kootenays

Okanagan Pow

Posted on by Smoke

Well another epic road trip has come and gone. I’ve been away from the Kootenays FAR too long.

The problem is that they are just so far away. I like to stop at Apex, which is half way, so that I can ski in the daytime and drive at night. Tis time I was tempted to drive straight through as a buddy of mine was caught in an avalanche a few days earlier and got a bit hurt, but I figured (rightly so) that he couldn’t ski so I could catch up with him easily.

Good thing I stopped. Apex is enjoying awesome conditions this year.

This sequence is taken in just out of bounds on a small peak called Secondary, in a chute usually referred to as Mainline.

That’s Gary Vollett, former pro tour ski racer chewing it up in there.

What you don’t get to see is him bailing out. Headplants are one way to get face shots I guess. The other tracks are mine and Wendell’s.

This last shot sucks for so many reasons, and it rules because you can see how deep and floofy the snow is. What can I say? I’ve been taking bike shots all year.

Had to leave about an hour after this. Could the Kootenays be any better than this? Does it get better than this?

Fukitzpukin

Posted on by Smoke

I gotta tell the truth. I only ride bikes to fund my skiing habit. It’s nice to have a bit of snow and cold for a change. All that hot weather last summer was starting to get to me.

As you can tell from the pics, its been storming pretty much every time I get out. Yesterday we were out on Seymour in the fog for about six hours. Not bad for the backyard. Definitely heavy skiing, but there was a few turns of pow under the big trees. It’s what you make it. Anyway, no pics turned out. I’ve been getting decent video, but no good stills.

Speaking of vid, go to this cool eurotrash site that hosts action vids and check out what I’ve been doing with my spare time. You have to register, but there’s tons of stuff on there. You can find Bush Pilot related items HERE. I’ve got 3 vids up on there. Slow downloads but they’re all 5-7 minute vids.

Here’s a couple of stills from a recent day at Whistler.

We skiied the ridge in the left foreground. The classic line off of Flute.

“…..D…….A……..V….. ………. … …e . . .”

Unknown girlie dropping in below the cornice on Piccolo. She was cute, too.

I’ll be heading to the Kootenays to check out some steep, deep, and cheap all next week.

Shtay tuned.

Interior Freeride

Posted on by Smoke

OK,so I’ve been ignoring my updates for a while.

After the Cypress ride we got cleaned up, loaded our gear, picked up the Germans from the airport, and went to Penticton.

Some of these shots are a little sad because currently the area is on fire and some of these trails may disappear.

That’s still in the future at this point.

Here’s what we woke up to in Summerland.

Everyone was a little worn out by all the travel, so we had a bit of a slow start. The sun was well up by the time we hit Penticton.

When we were getting ready, we met a couple of young punks from Nelson getting dropped in the woods by their Mom. Feeling that I owe a debt to anyone from the Kootenays just for being from there, I offered to bring them the good way through.

Kevin and Geoff showed early that the Kootenay kids get the job done.

They made up for riding good by proceeding to blow every tube we had. Well, maybe I got a couple too.

Back to more stellar Peat Bog trail.

The thing about the Okanagan rides is the sheer size. Here we are approaching the end of the third hour of the FIRST run of the day.

If the trail seems easy, remember that you keep getting distracted by all the killer scenery.

On our second lap we did a little exploring and found this cool little sand drop. You buried your wheels up to the axles on impact, but it was prett cool.

It’s the end of the day which always makes it for me.

Oh….so THAT’S why they call me “meat.”

Dinner. Ever notice the correlation of off center pictures and empty beer bottles on the table?

…and finally, this is how you look at the end of a day with the Bush Pilot. So tired even Harry Potter can’t keep your eyes open.

Next update I will have some pics of the Arawana trails plus some news about whether they have survived the fires.