Ironically enough I think most of my uphill climbs could be describes as "lunges" as well. But I agree that the lunges clear the lungs out real nice.
I seem to be in an unusual category in that I enjoy both XC and DH. When I ride with an XC crew they tell me DH'ers are crazy and when I ride with a DH crew they tell me XC'ers are either crazy, or don't know what they're missing. They're probably both a little bit correct. And that's why I do both!
See I think ROAD bikers are crazy.
I can understand the thrill of the open road and an epic 60km or 80km ride, there was a time I yearned for it too
... but as I get older I trust people in cars less and less. The ground hurts when you fall off a mountain bike but it hurts in more or less predictable ways.
I loooooove riding at Whistler. Not a beginner friendly mountain though. I have seen so many people carted off that mountain with serious head, neck and back injuries. Or internal injuries.
(I myself might once have been carted off the mountain in a meat wagon. Lucky for me the Whister Medical Centre is top notch!!) But I've been back there since and still love riding there, although a lot of those bigger drops still scare the H**L out me!!!!
For DH I've ridden Panorama, Fernie, Whistler and COP. A couple years ago a lot of the trail designers (from Whistler) reworked COP and it was awesome. The problem with COP is that it's run by a bunch of skiiers and snowboarders and not bikers. They run the lifts anyhow for the sightseers so they might as well let bikers pay them some money too. So the new trails were AWESOME until they started needing maintenance. Which they are doing better at this year, a little, but they've raised the prices of season's passes so much that I still get sticker shock. 