wade simmons

WSFE – Day 5

Posted on by Smoke

Ahh yes, time for “Cooking with the Stars.” What’s on for breakfast, Holmes?

It had better be good. We’re up Goldmember today. Another huge lap to line up. Mike looks concerned about the steeps…

Ahh, those trees are soft. Just run into ’em if you gotta. Or just boost over ’em. Whatever works for you….

Ian with a backpack. That’s a bit more Whistler….

Holt got out for the ride AGAIN. After riding the Koots for over a decade, we finally put it together for some rides and here we are riding every day.

Niclas with a perfect Mary Lou Retton dismount.

OK, sorta rough shots and they really don’t show it, but I managed to get the Burl Ives log clean from the start. I was pretty stoked on this one. Steeper and gnarlier than you’d think.

George and Jeff rode around the log and had a tough enough time just hanging on to the pooter. It’s so dry up here right now.

No problem. Lunch at a lake.

Round two I bailed again to get food (and recover the pack that I left at the lake). everyone else hit Slabalanche, which was probably the best trail we hit for the local stuff. It usually involves a harsh climb, so it doesn’t get much summer traffic. We lucked out and got an open gate.

Can’t tell you much about the ride, except that everyone seemed to have a great time without me….(sniff!)….

Ahhh, I rode it a couple of springs ago. It’s pretty sweet, lots of wicked rock faces and nicer woodwork than lots of other trails.

Oh, and it ends at a lake.

And there were steaks afterwards…

And drinking games…

And Danika joined us…..

Whew!! Sort of makes up for yesterdays lack of pics. Alright, tomorrow is Danika’s first freeride rip since she almost broke her neck at Worlds last year. Will she remember how to ride?

WSFE – Day 4

Posted on by Smoke

What the? Only 5 pics today?

Well, I’ll make up for it later…….

It some in town stuff today. We were all sort of punched by yesterday, and I don’t want to work the crew too hard. We rode up Mtn. Station, which is really similar to Fromme in North Van.

Skinnies and ramps and you gotta climb it all.

Oh, and a bit of new stuff too. The crew was sending it pretty hard on some really technical lines. Pretty wild.

There was a second lap on Placenta Descenta, but I skipped that one to prepare some food for the troops. More ripper steep DH riding, maybe another 2800 feet to a swim at the bottom.

Bonus pics for tomorrow.

Wade Simmons Freeride Experience – Day 3

Posted on by Smoke

Settled in to our mansion? Check.

Fueled up with a massive breakfast? Check.

Hooked up with the local cat skiing lodge for a 6500 vertical foot singletrack adventure with one of the owners? Oh yeah, check it….

Baldface Snowcat Lodge is getting in on the summer action, and we got to be the very first commerical crew to go through their area. It’s pretty raw at the moment, but it will get much better as time goes on. With this much terrain at their disposal, it will continue to improve for many years to come.

As it stands right now, there’s a little bit of uphill to deal with, but compared to the size of the down….whatever, man.

A nice littel view from the top. That smoke in the distance is a small forest fire burning in the West Kokanee Creek. As we sat up at the top we watched it jump the ridge into Springer Creek.

Our local guides included Jeff Pensiero, one of the owners of Baldface. He’s got soe style, that Jeff. Check out those shoelaces. Oh and a button down is de riguer when you’re at 7200 feet.

Also along for the rip was local trailbuilder extrodinaire Mark Holt, who also owns a local shop called the Sacred Ride in Nelson. This next pic isn’t Holt though. That’s Niclas, our token German.

As usual, George was flying high. Did I mention that he’s a helicopter pilot for the Canadaian Armed Forces? Sort of seems appropriate…

Mike was also getting his gap on today. He’s been ramping it up a little bit every day. Could be interesting later in the week…

Oh right, that Wade guy was there too. These trails were cut by another freeride legend by the name of Mike Kinrade. We were looking at some of the jumps that Mike’s been building and even the illustrious Wade was struck by the HUGE size of the hits. Like 60 foot stepdown gaps in the alpine huge.

Hey Nicole, that’s a gap. Surprise.

Jeff, just another day at the office.

Mike, trying out for his assistant position.

Not much in the way of stunts up there, but there’s the occasional bridge where necesarry. They get so much snow up there that a little plank system isn’t gonna last very long.

Around the halfway mark we stopped for a little “swim.”

I love flat tires. Can’t you tell?

Oh look, it’s our old friend Ronny Red! Hi Ron, got any Kokanee?**

**Ron appeared in a commercial for Kokanee about a hundred years ago where he went skiing, mtn biking, and kayaking all in the same day, with the same beer. “Same guy, same day, same beer.” Get it?

Oh, and that fire that blew across the ridge at lunch? Well, it exploded into some seriously dry timber and went on a massive run. At this point (August 30th) it’s still burning and doesn’t look like it’s going to be completely out for another month or so.

We came down the ridge with the shadow on it on the left. Thanks to our buddy Dickie for the shot o
f the mushroom cloud.