The legendary Whistler Bike Park in British Columbia was due to start weekend opening for the 2006 season this Saturday (29 April) but since there's still several feet of snow at mid-mountain that's not going to happen. Instead, the Bike Park crew is unleashing the snowploughs to clear the snow and will be grooming the trails for a 6 May opening date. Daily opening will commence on 20 May, and from 17 June to 3 September you'll be able to ride Whistler from 10am to 8pm ever day. Or until your legs fall off.

There's plenty of new trailbuilding activity lined up once the snow's gone, too. On the drawing board are trails linking The Roundhouse at the top of the Whistler Gondola to Freight Train, No Joke and Original Sin. The team will also be working on the Garbanzo trails and adding at least two new ones - mostly Blue with Black and Double Black off-shoots. Plus all sorts of other tweaks, a completely new Biker X course and Boneyard slopestyle arena and even a 10,000sq ft covered jump training facility with a foam pit. Should be enough to keep most people busy, then...