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.
