bike

MTBR Disney

Posted on by Smoke

Holy Crap.

That has to be the scariest heli trip ever. I thought it was all over, for sure.

The first drop of the year was a bit spur of the moment. Sterling called me about doing one with some UK bike mag that wanted to do it all in a week. They were into a small group with a bit of talent and Sterl to do some pics. Then Wade got the Oakley crew in for a product shoot, which led to a spurious NWD IV presence. The final roll call? Get this list, a virtual who’s who of Freeride:

Sterling Lorence

Wade Simmons

Andrew Shandro

Derek Westerlund.

Richie Schley

Grant Allen

John Gibson

Sebastian Paradis

Gareth Dyer

Thomas Vanderham

Stokes, the Oakley Man

Axl, Overpaid Canadian Cinematographer

Four guys from the UK, only one of which is afraid of heights

Me

….and of course Harley, the hell-y dog.

Predictably the organization flailed. By the time we got our shit together there was some pretty substantial thermals rising out of the valley. On our first landing attempt, the chopper got bucked by a gust and we had to do an emergency power out. I thought for sure we were going to flip and get tossed over the edge. Luckily, our pilot was no chump but the ensuing power dive over the edge of the mountain had my appetite a bit off. And the bikes took a bit of a hit on the landing too.

Now look at the list again and think of the impact of that crash. Gnarly.

I could tell you more stories, but I’m waiting for pics (notice that I never have any). I should have some stuff for you next week. Until then, here’s the highlights.

The UK guy on the G-Spot did a flying starfish on a 50 degree snow slope at speed.

Seb almost took himself out with a 40 pound boulder.

Gibby gets lost easy.

Harley bit Richie in the balls.

Sterling takes a lot of photos.

It took us eight hours to get out.

……and Big Andy isn’t coming out from FreeRideSouth this year. What a bummer. Oh well. I get a little break before the next crew come in.

‘Till the next one.


May and June

Posted on by Smoke

OK OK, so it’s been like four months since I put anything up. It’s not like anyone looks at this or anything. So anyway, ski season was epic as always. A little lower than avertage but still wicked. I started riding hard about 6 weeks ago. The Shore never let up all year. The upper trails took a bet of a beating due to the lack of snow cover this year, but everything seems to be adapting pretty good.

The first few tourists have come and gone already, and I’ve been running a couple of clinics.

Here’s a quick list of what’s been going on.

May 10th Charlie Doherty and a few of his teenage buddies came up to ride the Shore from the Seattle area. All their bikes got swiped from the hotel that night. At least the riding was epic.

May 16th to the 18th. Clarke and some of his buds came up from Marin County for a session in the snow and rain. They shredded it. Sorry, no pics of this either.

May 16th to the 19th. Old farts went to Penticton for Darcy’s birthday. Good thing I’ve got Barb to guide for me or this wouldn’t have worked out at all. No pictures as I don’t want to be incriminated

May 20th to the 24th. Hjalmar the Swede came out for a truly epic stay. Look for yourself.

 

May 26th and 27th. Kirstie the Keener from the UK. Awesome girl from a cross country background. She held up remarkably well for a rookie. I’m hoping for a pic from her in the email soon.

May 30th. Robin from Singletrackworld.com. Look for photos later this year on their site.

June 2nd to the 4th. Dave Breu from Saskatoon. He put forth the challenge to ride 4 to 6 hours a day. Challenge accepted and met. Again, too busy to take pics.

June 9th. Lars from Holland came out on Fromme. We ran into Grant Allen from Oz and hit up a few trails. Grant put on a clinic for 30 foot gap jumps. Sicko. Photos are still in the camera.

Got some good stuff coming. I’ll have to update more. Check out Barb’s Weblog for some other good stuff we’ve been up to.