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Come and shred the best bike park in the world on a camp like no other!
Peak Leaders 5-week Mountain Bike Coaches Camp in Whistler, Canada, during August and September will take your riding to the next level. During this five-week course you’ll receive training from Whistler’s best Mountain Bike coaches and have the opportunity to acquire some internationally recognised coaching and guiding qualifications. Whether you’re taking a gap year, career break, extended holiday or you want to secure work in Whistler for the following summer…….or simply want improve your riding in the world’s most famous bike park; this is the course for you!
Whistler Bike Park has more facilities and trails than any other Mountain Bike Park on the planet and you’ll be pleased to hear this particular course coincides with Crankworx, the world’s biggest Mountain Bike festival!
Our Whistler Coaches Camp is the most comprehensive Mountain Bike instructing course in the world, with the most useful and usable combination of qualifications out there. This camp includes a couple of great qualifications: the Whistler Bike Park Instructor Development Programme Level 2, an instructing certification geared towards ‘gravity fed riding’ covering technical skills at all levels and jumps and drops, and the CTC Trail Mountain Bike Leader Award, a highly respected and well-known qualification for guiding in the UK and the rest of Europe. We are the only company to offer both of these much sought after qualifications on one camp! Check out the Qualifications page for more details.
OUTLINE
Here’s a sample itinerary of what happens on a weekly basis during the course (IDP level 1 & 2 training and assessments are carried-out continually throughout the course):
WEEK 1
- Welcome to the Whistler Bike Park, a tour of the area showing the possibilities!
- Basic bike set up, suspension tweaks, maintenance
- Learning ‘the’ Mountain Bike skills
- Shredding the park. Ticking off some of the trails
- Training in guiding around green and blue trails
- Development of basic riding demonstrations
- Learning about good terrain selection
WEEK 2
- Progression training
- 3 day CTC Trail Leader
- Advanced trail selection and riding
- Advanced riding techniques (manuals, wheel lifts, etc)
WEEK 3
- Trail progression, steeper, faster, north shore, longer jumps, bigger drops. Oh yeah!
- Learning to teach jumps and drops
- Crankworx starts!!
WEEK 4
- More Crankworx!
- High speed cornering techniques
- Progressing jumps and drops
WEEK 5
- Teaching advanced cornering skills
- Advanced assessment/development
- Backcountry trips. (Ride Don’t Slide, and Kyber Pass are two favorites)
Training will be 5 days a week. We’ll use and abuse everything Whistler has to offer in that time; jumps, drops, alpine, flow and technical trails. You’ll find that sweet spot in a drift, venture into some of our favorite back-country trails, and hang with new friends when the days are done. Check out the the Whistler BLOG and PHOTO GALLERY. Hope to see you here!”
Photo: Dom Wrapson
Here’s a little Video Spence made last year…nice one!
ACCOMMODATION
The Peak Leaders pad! A very quick pedal to the base of the lift, or walk to the shops. Rooms are comfortable and twin share. We have a workshop area with a bike stand and all the basic tools you'll need (Whistler does tend to beat up bikes!). High speed wireless, Cable TV and phone are in the mix too.
There's a hot tub, BBQ, several open decks, and big big living areas.
If you want to get some more days on the season pass after the course finishes and stay on in Whistler after the course, we can help with getting you sorted out, no matter how long that might be.
FOOD
You've gotta eat! We have awesome dinners 4 days a week. We pride ourselves on not just hooking you up with food, but GOOD food. It's crucial to stay fit and healthy for your ridings' sake. Peak Leaders trainees eat at a quality local restaurant and there will be plenty of BBQs.
COURSE LEADER
A Peak Leaders Course Leader will be there to look after things while your out there. He lives just around the corner and can help in any way.
Whistler needs no intro. Every style of mountain biking in Whistler is catered for and the trails are constantly updated and improved. The trails are colour coded depending on their level of difficulty, just like ski runs. They range from green beginner runs to double black diamond trails. Tight technical single track to fast jump trails, steep roots and rocks, to North Shore obstacles and World Cup standard downhill. There is something to challenge everyone and your riding will progress at an unimaginable rate! There are also the progressive skills centres, including drop progressions to hone your skills, and the Boneyard Slopestyle Park with a massive array of features to take on.
Check out the photos below, and check out the gallery and blog for many more.
Crankworx also needs no introduction.The Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival goes down every year in Whistler. It's an 8-day festival featuring mountain biking's most talented riders. It's by far the biggest mountain bike event in the world and brings 10's of thousands of spectator and riders to town.
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Peak Leaders have contacts to get you up close to the action as volunteers if you'd like to get involved. We find a day here or there amongst the athletes is a whole lot of fun, and volunteering brings freebies and parties too!
On days off or long late summer afternoons where you feel like a change there is loads to do – like a barbeque then heading to Lost Lake to swim. If you fancy a few more shots of adrenaline off of the hill check out Zip-lining or bungee jumping. Meadow Park Sport's Center is a 5 min bus ride from the Village center. Disc golf has to be the best free thing to do in Whistler. Not as geeky as it sounds, it's a pretty extreme disc golf course.
One of the best things about riding in Whistler Park has to be be surrounded by bears! They are all over the park, and not too bothered by bikes flying past all around them. A decent distance away and there can be plenty of photo ops.
We have partnered with Whistler Blackcomb in order to help recruit guiding staff for the Whistler Bike Park. Our 3 and 5-week courses are now required in order to become new staff for the mountain. Once you have successfully completed the 5-week coaches camp you will be looked upon favourably for being offered employment for the following year. To secure summer employment non-Canadian residents need to secure a work visa.
If you are wanting to work in Canada you will need a valid working visa if you are not Canadian. These can be arranged for residents from most countries but you'll need to meet the criteria and start by applying at the relevant website HERE. Visas are easy to apply for yourself, and a third-party isn't necessary. But saying this, make sure you do them right! The application is usually sent straight back if there is a single incorrect omission, causing a delay.
Visa applications often "fill-up" at certain times of the year and they may stop issuing them for a time. If this is the case then you will need to contact the Canadian Government to find when they will be re-issued. Often a large new "batch" will be released from late in the year into the early months of the next year. From the time your application is processed you usually have 1 year to enter Canada to activate it (though this may vary also).
For bikers from the United States. It is difficult to get a visa to work in Canada as a US citizen. Nevertheless it may be possible to gain a student work visa, by having filed a university application, or by having previous time spent recently at university. If a job as a guide is your goal, you could definitely consider working in bike parks in the US once you have qualified. We have had many previous trainees that have gone on to work in resorts in the US after completing this course. We have numerous contacts to help in this respect.
MOUNTAIN BIKING QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING
The two qualifications integrated into our Whistler Mountain Biking Coaches Camp enable you to be qualified to work in the Whistler Bike Park and at similar venues around the world .
Our 3 or 5 week course are now THE courses you need to attend if you want to work for Whistler Blackcomb over the summer. You will also have priority to be considered for a job as a guide for the following summer too.
On top of that, the CTC Trail Mountain Bike Leader Award gives you the knowledge and certification to guide groups of Mountain Bikers in the UK and Europe. Once you have your Trail Mtb Leader Award, you can add an International Cultural Module with the CTC which makes makes your qualification 'locally' relevant to many European countries too!
INSTRUCTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, LEVEL 2
The IDP Level 2 gives riders the necessary skills to guide bikers in Whistler Bike Park and has a strong emphasis on technique, safety and skills progression. This qualification will allow you to guide beginners through to advanced riders on a variety of different graded trails. Most people dream of just riding these trails, you could get paid to ride them!
CTC TRAIL MTB LEADER AWARD
This CTC Award is the most recognised and requested in the UK & Europe; if you want to continue guiding in Europe then this is how to start.
It includes essential navigation and trailside maintenance skills; roles, responsibilities and ride preparation principles, as well as dynamic risk assessment and dealing with emergencies.
Both of these awards are highly respected in the Mountain Bike Coaching Industry and both also allow progression in the future if you want to develop your guiding, coaching and leadership qualifications. There is no better way to kick start your career than with our Whistler Mountain Bike Coaches Camp.
