Keystone - Paid in Full Pics

rhairless said:

They should chop down all the trees to make ramps! Give them your money so they can build more.

Ride the mountain the way nature made it. Don't build some ugly man made monstrosity just to get a drop or a hit. Do it the old school way: Pile some debris up, get out a shovel and throw some dirt on it; there ya' go. Better yet (for the ecco system), ride on until you find a natural obstacle, drop or hit. Oh wait, never mind, the chair lifts don't go EVERYWHERE YET.

What's next a camera at the end of the ramp so you can take some cheesy photo (like the ones on the rollercoasters in Las Vegas) and compare your high priced consumer clothes and bikes with eachother.

Boycott this sort of soul-less, capitalistic mountain trashing. They probably won't even let you ride up to the top and go down for free. Don't support the selling of our public lands for profiteering!

Keep it real.

Click to expand...

Would you like a beer? Better drink up cuz' I've got some bad news for you: life is profiteering. Been that way ever since the human race figured out having two peices of bloody red meat is better than having only one. We consume stuff, it's what we do. Living in a dwelling made out of wood does more harm to the environment. Got rubber tires on your bike, or Dog forbid, leather on your saddle? Try explaining to a cow that you capped his ass to have a comfy place to park yours while you recreate on your bike. Ever seen the t-shirt that says "Save the world: Kill yourself!" Don't get me wrong, I've hugged more than my share of trees, ground plenty of granola, and worn Birkenstocks in public, but look on the bright side: having these "Mountain Parks" confines recreation to certain "used" areas and maybe instead of guys creating illegal trails or hacking up nice singletrack or causing hate & discontent with other trail users all over the countryside, they go here and everybody is happy. Seems like a really great idea now doesn't it? Screw it, I'm goin'!

It is interesting that bridges are so popular now...

I'm not going to rant about a few bridges and stunts built on a freakin' SKI AREA (they already chopped down about half the trees, eh?) but I do wonder about the popularity of these things.

Originally, as I understand it, the elevated bridges were to avoid sections of terrain where either 1)there were too many downed trees to make it worthwhile to clear them out, or 2)the soil couldn't handle bike traffic without a lot of erosion. I've read an interview with "Dangerous Dan" in which he claims #2, but I'm guessing a lot of the time it was #1 as well.

So here's my question: why are these things so much more fun than "natural" (meaning, find a rock to fall off of, trees to jump over, etc) terrain? I'm amazed that these stunts spread outside of BC at all - I'd rather hit some big tabletops or rip through a rock garden or whatever - bridges feel like riding on a sidewalk to me, albeit a sidewalk that will really, really hurt you if you fall off. I mean, you could ride a freakin' stingray on these things if it weren't for the drop at the end (and some folks could do that too) - do people just like the feeling of being on the edge of a 4' drop, even if the actual bridge is completely smooth?

In any case, it's good to see new DH terrain. I just wish they'd concentrate on trails, rather than elevated stunts. With that many man-hours, they could probably cut several miles of cool trail...

-Walt