A technical riding camp for women. Improve your bike handling skills on singletrack of all description. A strong emphasis on fundamentals will benefit riders of all levels and disciplines. Taught by industry leading coaches of world class abilities, the two day camp will focus on fundamentals like balance and terrain evaluation on day one and more specific skills on day two. Optional topics such as drops, gaps, dirt jumps and steeps can be covered if the group desires to explore those areas.

Learn how to deal with the rigours of Canadian singletrack so you can put the boys in their place, or maybe just keep up with your kids.

More information, including registration and online payment, is at the Girls Got Skills page.

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Here’s some Frenchy in tight pants.

Actually, I like this one a lot better.  For some reason, she looks a lot better to me in lycra than that other dude.  Must be the light.

A couple of Russkies carving the corduroy for you.

Actually, this one is for Tippie (he still rides the hard plates and a vintage 20th century carving stick when he’s not cackling down mountains on his bike).

Meh, with all that groomed snow around, I had to go for a little walk.

I wish I had the time to get over there, though.  We’re having a big year in the Okanagan for snow.

OK, another Olympian.  Svetlana something or other.  She didn’t have much english, and my Russian is limited to ordering several shots of vodka at a time.

The Mexican snowboard team.  Those birdbrains didn’t qualify for the Olympics, though.

Ahhh, my lunchtime tracks.  You can see last weeks avalanche pretty good from this angle.  It looks worse than it really was.  A bit of cornice fell off.  There’s gonna be a big avvie cycle later, but it’s bomber out there right now.

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Meanwhile, junior proves that there is such a thing as too much AC/DC, especially when you’re trying to play along to it via Rock Band.

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Well anyway, if these guys don’t walk away with at least one gold medal, the contest is fixed. As much as I’m cheering my home country, the Chinese are killin’ the aerials these days.  Should be a good event.

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The sun even came out for a few minutes at the end of the day while the locals enjoyed their traditional post-pow beverages up at the Heavens.

Something like 40+ powder runs over 2 days, my legs are totally shot…

See you at the next one. 

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It’s a blast skiing with the young’ns.  They like to do all kinds of goofy things on skiis.  Here’s Cassandra about to crash right on to Jake(?  I think it’s Jake..).   That’s one tricky log ride.   A little North Shore action winter style for ya.

Hey, it’s sorta like school.  We’ve even got a bus.

You just don’t usually get some guy randomly jibbing over your class though.

Well, big shoes to fill for these kids.  Last time I coached, I had a skier named Kristi Richards in my group, and now she’s representing Canada at the Olympics. Here’s hoping there’s another world champ in this crew.

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The freestylers were in town, and with the National Team using Apex as a training ground, it was a sick show from the new schoolers.

I don’t remember doing backflips in the bumps when I used to do moguls.  Now my knees hurt just watching.

Our old buddy Jamie Morrison was also up this weekend to watch his kid compete.  That’s Noah below, throwing an off-axis 720 off the second jump.  He stuck it clean and everything.  Which when you consider he placed 7th makes you realize how much depth there is in the BC bump scene.

Well, I can’t hang around in bounds all day.  The pack is stable and visibility is good for a change.  See if you can spot our tracks…

Went for the first hike of the year with “Onesie” Wendell.  Just out to Secondary for a couple of short laps.

Oh look, no-one has been down here at all this year.

Sure you can go first…this time.

2nd run, and I wasn’t going for any sloppy seconds.  If someone offers you first tracks down the Pencil, you take them.

Yeah, seconds.  Good days.   Much more snow has fallen since these were taken, but it’s been foggy almost every time out.  I’ll see if I can scare up some better shots if and when the sun comes out again.

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Gotta go…

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Somebody had their first sushi experience.   Not only that, but we found a great sushi place in Penticton of all places. 

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Our little Christmas traditional torchlight parade in effect.

It’s just the right thing to do.

Good turnout at the local hill too.  It’s totally one of the smaller resorts in BC.

Oh, it’s Santa!

Yee haa!  Presents.

Chevy doesn’t care, she just likes Santa’s trick new sleigh.

Meh, presents.  Not when you gotta wait in line.  

Hope you had a good one.

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We put in a switchback on a steep slope, and cut a few hundred meters of new trail up the hill.  Watch for this one to be open by late May.

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Yeah, right.  So Brant and Andrew came out instead.

A mellow roll out on trails behind my house led to this first climb out of Peachland.

It’s a mellow climb, maybe 1200’.  We took it really easy, enjoyed the sights, and checked out some ancient stunts…

OK, if you didn’t know, that’s an old aqueduct for someone’s irrigation system from back in the day.  Still looks like a fun drop though.

Ahhh, the first summit.

Brant is pondering a new career as a Sears underwear model.  Work it, yo.

Just a little skiff of snow, but it did make a difference to how fast we were able to move.

Not that we were in so much of a rush that we couldn’t pose up a few shots.

Action shot….taken while riding.

After a rippin’ descent, full freeride style with no trails, we hit the second climb.  It was a bit tougher, and a lot colder, but that’s still not saying a lot.  Apart from a few short hike-a-bike sections (10 minutes each or so), it was primo singletrack most of the way.

We got onto the plateau in really good time, and I thought we had a great chance of getting all the way to Penticton today.

Lynx?  Or wolf?  Sure not a coyote; Brant has size 10’s.

Now we ran into some trouble.  So many twists and turns, even with a GPS it was really bogging down, and that skiff of snow was adding minutes to the day. When we got moving well, we’d get so far off track in minutes that we ended up freeriding a half mile again to get to where we wanted.

Andrew looks cold.

If we didn’t get off course, we would have missed this part though, so it was a fair trade.

The final descent into Summerland was Suh-wheeeet!  Long sidehill singletrack, and narrow enough in a few key spots that the quadders haven’t wrecked it.

Although we were clearly running out of daylight and wouldn’t be getting to Penticton today, it’s definitely a possibility.

Maybe later this year, and for sure next summer.

Here’s the profile.

And here’s a map.  The yellow line was our route, from right to left.

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…and I think I know what someone wants for Christmas.   A big THANKYOU to Mike at Dakine Canada for setting me up with some gack for next year.

Still lots of riding to be had, and everything is sunshine and rainbows.

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We had to go back to Rock Oven to get the goods we missed yesterday. A moderate climb to get there, but well worth it.  Just gotta get up by Margus to get to the top.  Wave hi to Margus…

Oh yeah…it was worth it.

Sick trees, I had to make Ryan go back for another pic.

We rinsed and repeated this cliff again too.

Then, since we wasted too much time in the morning, we lost the light again.  Got a chance to look around a bit though.  We hung out in this canyon for an hour or so, and explored a lot. 

More of the same.

OK, looks like we’re gonna get another 5 minutes of light if we’re lucky.

Oooooo…..golden.

Ryan tried this rock line.  It didn’t really work out, as it just doesn’t look that rad, but in real life this was pretty sketch.  Lots of exposure, and still a bit slick in spots after the rains last night.

Anyway, way steeper than it looks.

Well, it looks OK I guess.

Anyway, that’s about it.  Now I’ve got Margus hooked on the area, I’m sure I can get him back for some more.

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Well, it’s getting a bit late in the season, but I figured I could find something for the boys.  But first I had to hurt ‘em a bit.  Not on purpose, just because I’ve been sitting around a lot lately.

Something like 30km, and a good 6000’ of vertical drop today.  Oh, and some seriously yellow larch trees.

Here’s a view of the route, sort of.  We did the blue line.  The yellow-y stuff is a doubletrack that can be used to access from the bottom.  We drove way around, and hiked up a firebreak for 2 km.  Sort of gnarly, but I found another section above the Derenzy FSR that will be focus of another mission.

Back to the red, yellow, and green.

Maybe not the greatest light, but a fine, fine ride.

Margus, working hard.

..and again.  Of course, with a setting like this a photographer shouldn’t have to work that hard.

Right?  Oh, I almost forgot that Travis K. came out today too.  He got to be FlashMan.

Well, maybe not the results I we could have wished for, and a late start meant that we missed the best light, but a great ride.  Tomorrow afternoon looks good, maybe we’ll make up for it then.

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So the westside of the lake is looking pretty good now.  Hopefully I’ll be able to ride the full distance from Peachland to Penticton before the trails close down this year.

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At least I’m out there a little bit.  Brant and Andrew (and lots of other folks) have been out a lot resurrecting all the old Gillard trails that were destroyed in the fire of 2003.

They have already re-opened Casino Royale, and now we’re out clearing Lower Casino, which I didn’t even know existed.  It’s pretty hard to find in places, but there’s a bunch of old decrepit stunts to follow.  Andrew is able cut some new lines that are pretty clear, too.

Well, until you hit this swamp.  This is when Ryan showed up to show us the way, as he worked on the old trail way back in the day.

Ummm…where is that trail, again?

OK, so we’ve got a bit of work ahead of us.  Still, with just a handful of MTBco members out today, we got a good third or more of the line cleared and some nice features rebuilt.

Next year….that’s gonna be a great line.

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Oh no wait…it’s just us.  Well, it is the last day, and another round of rad trails with the guys that built ‘em.

…and Ben.

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..and Wade and Lorraine too. 

Lorraine was our stoke today. I think you can see why she was so happy to be riding the South Okanagan.  It’s just an unbelievable place to be.

We had a great day hanging out ripping the trails, and even just cruising the KVR.

That’s a wrap.  Watch for it sometime in the spring on the ‘ target=_blank>Ride Guide.

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Our pal Lorraine also joined up for today.  She just randomly happened to be on her way through the area on her way home from Utah, and is sitting in on the session.  Blown knee and all. 

Ben loves flat landings.  He did this one a couple of times.  Ow, dude, ow.

Maybe the yellow frame makes it easier.

A nice day of flowing the Naramata old school stuff, finishing up with another canyon ride.  Too bad the camera crew walked into a big patch of poison ivy. 

Wine anyone?

I think the Ride Guide is starting to see what the Okanagan ride scene is all about.

Get used to it Wade.  Your wife looked pretty rosy last time I saw her, I think there’s some changes in your not so distant future.

ONE MORE DAY!  Lets all share a bottle then….

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