RMS – 3

Posted on June 25, 2012July 11, 2012 by Smoke

Official forecast for today. Chance of showers in the morning. Rain beginning near noon. Chance of thundershowers. Severe thunderstorms possible in the afternoon. Showers, at times heavy, late afternoon. Rain overnight to the morning. Amounts 15-20mm.

Really.

Ah well, you know the drill. HTFU. It’ll probably be sunny at some point. Doug’s attitude? “Bring it on!”

Although it was a very squidgey climb, it was actually pretty nice out this morning. We took our time climbing Phat Bastard, and got some nice views near the start of Mushroom Head.

Part of the crew was a bit blown after yesterday, so they turned down Dem Bones while the rest of us continued up Lactic Ridge. Some epic views up here, and even a bit of snow!

Which led to some hilarity while the Aussies tried to ride on it.

I think I know why they call it Lactic Ridge. Yet another ridiculously steep climb, but at least this time there’s stuff to look at.

The boys practice their modeling poses. I think they’re ready for the Sears underwear catalogue.

More snow shenanigans on the Stupid Traverse (which was awesome epic).

I thought the Stupid Traverse was actually the highlight trail of the day, but I found out later I was a bit lonesome in that opinion. Some good exposure, a little technical, and huge views.

The Slunt was why we were here though. You can make up your own mind about what the name means. For Doug, it’s just another reason for him to stick his tongue out.

The pleasant surprise of the day was Hedonism. Yes, it has some wooden structures and stuff on it, but it also has some awesome flow. Hands down the most fun trail we rode in Fernie.

The features are all a bit older and many are falling down, but a few like this one are still in good repair so we stopped and sessioned for some pics.

Not everyone was feeling the flow, but Chris still got into the swing of things here.

An old school logride also presented itself. Here’s Rich figuring out how not to do it.

And Doug trying the other side.

Rich, being the determined type, conquered it easily on the second try.

There were a ton of fun moves on this trail, like this techy little log drop.

Unfortunately for Richard, this one didn’t go so well. A little bit short of speed, and this ended with him upside down and with a hurt shoulder. He could still ride, but shoulder injuries are a pain. However, if there’s anyone who doesn’t need to HTFU, it’s this guy. I think I would have packed ‘er in for the week after that one, myself.

Biggest surprise of the day? There’s high quality sushi at a reasonable price in Fernie. Who knew?

RMS – 2

Posted on June 24, 2012July 10, 2012 by Smoke

Todays forecast….shower, rain, chance of thundershowers, with more showers after that. Reeeeaaaaalllyyyyyy……. Guess we should just HTFU and go climb some mountains on our bikes.

One thing I’ll say about Fernie, they sure like their climbs hard. This is only a small climb, and it was tough. The excessive rainfall is making it much harder than usual, I’m guessing. It was a lot like pedaling in baby food to get up here. Easy descents though. Must be a lot of old school XC riders around here.

Ahhhh…there’s that rain. You can see how ludicrous this is by our expressions (well, maybe not Susan. She seems…somewhat nonplussed by the event).

Except that now the sun has decided to come out. Too bad we were blown at this point. On the advice of some locals, we went up to a trail called Hyperventilation. which was actually quite nice. Unfortunately the approaches were a bit reminiscent of the trenches of Ypres. I think at one point I was getting my back wheel to spin 6 times to every one time my front one went around. Ground up greasy gopher guts, for sure. You can taste the pain in Susan’s expression here, and this is still on the lower reaches.

No dude, you’re supposed to RIDE it! Go back and do it again….

What do you mean, this isn’t the top?

Doug lets his opinion be known through actions, not words.

It’s an awesome viewpoint, even if it’s not the top. Actually, it’s a pretty cool climb for all it’s difficulty. I think if we’d known to skip the lower sections and approach on the road we’d have enjoyed it a lot more though. That’s what those little tiny folks on the right side of this next shot did, and they seemed to be having a great time.

Some great colour up here towards the top. At least the rain is washing everything clean….

Yeah, that’s the top. We’re not as hurtin’ as Chris’ expression would leave you to believe.

Although, once again…sort of a lame descent for that much effort. For a 1700’ climb, I want more! Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see if the weather will open up for us to try the notorious Slunt line.