Boreale Mountain Biking looks ahead to new season

Whitehorse was holding a secret deep in the mountains outside the city for years.

Whitehorse was holding a secret deep in the mountains outside the city for years.

The secret was a wealth of singletrack mountain biking trails that were just waiting to be tapped and shown to the world.

And that’s just what Boreale Mountain Biking did.

Now in their third season, Boreale Mountain Biking, owned by Sylvain Turcott and partner Marsha Cameron, has captured a little niche that has seen incredible growth over three years.

Boreale invites tourists from all over the world to come and ride the Yukon’s famous singletrack trails – over 700-kilometres still within city limits.

“We specialize in custom mountain biking vacations in Yukon,” Turcott said. “We can adapt to pretty much anything, we’re super flexible.”

Boreal has been wowing guests for two seasons now, and is entering its third.

“They’re usually pretty impressed,” Turcott said of the visitors’ reaction to the location.

So far Boreale utilizes trails in the Whitehorse area and Carcross.

“We’re really lucky we have a lot of trails in Whitehorse,” he said. “Just within city limits we have 700-km of trails.”

Those trails cater to a wide variety of mountain bikers, from beginners to the more advanced, coupled with breath-taking views.

“The scenery is just amazing,” Turcott said.

The mostly singletrack trails are a mountain biker’s dream.

“We have lots of those,” Turcott said of the singletrack.

In recent years the Carcross/Tagish First Nations have been working on building singletrack mountain bike trails around Carcross, which has made for great riding.

“Carcross is amazing,” Turcott said.

This year the first nations received more funding and even more trails will be built around the town.

“They’re trying to push mountain biking there,” Turcott said.

So far Turcott and Cameron have welcomed mostly American and Canadians to their little haven outside of town, but have hosted Swedish, British and French groups as well.

Besides the beautiful trails, Boreale has another draw, that has brought in tourists on its own.

The accommodations – located six-km outside of Whitehorse – are yurts.

“That’s pretty much our base camp,” Turcott said.

The yurts are totally off the grid, with propane heating and solar power.

The circular, temporary huts are mountain luxury at its finest, which shocks many guests, Turcott said.

“They’re usually totally stoked,” he said.

The yurts are placed high atop a clay cliff with a 90-km, 180-degree view ranging from Grey Mountain to Montana Mountain and Haekel Hill.

“It’s kind of the luxury wilderness experience,” Turcott said.

Guests are greeted with elegant hardwood floors and leather furniture. There are comfy beds with fluffy duvets to sink into after a day – or night – of riding.

“The yurts are so neat,” Turcott said.

The entire set-up is temporary, and after the season Turcott and Cameron have to remove and store the entire base camp. It is part of an agreement with the city. The accommodations are on crown land.

“At the end of September it’s as if no one was there,” Turcott said.

This weekend Turcott and Cameron will be hard at work with set-up of their mountain retreat. The process takes about 13-14 days. It will be complete in time to welcome the first groups at the end of May.

Only a few small groups will be coming this early in the year, and more will begin mid-June with the season peaking at the end of June and into July.

To keep busy in the shoulder season, Turcott and Cameron both got their International Mountain Bike instructor certification in Squamish over the winter, and will be holding mountain biking clinics this spring.

Turcott said they wanted to hold the clinics to “get people stoked on mountain biking and get more people out there,” as well as to keep themselves busy.

The clinics will focus on the proper technique to brake and stand safely.

“(It’s) so people will feel more confident and safe on the trail,” Turcott said, adding that they also wanted to get more active in the community.

The clinics will be split into women, co-ed and youth.

More information on the clinics can be found at Boreale’s website, at http://www.borealebiking.ca

Turcott has been mountain biking for about eight years.

He was introduced to the sport after moving to B.C.

“I moved to Vancouver and I just fell in love with biking,” he said.

Cameron is a born-and-raised Yukoner, and was the reason the couple relocated to the Yukon.

Once arriving back in Whitehorse, Turcott and Cameron decided it was time for a career change, and that starting their own business would be ideal. A friend owned a kayak tour company, and the two began to think of turning their passion for mountain biking into a career.

“Nobody was offering mountain biking services in town,” Turcott said.

And three years ago, they got their start.

“We’ve been really busy since then,” Turcott said.

Now the two get to spend their entire summer outside doing what they love.

“I couldn’t ask for a better job now, I love it,” Turcott said.

In the first year Boreale was barely advertised, but still guests trickled in and its popularity grew.

In the first season, many of the visitors were there for the yurt experience alone. In the second season Turcott said at least 90 per cent of the visitors were there for the mountain biking.

Now Boreale is helping to advertise Yukon as a mountain biking destination.

“I think it’s going good,” Turcott said. “People will start realizing we have something special up here.”

Last year, Boreale was exposed to the world after catching the attention of national and international media.

“Last year was pretty incredible, we had tons of media who came,” he said.

The media groups included French mountain biking magazine Vélo Vert, e-zine nsmb.com and the Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail article is set for this spring in the travel section.

Ride Guide, a show on OLN that features mountain biking and skiing destinations, filmed an episode at Boreale last year that is set to air some time this spring, or early summer.

Boreale got involved with Ride Guide when the show’s producers contacted Tourism Yukon, who referred them to the mountain biking getaway.

Vélo Vert found out about Boreale through a man who had relocated from France to Whitehorse, and knew someone involved with the magazine. 

One very special aspect Boreale has is the Yukon’s 24-hour light. Turcott is able to be more flexible with ride start times, and occasionally starts trips later in the evening.

“That gives us you more flexibility for sure,” he said.

Turcott said they will be welcoming more groups this year than ever before. To help with the rising demand, they certified two more tour guides for this season, which will help them juggle more groups at once.

“So other people can guide, and we can have more than one group at a time,” Turcott said.

Boreale has also teamed up with professional mountain bike rider and yoga instructor Ryan Leech to offer a week long yoga and biking retreat. Leech got involved with Boreale after being part of the Ride Guide episode shoot.

“He just fell in love with the Yukon,” Turcott said.

Leech will lead groups on a yoga and mountain biking retreat over six days.

Boreale is also organizing some local retreats with Leech, which will be a weekend getaway.

Boreale has usually brought in guests from Outside, but Turcott said a few Yukoners have taken advantage of the hospitality.

“We had a few people from the Yukon, but not very many,” he said.

Cameron and Turcott hope to expand into Europe next season.