but you should. Link it together with Cabin 89 and you've got nearly 6 miles of technical, knarly singletrack that leaves a smile on your face.