That was a great line, "You're faster in person". I laughed out loud when I heard that. Watching your conversation with Hailey was so good. Such understanding between you 2. She is a very cool lady...you're a lucky man.
Love watching the speed through the leaves! Props on elevating the community. It is awesome to see how excited our riders get to see you, talk to you, and even ride with you.
They are a lift upgrade away from being recognized as top 3. Excited to get back there soon! It's also really cool how you don't need to talk about why they are so good because it's just plainly evident in the video.
Given the size of the mountain I think their lift is almost perfect the way it is (though reliability might be another story). The duration of the uplift isn't that bad and it also has hidden benefits that are often overlooked. Slower lifts help control the volume of traffic at the top, preventing it from getting overcrowded while it also helps manage the traffic on the trails. But thats my two cents. There's also the magic carpet and other areas people can go to if the main lift gets too crowded.
The lift climbs 500ft of vert in 10 minutes. 3mph. There's plenty of people that have climbed the wednesduro access trail faster. I agree this is the only problem with highland. You can get so much more riding in anywhere else that has detachable lifts.
Kid:“Could you have gone a lot faster?” …(just hoping with fingers crossed) Phil: “ah.. well I didn’t pedal” Kid: throws hands up - I started busting up 😂 mad props to the kid with skills tho
Lunch lady drop/steep decline on the top of the line looks like nothing when the go-pro is on! keep up the great content and love the constant content Phil thanks again!
Cameras in general don't let you feel the consequences, whether it be GoPro or Cine Cameras, they just don't capture that feeling you get when you see something scary in person.
@@SkillsWithPhil oh yeah we all know the go pro effect. I just wanted to point out to people that roll in/drop is no joke. Little fun fact, you am sure you Phil are aware but someone might find this info interesting. POV shots, for instance, that wide-angle effect stretches out the terrain and pulls in more of the surroundings, which often makes steep descents look shallower and more manageable. The camera’s field of view can be as wide as 170° in both directions, which while awesome for capturing epic views, flattens the perspective significantly.
Hell yeah me too!! I live like 1/2hr away. Do you mind me asking if you heard any updates on the Mt. Washington trails? I heard Gravity logic were making trails there and you pay per shuttle ride. Someone told me at highland earlier this year. need to look into it but figured id ask another local. Unsure how close you live obviously but if your in southern NH some sick trails with sick drops and features in Windham NH called Clyde's ponds trails. Its free. There is a lady that works part time for highland and also a regular up there and she rides all the trails even the pink bike drop. she has been building the trails over in Windham I want to say her name is Karen but i dont want to insult her with making a mistake with that name!! LOL but she got red hair mid 40s.
So good! I love riding Highland. I dont take the same sketchy trails. Well, some. My funmeter just doesn't go as high as yours. Your videos always get my blood pressure up Phil! 😅
I noticed early in your video, I could see your shadow from the sun and watch your body mechanics as you rode different features. I don't know how you do it but if you could put a picture and picture on the video of you riding the bike it would be great for training. And interesting content!
Man. That bike park looks absolutely amazing!! The closest Bike Park is Snow Summit, fun place, but lacks more trails!! I’ll add Highland, when I visit my relatives in Virginia.
It’s still a long drive from Virginia! I live about 20 minutes from Highland, and when I drove down to Hampton, VA, it took around 13 hours. If you’re making the drive, expect it to be about 11 hours of drive time but traffic and tolls!! but definitely avoid hitting New York or Boston during rush hour, as traffic can add significant delays. Also, tolls in New York are pricey! If you can, I’d recommend flying into Manchester, NH, which is about a 30-minute drive to the park. It's usually cheaper to fly into Manchester than Boston, even though Boston is the closest major airport." And i am always riding if you do come up and need a rider buddy! I ride all levels and i dont mind taking it easy sometimes, i just turned 40 so i need to tone it down a little but 25 at heart! open till the 17th of November!
Hehe yeah, Virginia to NH is the equivalent of driving from Chico to Seattle plus or minus a few. I highly recommend going at some point, but Virginia is quite far from NH.
Absolutely true about sport to sport skillset. Look at Eli Tomac, his dad was a legend in the OG days of downhill and Eli trains 99% downhill and he is a legend in MX/SX.
I live 5 minutes from Highland in Northfield. Went there for the first time a few weeks ago. The lift was not packed, trails were amazing. I will be buying a season pass for next year! Pizza wasn't half bad for 3 bucks a slice either. The burgers were almost 20 bucks tho! Other than that, I loved it.
I prefer Killington but I think it's just more suited to my skill level. I find the learning curve a little more manageable, especially on the jumps. I can see it being boring if you want more challenging, less predictable stuff. And yeah the vibe at Highland is unbeatable. It's all people really serious about mountain biking.
It's weird how little effort Killington seems to put into their biking. Haven't been to Highland, but Thunder is much smaller than Killington and you just get the sense that people really care there. The trails get worked, new stuff gets added... Probably not enough hard stuff for you there, but for me that place is just amazing. Killington is still fun, but I feel like the attitude is kinda: Hey, we're huge and you get what you get so be happy with it. Where else ya gonna go?
That's exactly how i feel. Killington was the first bike park I ever went to back in like 2005. And while they have added some stuff such as the ramshead and snowshed areas, but the stuff off the gondola is virtually identical plus or minus a few features. I don't know if it's an upper management thing or what, because they obviously have the resources to do cool things if they want really wanted to. But every time I go it just feels like the bike park is a very low priority. I'm hoping now that the resort is no longer owned by powder that just maybe some cools things will happen.
I just saw Killington mentioned that they were putting a new trail in next year on instagram (literally 30 minutes or so before this video was posted). I gotta say, I'm really happy to hear this and i will acknowledge they do have a harder time building new trails there given a lot of their terrain is on state/national forest. Fingers crossed 🤞 instagram.com/p/DBthy1HRyj7/?igsh=MWtqZmV4ZWo5Y21xdw==
I love Killington, shocks me you are let down, is it because nothing is really new anymore? I have not been this year but i have a lot of fin there and its a great place to bring new riders. What i like about Killington is you take a nice long ride down from the gondola. One of these days we are going to run into each other again, pre 2020 we ran into each other often it seemed.
I've been to a lot of riding destinations and there are countless examples of places doing things right but killington seems to be putting the bare minimum effort in. The only trail i personally really enjoy there is goat skull. Black magic is the same boring 30 jumps in a row with zero character. The trails off the top are okay, but not great. Snowshed is just too flat except for jump start which is a pretty good trail but could be so much more. And then the rest of the mountain feels like a big ski mountain that doesn't care at all about the rider experience.
@@SkillsWithPhil I was just talking about Goat skull to someone(My favorite as well and i try to beat my time each time but its beat up loamed up from DH races). 2022 they added a ton of wooden features to that trail (I was the 1st one on them the day they opened the trail) and then took them down for the DH event and never put them back. unless they are back up this year. I can agree on what you said big time, they dont seem to be changing. Its def a good place to bring newbies tho. I have brought newbies to highland many times over the years being so close and Highland is much more consequential with fails on some jumps and features and in general. I got so many vids of friends crashing at highland. Always got the go pro on. I try to bring people trying it out 1st time to Killington or now Loon. I tried that and it was ok. My favs in the area are highland and Bolton as far as uplift parks. I appreciate you always reply to my stuff. Been following you for a long time, we met a quite few times back in the day and rode the lift with you. P.S. Oh I hope you read this part!! that heavier guy you talked to, he is always there i forget his name off hand. I was so glad to see him cause i would see him all the time then one day it was right after reef drop you go down and there is a small drop that you gap instead but after is a pile of boulders you can jump or roll and I was coming down the trail and they had him on a stretcher right on that pile of boulders. That made me feel good to see him and that he was ok and still at it!!
First don't compare yourself to others. TH-cam/Social media can often be misleading and demoralizing when you feel like you aren't progressing quick enough. People progress at vastly different rates. Anyway, what I'll say is focus on having fun. Learning new things is fun, but if you find yourself getting frustrated move on and come back later. A lot of stuff is just learned through experience and riding with other people. I'm not sure if this was helpful, but the goal is to have fun, so make that your focus :)
Sorry Phil but the chair lift keeps Highlands from being the best. Long lines are one thing , long lines that don't move are whole different animal. Personally I much prefer Killington.
Never waited for more than 15 minutes, and talking with people is nice. Besides Id rather have a slower lift and good trails than 3 fast lifts and boring trails. But to each their own.
@@SkillsWithPhil Yea, I think the slow lifts are perfectly fine. Would rather have to wait 15 minutes in line than have the trails at the top be crowded. Sucks when i sometimes make the drive up to highland and find out the lift is down, so maybe they can improve on reliability in the future!
@DevinGT350R I do think thats a fair criticism. I would be pretty bummed if that happened to me too. Though the one time i went to loon their state of the art 8 person lift was down for over an hour because of some sensor issues. So maybe modern equipment isn't always better. 🤷♂️
@@SkillsWithPhil Very true. And in reality can never expect a lift to always be fully functional, just have to hope it doesn't break down while you are on it lol.
Personally, I like the slow lift, especially when new riders are not comfortable getting their bikes on the bike lift quickly and then having the lift operator stop the lift, it's embarrassing (been there myself). The slow lift gives new riders more confidence plus it's a scenic lift up the mountain...just my 2 cents 🙂
That was a great line, "You're faster in person". I laughed out loud when I heard that. Watching your conversation with Hailey was so good. Such understanding between you 2. She is a very cool lady...you're a lucky man.
Love watching the speed through the leaves! Props on elevating the community. It is awesome to see how excited our riders get to see you, talk to you, and even ride with you.
LOVE the silent rear hub 😊
Phil with the boys at highland always makes for legendary content
Love the respect you get and your kindness in return. Great video.
Hailey is the Goat. You guys are great ambassadors for Mtb but even better human beings.
You captured what makes HL so good - the locals. The vibe at HL is just cool, Jerrell is amazing - on and off the bike.
I’m always impressed how good of a rider you are!! The fact that you can hit fort Hill but also the tech stuff really fast is amazing !!
You. Are. Out. Of. Your. Mind! Those leaves are no joke. Wow! 🤜🏻💥🤛🏻
As a 46 yr old novice, I enjoy imagining myself following you down these trails and counting my deaths.
It's always so wholesome seeing people greet you sweet riding man!
Thanks for riding ODC with my son and his friends and taking some pics at the chairlift.
They are a lift upgrade away from being recognized as top 3. Excited to get back there soon! It's also really cool how you don't need to talk about why they are so good because it's just plainly evident in the video.
Given the size of the mountain I think their lift is almost perfect the way it is (though reliability might be another story). The duration of the uplift isn't that bad and it also has hidden benefits that are often overlooked. Slower lifts help control the volume of traffic at the top, preventing it from getting overcrowded while it also helps manage the traffic on the trails. But thats my two cents. There's also the magic carpet and other areas people can go to if the main lift gets too crowded.
@@SkillsWithPhilyeah, i feel like with the introduction of the magic carpet the regular lift lines have gone down a ton
@@SkillsWithPhilI love the lift cause A. It’s iconic and B. It gives you a break on the way up which is nice
The lift climbs 500ft of vert in 10 minutes. 3mph.
There's plenty of people that have climbed the wednesduro access trail faster.
I agree this is the only problem with highland. You can get so much more riding in anywhere else that has detachable lifts.
@@connormclaughlin6334 yea but u gotta admit highland wouldn’t be the same without it
Kid:“Could you have gone a lot faster?” …(just hoping with fingers crossed) Phil: “ah.. well I didn’t pedal” Kid: throws hands up - I started busting up 😂 mad props to the kid with skills tho
Appreciated!
Crushing it as always. You are fun to watch. ✌
Footage with the local boys was epic!
Lunch lady drop/steep decline on the top of the line looks like nothing when the go-pro is on! keep up the great content and love the constant content Phil thanks again!
Cameras in general don't let you feel the consequences, whether it be GoPro or Cine Cameras, they just don't capture that feeling you get when you see something scary in person.
@@SkillsWithPhil oh yeah we all know the go pro effect. I just wanted to point out to people that roll in/drop is no joke.
Little fun fact, you am sure you Phil are aware but someone might find this info interesting.
POV shots, for instance, that wide-angle effect stretches out the terrain and pulls in more of the surroundings, which often makes steep descents look shallower and more manageable. The camera’s field of view can be as wide as 170° in both directions, which while awesome for capturing epic views, flattens the perspective significantly.
It was great meeting you Phil! First time at Highland and it was awesome!
as a highland local, i love it so much!
Hell yeah me too!! I live like 1/2hr away. Do you mind me asking if you heard any updates on the Mt. Washington trails? I heard Gravity logic were making trails there and you pay per shuttle ride. Someone told me at highland earlier this year. need to look into it but figured id ask another local.
Unsure how close you live obviously but if your in southern NH some sick trails with sick drops and features in Windham NH called Clyde's ponds trails. Its free. There is a lady that works part time for highland and also a regular up there and she rides all the trails even the pink bike drop. she has been building the trails over in Windham I want to say her name is Karen but i dont want to insult her with making a mistake with that name!! LOL but she got red hair mid 40s.
So good! I love riding Highland. I dont take the same sketchy trails. Well, some. My funmeter just doesn't go as high as yours. Your videos always get my blood pressure up Phil! 😅
I noticed early in your video, I could see your shadow from the sun and watch your body mechanics as you rode different features. I don't know how you do it but if you could put a picture and picture on the video of you riding the bike it would be great for training. And interesting content!
It’s sick to see highland thriving, I remember learning about it on the Semenuk TH-cam series and thinking I hope it sticks around
Skill across sports is all about muscle memory and adapting to muscle memory and awareness!
You guys kill it 🎉
Ayeee, that's us having a beer at 15:30 🤣
Very epic Phil
It was good riding with you Toby!
Man. That bike park looks absolutely amazing!!
The closest Bike Park is Snow Summit, fun place, but lacks more trails!!
I’ll add Highland, when I visit my relatives in Virginia.
It’s still a long drive from Virginia! I live about 20 minutes from Highland, and when I drove down to Hampton, VA, it took around 13 hours. If you’re making the drive, expect it to be about 11 hours of drive time but traffic and tolls!! but definitely avoid hitting New York or Boston during rush hour, as traffic can add significant delays. Also, tolls in New York are pricey! If you can, I’d recommend flying into Manchester, NH, which is about a 30-minute drive to the park. It's usually cheaper to fly into Manchester than Boston, even though Boston is the closest major airport."
And i am always riding if you do come up and need a rider buddy! I ride all levels and i dont mind taking it easy sometimes, i just turned 40 so i need to tone it down a little but 25 at heart! open till the 17th of November!
Hehe yeah, Virginia to NH is the equivalent of driving from Chico to Seattle plus or minus a few. I highly recommend going at some point, but Virginia is quite far from NH.
Thanks for advice. My cousin lives in Va, I’m sure there are plenty of other bike parks to hit as well.
Absolutely true about sport to sport skillset. Look at Eli Tomac, his dad was a legend in the OG days of downhill and Eli trains 99% downhill and he is a legend in MX/SX.
I race in the Eastern States Cup series and one of our fastest guys came from moto and after just 2 years of racing DH he’s now winning in pro.
Yo that guy with the shock stuck in his frame, never that happened before! Crazy mechanical
24:25 this is whats its all about. Being stoked and having a laugh during a party train with your mates
I live 5 minutes from Highland in Northfield. Went there for the first time a few weeks ago. The lift was not packed, trails were amazing. I will be buying a season pass for next year! Pizza wasn't half bad for 3 bucks a slice either. The burgers were almost 20 bucks tho! Other than that, I loved it.
haileys a keepa phil….and im sure you already know that 😁
You should go to the jump jam this weekend on Saturday at highland!
I prefer Killington but I think it's just more suited to my skill level. I find the learning curve a little more manageable, especially on the jumps. I can see it being boring if you want more challenging, less predictable stuff. And yeah the vibe at Highland is unbeatable. It's all people really serious about mountain biking.
It's weird how little effort Killington seems to put into their biking. Haven't been to Highland, but Thunder is much smaller than Killington and you just get the sense that people really care there. The trails get worked, new stuff gets added... Probably not enough hard stuff for you there, but for me that place is just amazing.
Killington is still fun, but I feel like the attitude is kinda: Hey, we're huge and you get what you get so be happy with it. Where else ya gonna go?
That's exactly how i feel. Killington was the first bike park I ever went to back in like 2005. And while they have added some stuff such as the ramshead and snowshed areas, but the stuff off the gondola is virtually identical plus or minus a few features. I don't know if it's an upper management thing or what, because they obviously have the resources to do cool things if they want really wanted to. But every time I go it just feels like the bike park is a very low priority. I'm hoping now that the resort is no longer owned by powder that just maybe some cools things will happen.
I just saw Killington mentioned that they were putting a new trail in next year on instagram (literally 30 minutes or so before this video was posted). I gotta say, I'm really happy to hear this and i will acknowledge they do have a harder time building new trails there given a lot of their terrain is on state/national forest. Fingers crossed 🤞
instagram.com/p/DBthy1HRyj7/?igsh=MWtqZmV4ZWo5Y21xdw==
Hey Phil, think you forgot to add the race link you mentioned at 7:39 to the description!
Oops I'll fix that! Here's the link in the meantime
th-cam.com/video/7t38xyUqotc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NetdaVcslA9FvU9p
DHF in the rear, old school time
Somebody caught that, old habits are hard to break!
Phil, what are your compression and rebound settings? I have the same fork and shock.
I love Killington, shocks me you are let down, is it because nothing is really new anymore? I have not been this year but i have a lot of fin there and its a great place to bring new riders. What i like about Killington is you take a nice long ride down from the gondola. One of these days we are going to run into each other again, pre 2020 we ran into each other often it seemed.
I've been to a lot of riding destinations and there are countless examples of places doing things right but killington seems to be putting the bare minimum effort in. The only trail i personally really enjoy there is goat skull. Black magic is the same boring 30 jumps in a row with zero character. The trails off the top are okay, but not great. Snowshed is just too flat except for jump start which is a pretty good trail but could be so much more. And then the rest of the mountain feels like a big ski mountain that doesn't care at all about the rider experience.
@@SkillsWithPhil I was just talking about Goat skull to someone(My favorite as well and i try to beat my time each time but its beat up loamed up from DH races). 2022 they added a ton of wooden features to that trail (I was the 1st one on them the day they opened the trail) and then took them down for the DH event and never put them back. unless they are back up this year. I can agree on what you said big time, they dont seem to be changing. Its def a good place to bring newbies tho. I have brought newbies to highland many times over the years being so close and Highland is much more consequential with fails on some jumps and features and in general. I got so many vids of friends crashing at highland. Always got the go pro on. I try to bring people trying it out 1st time to Killington or now Loon. I tried that and it was ok. My favs in the area are highland and Bolton as far as uplift parks. I appreciate you always reply to my stuff. Been following you for a long time, we met a quite few times back in the day and rode the lift with you.
P.S. Oh I hope you read this part!! that heavier guy you talked to, he is always there i forget his name off hand. I was so glad to see him cause i would see him all the time then one day it was right after reef drop you go down and there is a small drop that you gap instead but after is a pile of boulders you can jump or roll and I was coming down the trail and they had him on a stretcher right on that pile of boulders. That made me feel good to see him and that he was ok and still at it!!
Hi Phil love your videos getting into mtb because of you any tips or tricks that you can give me?
First don't compare yourself to others. TH-cam/Social media can often be misleading and demoralizing when you feel like you aren't progressing quick enough. People progress at vastly different rates. Anyway, what I'll say is focus on having fun. Learning new things is fun, but if you find yourself getting frustrated move on and come back later. A lot of stuff is just learned through experience and riding with other people. I'm not sure if this was helpful, but the goal is to have fun, so make that your focus :)
@@SkillsWithPhil thank you so much keep up the amazing content you are my idol
Nice ride!
What’s your wheel set and tire pressure like on this run?
I was running 28psi rear and 25psi Front
Awesome 🤩🔥
Phil you should check out jarrod’s place it’s a super cool bike park in Georgia
You think your time at Woodward helped with MTB skills? You looked crazy fast that last video man.
When I was a kid? Yes. The trip I made a month ago? probably not much if any, but it certainly didn't hurt.
28:43 - man you are soo sick ^^....
One of my favorite lines :)
Is the athlete wearing red Nikes at 20:00?? If so… what a boss 😅
He's an absolute freak of nature.
Just curious what day were you there?
have to get that bike on the conti's - wont have that problem :)
The old tire was not the actual issue it was the rim tape that developed a leak. Easier to change everything at once though and start fresh.
@@SkillsWithPhil I still stand by my statement of getting it onto some conti's haha 😂
24:37 poor dude got denied :(
🐐2024🇺🇸
@24:44 Homeboy did the Elon
OMFG haha that had me dying! - I Had no idea what you were referring to until I saw the clip.
Sorry Phil but the chair lift keeps Highlands from being the best.
Long lines are one thing , long lines that don't move are whole different animal.
Personally I much prefer Killington.
Never waited for more than 15 minutes, and talking with people is nice. Besides Id rather have a slower lift and good trails than 3 fast lifts and boring trails. But to each their own.
@@SkillsWithPhil Yea, I think the slow lifts are perfectly fine. Would rather have to wait 15 minutes in line than have the trails at the top be crowded. Sucks when i sometimes make the drive up to highland and find out the lift is down, so maybe they can improve on reliability in the future!
@DevinGT350R I do think thats a fair criticism. I would be pretty bummed if that happened to me too. Though the one time i went to loon their state of the art 8 person lift was down for over an hour because of some sensor issues. So maybe modern equipment isn't always better. 🤷♂️
@@SkillsWithPhil Very true. And in reality can never expect a lift to always be fully functional, just have to hope it doesn't break down while you are on it lol.
Personally, I like the slow lift, especially when new riders are not comfortable getting their bikes on the bike lift quickly and then having the lift operator stop the lift, it's embarrassing (been there myself). The slow lift gives new riders more confidence plus it's a scenic lift up the mountain...just my 2 cents 🙂
seven min ago?!
first!!
Skibity toilot Ezra rizz
you should come try some trails in South Afrika! 🚵♂