Cat Sass 2012 – 2

I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning.

Yup, it’s heli time in the Kootenays, and we are hangin’ loose.

Me, Mary-Kat and Galena got up on the first round.  Ran into Ramin and crew already up there.   They took 3 and a half hours to get up from town.  We took about 8 minutes.

It was a nice morning to hang around in the alpine, too.

Take a good look around, there’s plenty to look at.

As we flew up, we had to take a bit of time for portraits.  So sit back, there’s a pile of ‘em here…

That was the set from the top, now we’re about a half click down.

…and here’s the end of the alpine.  It’s all in the woods after here.

Now that I’ve done this ride a few times, the hike a bike sections seem pretty short.  Not everyone agrees, though.  Funny how you seem to question taking a DH bike at this point, but nobody mentions that at the bottom.  From this point, it’s pretty solid descending to the end.

Like this gnarly little rock section.  Spent a bit of time here with the girls, and they nailed it.

We also spent a bit of time on these tailings piles.  This was a difficult section for a few of the ladies that were here last time, but they had it dialled this year. Although Sarah did manage a spill, but then again it’s only her second day out this year and her first time on Powerslave.  Galena on the other hand, SENT it.

What a day.  I think we must have had some angels watching over us.

Even a little bit of the God Light for the last part of the ride. 

Another solid Retallack day.

Cat Sass – Day 2

Frost? No way…that’s ICE!

It’s just a blip.  There’s still plenty of summer left.  Besides, we gotta fly today.

Just a little shout out to the sponsors.  Dakine… you guys rule.

While this is mostly a ladies trip, the guys couldn’t pass up a chance to shred Powerslave with a big crew on such a luscious and bluebird day.  Ummm…which one is Beavis?

Lindsey, with her “Squirrel on Acid” grin.

Flying over some old growth.

This place really is the Cat’s Ass.

Some more props to Retallack Lodge.

It took a few trips, but here ya go.  The first heli lady laps from Toad Mtn.

Marie-Cat… getting her epic on.

Lindsey, stylin’ as always.

Galena negotiates some high altitude driftwood.

Ummmmm…..  did I mention that I kind of like riding with the girls?  Can you guess why?

Here, have another postcard shot.

I’m sorta bummed I missed the focus on this one, cause it’s a rad one.  These are the PG chicks, and they freakin’ SHRED.  Which is why we’re changing the spelling to “Pgnarly.”

This trail has a bit of everything, as I think I may have mentioned.  Here’s Meg on a fairly long bridge.

A couple hours in, and we’ve only dropped a thousand feet.   When does this thing start going down?

How about now?

It all makes sense now.

Far fewer shots now that we’re actually shredding.  Just time for a classic angle.

OK, maybe one more…  RETALLACKA!

Literally hours later, but with very little standing around, Meg gets to the bottom of things.  But WAIT!  We’re not done yet…

OK, now we’re done.

Gotta have some cold ones to finish a ride like that.  Although it would have been nice if you’d have let me down from the top of the van.  I’m not THAT bad…smelling.

Of course, one Caesar led to another, and on the drive back there were a couple of “rest stops”.  I wanted to get another panorama shot from the roof of the van of the action, so to speak, but girls are so quick.  I didn’t even get on the roof of the van and they were all done.   Oh well, perhaps another time.

Cat Sass Retreats
Retallack Lodge

Powerslave Pre-Ride

A little conditions check was in order for Powerslave if we were going to be taking a ladies group down it later in the week, so we hooked up with Galena from Cat Sass to get her take on the ride.

Of course, this led to many more joining in, so it was much more like a Sacred group ride. Fun!

As always, the trail is fantastic. Maya is admittedly not your average lady on a bike (she’s a legit Kootenay legend), and here she easily negotiates one of the ramps in the old growth.

Mootchell on the same.

…and Simon finishes up in full race mode.

You weren’t ‘chasing’ anything, were ya Simon?

(Inside joke, yo. Ya had to be there…)