January 19, 2012 - I finished shooting with the Atherton's today and sat down to my computer to find some unfortunate news on facebook, Diablo Freeride Park will be closing. This didn't come as a complete surprise, we've heard a few rumors lately about the future of the park and we're currently trying to find out more about what will be happening. Fairly reliable sources have given us a few details of the new bike park at Mountain Creek, and it looks very promising. As soon as we know more we'll let you know.
Update 1/20/12 - You can read our post about the
new Mountain Creek Bike Park here.
Aaron Gwin racing to the win at the 2011 US Open of Mountain Biking at Diablo Freeride Park
Here is the note that was posted on the Diablo facebook page today, you can find the
original hereGreetings Diablo Fans!On this day we have some unfortunate news to share with you. As most of you know, Mountain Creek Resort was recently purchased by a local golf course developer and during this ownership change the bike park has gone through a tough transition suffering from executive pitfalls. Recently, the new owners of the resort offered Diablo Freeride Park a 5-year lease extension and unfortunately the terms of this agreement are not favorable for the future growth of the park and are clearly not representative of a resort that has a genuine interest in the sport of mountain biking.
As a result, we have declined to accept this offer to extend our existing agreement and Diablo Freeride Park is now officially closed for business. During the past 12 months, the resort has repeatedly and negligently breached existing agreements, caused unnecessary damage to the bike park and has adversely influenced the ability of the park to progress, expand or simply operate and provide a high level of service that you have come to expect. As a result, we can no longer invest time, passion and valuable resources at a resort that does not share our passion for the sport or respect for the community of riders that have called Diablo 'home' the past nine years.
The backstory...While the owners of the resort were aggressive and motivated to sign an agreement that would continue the current Diablo / resort relationship, this arrangement would greatly inhibit our ability to offer our guests the high standard of quality you have come to expect over the past nine years. We devised an extensive, 5-year plan and investment commitment that would bring a plethora of new improvements to the park including several new downhill trails, tons of new terrain features and an all-new, innovative 20mile XC/FR trail network/center on the mountain top. We were motivated and committed to these projects, however, the risk of investing these significant resources without a proper & fair agreement is simply not a wise venture. Once bitten, twice shy.
Broken Promises...In addition to various other operational issues caused by the new resort management, the 2011 season saw an immense amount of unnessecary park closures, trail damage, operating shedule 'broken promises' and various trail interuptions. This past September & October the bike park was completely closed for six weeks as a result of the resorts inability to properly maintain their ski trails and control erosion. After repeated requests, the resort refused to dedicate the proper resources to get the premise repaired and the park back open for business. Instead of honoring a contractual agreement to make speedy repairs, the resort focused on completing less important projects while mountain bikers were left stranded, frustrated and unable to ride their favorite park. This was simply unnacceptable. As a customer, you deserved better.
Furthermore, this past fall the resort management forged ahead and caused the demise and destruction of nearly $100,000 of developed mountain bike trails. Offering no advanced warning, explanation or plan to remediate or reimburse for the loss of these popular bike trails, the end result is an extensive amount of terrain and features that are damaged, destroyed and / or needing significant repair. These actions are not only in breach of contract, they are also not representative of a resort that has ambitions of growing the sport or a management team demonstrating respect for the mountain biking customer.
In closing, we made every effort to reach a mutually benefitting agreement with the current resort ownership, however negotiations have ceased and we have rejected their proposed 5-year lease extension.
***Perhaps as a final measure to save face for a season filled with tons of downtime and broken promises, Mountain Creek resort has at least agreed to honor all 2012 season passes that have been purchased to date.
With regards to the U.S. Open of Mountain Biking, negotiations are currently underway bringing the event to the Lake Tahoe region. More info soon!
A huge thanks goes out to all of our friends and loyal fans throughout the years! Hosting tens of thousands of riders from points across the globe, it has been a great adventure filled with many accolades and good times.
We appreciate your support.
As mentioned in the update at the beginning we have since heard from Mountain Creek and they will be running the bike park now with freshly updated and maintained trails, you can find the post about it
here.
