freeride

Sylverster & Friends – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

Let keep this Sea-To-Sky theme going, shall we? OK then, we’re off to Squamish. How about a warmup run on Ditch Pig?

May as well. We lost a member of our crew today. Poor James, the steeps were just a little too humbling. Well, he actually had to go home to his girly. I think it’s easier to say the trails were too hard than to admit to your buddies that you’re whipped. Hey, it was his call. Sylvester didnt’ have that choice, and sent it on Ditch Pig without a conscience.

..and Richard too, natch.

The weather continued to co-operate, and even though we lost one member of the tribe today, we gained another with our old pal Shane.

Ready To Fly is a new line in Squampton, and it’s got this cool berm to play with.

Shane didn’t look ready to fly at all.

Everyone else did though.

Say hi to Courtney and Max. Max is Courtney’s “excuse” for not working for me this year. Hmph.

After lunch we only got one more lap, but it was a long one. I was sort of down on Squamish for a while, as the trails were getting kind of trashed, but I gotta say that I had my best Squamish day in several year today. Sylvester seems to agree on this air in Deliverance.

Sylvester & Friends

Posted on by Smoke

It’s been a while since I’ve a) ridden with anyone from Ottawa, and b) ridden in Pemberton. Time to kill 2 with one so to speak.

Our buddy Dan has decided to join in for the rip too. Kind of a no brainer, as he lives in Pemby and I hit him for a place to sleep. For those of you who haven’t ridden in Pemby, most of the trails are really steep, and more or less fall line. OUr Ontario friends were about to find this out in a hurry.

I missed the Creampuff warmup, but got into the act in time to expereince this rockface on Grumpy Grouse.

We got everyone down this one, and maged to set a pretty good tone for the day as a result.

The scenery in Pemby makes everyone feel pretty good about the riding being a bit over the top anyway.

Goof…

A LOT of pro DH racers call the area home, so there’s plenty of killer berms and advanced features to play on.

Since we felt so assured, we decided to hit up Cop Killer. Well, mainly because Gravitron looked like it was too far of a climb to bother with.

The boys killed it onthe first hit of Cop Killer.

James in particular was sort of nervous about this trail, but he made this air look easy.

It was the lander he made look a bit hard.

Dan making a HUGE rockface look easy. Trust me, that one is hairy, especially with a loose downhill runout pointing at a rockfield.

Pic of the day. Dave(?) and the Pemberton Valley.

No, Dan isn’t falling down. Just a little maintenance on some loose rock in one seriously gnarly chute. He rode it, but it wasn’t exactly pretty.

After lunch we toned it down and hit some mellower trails like Indy and this little hidden gem over past Mosquito Lake.

Not too bad of a day, somewhat punishing, but any day that ends with cold beers and a swim is OK by me.

Deja Seymour?

Posted on by Smoke

Well, the Wade Tour might be over, but I’m still in North Van. Looks like I’ve got a “local” tour to do, just for old time sake. Ian was in town for some Nokia related conference, and we managed to hook up a couple of laps on Seymour.

Yup, that’s Seymour alright.

Not only did we get a chance to rip Seymour, but Ian also got to ride a new Slayer on CBC.

Seems to work OK, too.

Oh, and we also got to sample some fresh woodwork on Corkscrew. The old Corkscrew is dead, long live the Corkscrew!

To cap it all off, we ran across a guinea pig that sent the Piledriver drop for the camera.

Better him than me. Another day, another adventure…