Die Rasenmaher – Day 4

Back to Whistler. We had hoped to get up Rainbow today, but I wasn’t really willing to go unless t was sunny, and it most definitely was NOT sunny up there today. Full on massive black clouds sitting right on the landing zone. Oh well, lets go session A River Runs Through it.

One nice thing about the overcast was great light in the woods. Here’s Karen showing her professional side. She and Holger ALWAYS get the good shots.

The lovely Sabine from Austria.

I think you’ve already met Nadine. Yeah, surrounded by blonde lovelies. Sometimes I hate my job….

Look, another one! (Hi Linda)

Then a bit of sun came out, so it was time to play with the motion blur.

The colours were so rich. It’s that time of year when summer is over, but it isn’t quite fall yet.

This one is supa cool. I love the happy accidents.

Here’s the famous log bridge crossing (the same one that took out Oscar from Florida). I was really trying to get a sunburst effect without blurring, but no dice. These two shots are the best of a bad bunch.

Then back to the bush to session some skinnies. Ralph stomps a teeter.

I wonder what Holger thought he was going to do by spotting. Probably get squished. Rob J. isn’t too worried, as he’s a moderatley famous freerider in Europe. If you saw the 2007 Marzocchi article in Decline, you’ve seen Rob J before.

Round and round she goes…..

Fun with the drawbridge. I think we got more than half the crew over this one.

Unfortunately, my knee (which will never be the same after the Epic) chose this moment to go sideways on me, so I wasn’t able to go down to Trainwreck for the next stage, but maybe tomorrow it’ll be OK. I think a big sushi feed tonight will make it all better….

Die Rasenmaher – Day 3

This is more my speed. Off piste and up to Pemberton. I haven’t ridden in Pemby in many years, but luckily I have my trusty assistants to help me. We started the day with PhD on the way there, which was a bit steep for some of the crew.

Hey, at least the weather was familiar for the Germans. Herbert was telling me about how they went to the Porte du Soleil (that’s like Sun Valley in French) and it rained for the whole tour.

Some of the guys brought their girlfriends over for the tour, and they hadn’t really ridden before. Nothing like hardcore BC steeps to get you into the game, eh?

Full marks to the girls for going for it, even if they screamed a bit from time to time. Did you know that the German word for EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!! is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!? Nadine taought me that.

Andrea was actually really good at this stuff, she just didnt have the experience to know what was going to happen.

Herbert has all the experience, and kept getting sucked in by all the young frauliens going for it.

Nadine on the classic Grumpy Grouse outcrop.

Galinder was into it as well.

More from the lovely Nadine.

To end the day Seb took us out of town to another trail called Resurrectum (trail name of the year, oh yeah). It was quite the shuttle up. We had to unload the van at one point just to get up the road. Totally worth it, and the look of fear on Karens face was worth all the rain we had.

Like all Pemby trails, it was a long way up and a short ride down, but unlike most other trails around here, it has good flow and fun floaty airs on it.

Of course, it was too dark to get any good shots, but hey, we were riding bikes, not having a picnic.