Great backcountry Bike Guide adventures at Tyax and Grizzly sightings taking WAS Co-ops to a new level!
For many people the pinnacle of Mountain Biking is a multiday backcountry adventure, especially in a place so infamous for its biking people flock there every summer from all over the world. Tyax Adventures in the Chilcotin mountain region of BC is one of those places, famed for kilometres of incredible backcountry mountain bike trails and spectacular views, making it an enviable place to be employed as a bike guide.
A Day as Bike Guide at Tyax Adventures
Charlie Ofield, one of Whistler Adventure School’s Bike Guide Program students from this year, had that very chance to guide at Tyax Adventures for his cooperative work experience. His enthusiasm for the opportunity to guide at Tyax and his mountain bike experience, was how he landed this great opportunity. Charlie shared some of his highlights of the trip with us.
The morning typically starts with helping to serve breakfast, gear checking, food supplies for the day and most importantly route planning”. Ofield explains that the element of route planning played a big part in his guiding experience,”With weather and client energy levels constantly changing, it was important to have a plan for route changes”.
A Float Plane Drop as Highlight
With Tyax Lodge set in the Chilcotin Mountain Range, there is some incredible opportunities for biking in varying terrains and also a floatplane drop, which Ofield explains was one of the highlights of his guiding trip. Additionally, he describes, “Seeing two grizzly bears, alpine riding, the scenery, food and being truly in the backcountry” all as favourite parts of the trip.
The Life of a Bike Guide
It wasn’t all plain sailing however, with a client having a mechanical issue, up to 5-7 hours riding and 1000m elevation gain daily and Charlie feeling underprepared for his grizzly sightings, it was the ideal mix between rewarding and challenging allowing him to get the true feeling of being a backcountry mountain bike guide.
A great Opportunity for Networking or Future Jobs
WAS prides itself on providing students with instructors who are not only extremely knowledgable in their field but also passionate about teaching and their chosen area. Charlie reflects this idea explaining, “The WAS program covered all the essential elements of bike guiding, which prepared me for my co-op placement at Tyax. The instructors are passionate about teaching and riding”.
Ofield’s experience highlighted to us how valuable the co-op work experience is with him stating, “The co-op placement was a great way to network and find potential jobs in the future”. Fortunately, following this very successful introductory partnership, Tyax and Whistler Adventure School are looking to build a co-op opportunity for Bike Guides every year ongoing.
Our Bike Guide program features not only fantastic cooperative work opportunities but three other courses to make up the program, PMBI Level 1 Instructor course, Guiding clients and Trail Mechanics, enabling a holistic backcountry Bike Guide education on completion.
If incredible backcountry guiding experiences and a summer in the beautiful Sea to Sky sound like your idea of a perfect idea of education, take a look at our Bike Guide Training Program with focus on backcountry environment.
Photo credit and direct quotes: Charlie Ofield – Bike Guide Training Program student at Whistler Adventure School
