Retallack Solo – 2

Finally….alpine!   Four years in the making and we’re now above treeline at Retallack.  Well…Kia is, but the rest of us aren’t far behind.

Got a backup band for James today so he’s not so alone.  Glory and Kurtis from Rossland came out today, and since we were heading for the new trails up top, Kia, Amber, and Matt joined in.

Whoa…fullface makeout sesh.  Safe sex, Kootenay style.

Was it good for you?

The upper trail is called State of Mine, and should be complete from Hollywood Ridge within a few weeks.  Where we drop in through the sub-alpine is Guitar Solo (see what I did with the post title now?), and it’s already a classic.  Here’s a few berm riffs from the crew.

We banged out a bunch more laps after the morning, as it was James’ last day.  We weren’t stopping much though, as we broke through about 14k’ of vertical.  Just took a little break to session this hit on the Kessel Run.

Retallack Solo

After an epic overnight drive (8 hours and 15 minutes from Vancouver to Retallack), it was time for more shredding.  This time with just one guy, a solo adventurer by the name of James from the UK.  I guess his buddies choked on the cost, which is a bit ridiculous considering that the price is about the same as what you pay in Whister.  Ah well, the guys who get it are coming.

James had been riding for a while already with Kinrade, and since he had some fun laps over on Choices I thought I’d show him the upper part on Sundowner.

He liked it a lot.  We also peeled off the Finisher.  Anyone who likes their steeps is going to like that one.

Speaking of steeps, it doesn’t get much steeper than the Monster.

Too bad I cut his head off…

Best day of his trip so far, and we’ve got a couple more days to go.  I miss the Brits, we need more of ’em.

Fest Shredden – 3

That park was great, but no trip to the Sunshine Coast would be complete without a few laps on the amazing trails of Roberts Creek.  So we got up early and hit some laps on trails like Mach Chicken.

I don’t know what impressed the boys more; the amazing flow of the trails here or the amazing ladies that bike them.  Jess was good enough to take time out of her riding schedule to help us shuttle today.

A couple of laps later and we spent some time on DNZ teaching the new guys a few old tricks.  Here’s Daniel on a bit of a step down.

Wolfgang set the line on the gaps, so that Fabien could get a few of them dialled in.

Of course, we sent several middle fingers to cancer via the Steve Sheldon Supersender, as is tradition.

Fuck cancer…

We even had a double session on the legendary Cunning Stunts, and Daniel managed a clean run on the swivel totter.

One more lap on Mach Chicken to be had before hitting the ferry.

Daniel pops his Millenium Falcon cherry right here…

The verdict on the day?  The boys thought it was the best day of mountain biking they’ve ever had.

Sweet.  Mission accomplished.

Daniel took it in stride, and the rest of the gang looked like this:

No rest for the wicked once again.  After dropping the boys downtown, it was time to hit the highway.  An all nighter in store for me should lead to some more adventures tomorrow…